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You say to the guy who wrote the first seed check of Coinbase
Crypto has run it's course, I don't think Gary did anything wrong by helping the crypto experiment happen. But YC is about the future, not the past.
> After earning a degree in computer engineering from Stanford, Garry was an engineer at Palantir and then created one of the earliest and best-designed blogging platforms, Posterous. This is a reminder that Palantir is the firm that sells data mining software to US police and military organizations that then use it to violate human rights. It should be a black mark on anyone’s record.
Employees at Meta{Facebook, Instagram, Oculus, etc}, Twitter, Google, Palantir and Uber are all complicit in building systems that amplify surveillance capitalism and this goes for any other company engaging in this space.
It should be a big black mark on anyone’s record working at those companies.
I guess everyone Garry has blocked on Twitter will not be applying to YC any time soon :)
This gives me the impression that there's a specific political agenda being advanced at YC ...
[1] https://twitter.com/anildash/status/1564285359755874304?s=20...
[2] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FH6Y9DCUYAEkV1p?format=png&name=...
[3] https://twitter.com/sama/status/1564256798323851265
edit: deleted a not very clear link about certain politically charged individuals.
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could you elaborate what Posterous did well, for those of us who never saw it?
I liked the ability to cross post to Twitter, Facebook, Plurk etc. It was like the one place blog control panel, make a post there and spread it out.
(asking because i have minor pain points but not sure if enough)
I guess everyone Garry has blocked on Twitter will not be applying to YC any time soon :)
Besides the "block anyone remotely progressive" approach to social media (including industry folks like Anil Dash [1]) - he seems extremely uncivil and rude [2]. And Sam Altman has explicitly referenced his politics as a reason for this decision [3]. This gives me the impression that there's a specific political agenda being advanced at YC ... [1] https://twitter.com/anildash/status/1564285359755874304?s=20... [2] ht…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Besides the "block anyone remotely progressive" approach to social media (including industry folks like Anil Dash [1]) - he seems extremely uncivil and rude [2]. And Sam Altman has explicitly referenced his politics as a reason for this decision [3]. This gives me the impression that there's a specific political agenda being advanced at YC ... [1] https://twitter.com/anildash/status/1564285359755874304?s=20... [2] ht…
So, why the downvotes? We're not allowed to talk about this?
Hardened political rhetoric and seasoned talking points aren't on topic here (regardless of which way the political vector is pointing). If you check out the site guidelines, it should be clear why: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
You don't have to agree with anyone's views but this style of argument is deathly to the curious conversation we want here. Curious conversation requires, among other things, respect across differences—wanting to learn more about how someone thinks, and why they think that way, and trusting that they have good reasons for all that even if, in the end, they're wrong. And, of course, you and your views deserve the same consideration.
If you want to argue against someone's views here (Garry's or anyone else's), you'll get much further by making your substantive points thoughtfully. We're trying to avoid the online callout/shaming culture here, at least to the extent possible on the open internet.
The culture of political attack goes very much the other way, of course—people save screenshots of the worst things they can find, bring them up at every opportunity, and so on. Guilt by association is another common tactic. None of this helps us really understand each other—anyone can be made to look bad that way, so it really doesn't have much persuasive power. It does get one's own side riled up (in a yay way) and the opposing side riled up (in a boo way), but riler-uppers are what we're trying to avoid on HN, because they destroy the curious conversation I was just talking about.
(I hope it's clear that all of the above should and does apply equally to opposing political sides.)
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Based only on your comment, I'm guessing you're unaware of Palantir's work with intelligence agencies even when Tan was there. Also, Thiel's mission from the start was this kind of work. I served in the Marine Corps. I've had some exposure to Palantir's 'offerings'. It's a fucking nightmare of a company, morally and ethically, and it always has been.
I've studied Thiel, he's just not mainstream left. If you want to listen to him with good faith, I enjoyed this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM9f0W2KD5s Doesn't come across evil to me unless by evil you mean just not mainstream left, which might be the correct in the valley.
https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...
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Crypto has run it's course, I don't think Gary did anything wrong by helping the crypto experiment happen. But YC is about the future, not the past.
Realistically YC is about maximizing ROI and I would happily bet a crypto-related startup will be in Summer '23s cohort - they have crazy valuations and liquidity out of the gates. Personally I want those startups to showcase problems crypto is useful at solving rather than selling pickaxes to the gold rush but I'm less sure that that'll happen. Certainly the idea that Crypto has ran its course is, IMO, premature - p…
There will continue to be many hardcore fans of tulips and crypto regardless of the price, but marketcap adjusted for inflation has passed the max