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Welcome Home, Garry Tan

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Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#121
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, why the downvotes? We're not allowed to talk about this?

(Edit: the GP comment was edited after I wrote this - more about that below: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32642696 .) 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…

Out of curiosity, why don't you make "YC churn" announcements read-only, like job ads are?

There's not really much curious conversation when they happen, and not really a huge chance of it, either. As an example, the announcement of sama taking over was a hundred and fifty comments of almost exclusively "Congratulations!"

They're posts that are almost exclusively doomed, either to incurious compliments, insults, or needless pessimism; what questions that are asked usually don't get answered, so there wouldn't really be a loss in it anyway.

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#122
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, why the downvotes? We're not allowed to talk about this?

Kinda wondering what his beef with Hamasaki was that prompted "Resign you piece of shit". Seems like this was a Board of Education person, was he that bad, like poisoning the kids school lunches? edit: sorry I realise that I may asking some stupid questions that everyone knows already. But to me Garry Tan was just the Posterous guy. I'm just a bit floored to hear that there's more to this and I'm trying to find my be…

John Hamasaki is a criminal defense attorney in San Francisco who was a former member of the police commission. He seems to advertise himself by being intentionally incendiary, making up lies like the police get paid overtime to participate (i.e. walk) in the pride parade. There is also a group of people around him who amplify his lies. I can imagine people being fed up with being the target of his harassment, which I believe Gary was.

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#124

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…

Anil can be combative on Twitter. I have respect for him and positive interactions under my real name, but I’m not surprised he would have gotten into a heated discussion at some point with Garry.

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#125

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?

You can talk about it but when most folks in tech are fairly to extremely liberal, why is it bad to have representation from all sides? The left (which I’m guessing you are a part of) preaches diversity. Shouldn’t diversity also include political views as well as race, class, and gender affiliation?

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#126

Congrats! What is going to happen of the next few years with AI is going to be mind blowing. The more people you can stear away from crypto and towards democratizing AI, the better, IMO.

> What is going to happen of the next few years with AI is going to be mind blowing.

Or where it is headed it more dystopia.

AI has already been democratized to death by the same gate keepers creating dystopian deep fakes and training on tons of your data on lots of data centers to incinerate and burn up the planet with zero efficient alternatives.

The AI game has run its course, with nothing left other than the same Tech giants and one hypocritical Open 'faux' AI company.

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#128
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not "mainstream left"? I guess the right, what was once the far right but today is just the right is indeed not "mainstream left". Make no mistake where he stands: he was one of the largest donors of Trump, served on his transitional team and has once written "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible". https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...

There were hundreds of doners to Donald Trump's 2020 campaign, let alone 2016 campaign. If not directly, then through other superPACS including FAANG companies [1].

https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/donald-tr...

If your viewpoint is so myopically constrained by a single data point, I don't know what to say.

I find intellectuals from all corners of political spectrum to be interesting. Usually, when people dismiss intellectuals not for their arguments, but by some ostensible thinly veiled morality or the media zeitgeist; it is already an indicator that something interesting is out there. Anyways, all I am saying is that Peter is not evil in any stretch of the definition as the media portrays him. He is just not your typical conformist thinker.

[1] They only paused after Jan 6th, they were happily donating to both parties: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-corporate-go...

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#129
post #47

“Garry Tan is a moral canary in a coal mine. When people hate on Garry Tan, they out themselves as either evil or stupid, because in fact Garry is as close to a 100% good guy as you get”. —Paul Graham https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1460931338131890180 ———— Congratulations Garry! Your blogs were my inspirations when I was running my startup. I always remember this line: “The ideal startup team involves really two ma…

Being a good guy probably ranks the least IMO for leading VC. You need to be extremely shrewd and calculative, have a great bullshit detector, need to have solid intuition based on scant data, good general knowledge, well versed in various industries and areas of study, pragmatic and brutally honest. I am probably missing a few more. Speaking generally, nothing against Garry.

Do both. There's nothing preventing you from looking at the numbers, the pitch, and saying "no." In terms of being "good". You can be honest and kind the same as how one can be honest and mean.

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#130

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…

so YC is celebrating having political influence that is explicitly pro-cop, hard on crime via punishment, etc., that's lovely
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