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Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity

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Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No: majority shareholders of corporations continue to owe fiduciary duty to the minority. This is obviously tangential to the real point, though. Google paid more than 12 SpaceX's for Motorola. Would docking with the ISS help with the Android patent problem?

The directors are fiduciaries. Shareholders aren't fiduciaries and don't owe a duty to other shareholders.

IIUC corporate officers are fiduciaries as well; hence, shareholder lawsuits. As CEO of Facebook, Zuckerburg could be liable for wasting Facebook's money.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity

#172
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zuck paid, what, a cool billion for Instagram? Elon spent $800 million, and has an orbital vehicle that can dock with the ISS. And SpaceX is actually profitable . So, yeah, you can be for-profit and change the world. Or be for-profit and help people share photos. Changing the world is a pretty big grey area.

It's not yet clear which venture will have a greater impact on the world. People here consistently underestimate the significance of democratizing the media.

In general, I agree. In this specific case, I disagree.

I'll confidently bet that Instagram will be "integrated" or forgotten in a few years, relegated to the dustbin of ephemeral "one feature" companies that briefly caught on with hipsters before winning the startup lottery. Meanwhile, SpaceX will still be going strong, revolutionizing private space travel and space cargo delivery, and possibly have achieved tangible milestones toward the first manned voyage to Mars. One company is not much more than an iPhone camera app with a web backend for sharing, is cheap to do, and something that many thousands of developers could do well. The other is doing rocket science, costs hundreds of millions plus, and is staffed by a team of folks of a kind where few can do it well, if at all -- and especially, it now appears, also do cheaply. Humans had tons of pre-existing ways to share photos and "apply cool filters" before Instagram came along. Humanity has very few ways of getting into space (ie, rocket companies), and now SpaceX is one of them. And I respect the significance of democratizing media -- but I felt it was very well democratized in dozens of ways before & without Instagram.

And don't even get me started on Gmail. (kidding!)

Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity

#173
post #41

It's sad to see so much misplaced cynicism here. If the partners had decided to keep 100% of their carry (as is typical) and used it to buy a bigger house or jet or something, nobody would comment or care. Instead, they've pledged to give half to some of their favorite charities, and some of you are acting as if it's a crime against humanity. Put away your Ayn Rand books (or whatever it is that drives you to such opi…

Also, it's their money, they earned it. Let them spend it however they want.

For the record I think this is a really positive move.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity

#174
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Rand does not just think that forced redistribution by the state is immoral, but also that private charity is at best morally neutral, and often wrong depending on the nature of the charity (particularly if it is "sacrificial", or is given in response to the needs or shortcomings of the recipient, which in my opinion describes most of the charity in the world today). Her fictional works perhaps lend themselves t…

Libertarianism is about people being free to choose what to do with their money. If they choose to give to charity, light cigars with banknotes, spend it on blackjack & hookers, invest in space flight, etc., it's all their right to make that choice. It isn't about the relative virtue of doing this or that.

Ayn Rand was a harsh critic of libertarianism. That's a bit funny considering how close her philosophy is to libertarianism.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true, but there isn't really much argument for that position in her work (certainly not argument I found convincing). It's almost assuming the consequent: you prove that putting your own good above collective good is moral because the alternative would be putting collective good above your own good. Well, yes, that's definitionally true. But what's wrong with putting collective good above any one individual's…

She does provide various arguments. There's no shortage there. Whether you find them convincing is up to you but please don't mix that up with her not publishing stuff to argue her point. For example, not living in a second-handed way is a main theme of The Fountainhead, and that's closely related to the altruism issue. > Her answer wasn't the consequentialist one that Adam Smith and other market-economy defenders pr…

> One thing that might be helpful is to understand Rand's view on compromise. She said you can compromise on concretes when you agree on a principle, but you must never compromise your fundamental principles.

This is why I find it so interesting that Rand ended up accepting social security and medicare from the government[1]. You seem to know a lot about Rand -- do you have any idea how she justified her accepting government benefits?

1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-ford/ayn-rand-and-the-...

Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity

#176
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not yet clear which venture will have a greater impact on the world. People here consistently underestimate the significance of democratizing the media.

In general, I agree. In this specific case, I disagree. I'll confidently bet that Instagram will be "integrated" or forgotten in a few years, relegated to the dustbin of ephemeral "one feature" companies that briefly caught on with hipsters before winning the startup lottery. Meanwhile, SpaceX will still be going strong, revolutionizing private space travel and space cargo delivery, and possibly have achieved tangibl…

Well put. I think monetary value and impact don't necessarily correlate. One could have an amazing, long-term impact on the world without it being reflected in 'price'.

Reminds me of some of the recent Valve stories, specifically the anecdote about Doom being the most installed piece of software [1].

[1] For those that didn't know this, see the post below and scroll down to 'Valve is different'

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/valve-how-i-got-here-w...

Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true, but there isn't really much argument for that position in her work (certainly not argument I found convincing). It's almost assuming the consequent: you prove that putting your own good above collective good is moral because the alternative would be putting collective good above your own good. Well, yes, that's definitionally true. But what's wrong with putting collective good above any one individual's…

She does provide various arguments. There's no shortage there. Whether you find them convincing is up to you but please don't mix that up with her not publishing stuff to argue her point. For example, not living in a second-handed way is a main theme of The Fountainhead, and that's closely related to the altruism issue. > Her answer wasn't the consequentialist one that Adam Smith and other market-economy defenders pr…

That view of compromise is actually at the core of what I don't see convincingly argued for. Why shouldn't we compromise on principles, rather than just concretes, if it would produce pragmatically better outcomes? Why is it better to have dueling, inflexible idealized political positions, the hardline socialist against the hardline capitalist, each knowing they're right through some kind of metaphysical inspiration which can never be shaken by the presentation of actual facts? I would much rather have people in closer contact with reality, working out case-by-case situations pragmatically, than people living in an inflexible, idealized world where they know their views are pure and good, and opposing views are evil and bad.

The problem with using her novels as an argument for the position is that they only really work in an affective, sense, imo, as implying consequentialist arguments, sort of along the lines of a morality tale or fable: look what could happen if things are done this way, or alternately, if they were done that way. And I think a lot of people do read them that way; the famous "going Galt" plot, for example, is commonly taken as a parable for why bad things will happen if you institute too much regulation and burdening of productive individuals. But she explicitly disclaims "things will turn out better/worse" as a reason to accept or not accept her philosophical/political views, so her novels aren't supposed to be read that way. But they're actually more effective that way! Which is why I think it's so common for fans of Rand to ignore Objectivism and instead read her as more of a general pro-free-market, libertarian author.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity

#178
post #44
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Put away your Ayn Rand books ... and go make some money of your own. Does Ayn Rand have similar opinions? I'm trying to figure out what you mean by that.

She was against people feeling like they had an obligation to self-sacrifice, but she wasn't against charity as the projection of one's own values [1]. A lot of people misunderstand Ayn Rand. [1] http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/charity.html

One of the best interviews I've seen with Ayn Rand, in her own words if anybody cares to read:

http://ellensplace.net/ar_pboy.html

Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She does provide various arguments. There's no shortage there. Whether you find them convincing is up to you but please don't mix that up with her not publishing stuff to argue her point. For example, not living in a second-handed way is a main theme of The Fountainhead, and that's closely related to the altruism issue. > Her answer wasn't the consequentialist one that Adam Smith and other market-economy defenders pr…

> One thing that might be helpful is to understand Rand's view on compromise. She said you can compromise on concretes when you agree on a principle, but you must never compromise your fundamental principles. This is why I find it so interesting that Rand ended up accepting social security and medicare from the government[1]. You seem to know a lot about Rand -- do you have any idea how she justified her accepting go…

She took the benefits because the government took far more than that from her! She was just getting a tiny part of it back.

She actually wrote at length about this issue [1]. That people keep puzzling over it shows that they don't understand AR (which is perfectly fine if they don't claim to understand her), or just want to smear her.

[1] http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/government_grants_and_scho...

Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She does provide various arguments. There's no shortage there. Whether you find them convincing is up to you but please don't mix that up with her not publishing stuff to argue her point. For example, not living in a second-handed way is a main theme of The Fountainhead, and that's closely related to the altruism issue. > Her answer wasn't the consequentialist one that Adam Smith and other market-economy defenders pr…

That view of compromise is actually at the core of what I don't see convincingly argued for. Why shouldn't we compromise on principles, rather than just concretes, if it would produce pragmatically better outcomes? Why is it better to have dueling, inflexible idealized political positions, the hardline socialist against the hardline capitalist, each knowing they're right through some kind of metaphysical inspiration…

You seem to believe that there is a conflict between principles and reality. AR did not. Because principles are induced from reality and are always true (within the relevant context).

(By "principles" here, I mean correct ones.)

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