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'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

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Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#271

Post by jedberg »

tempsy wrote: post #167
Sabinus wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ruins market mechanisms too much. Taxing vacancies doesn't ruin the supply and demand equations.

it unfairly punishes property owners in soft rental markets like the one we have now. i’ve seen an unusual number of multifamily properties listed all over SF last few months.

There's no such thing as a property that can't find a renter, only a property whose rent is too high.

Many landlords are bad at math from what I've found. If you're asking for $2400 and no one is biting, it makes more sense to drop to $2200 than hold out for a month to try and get $2400, because at $2400 it will take a year to catch up.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#272

Post by latency-guy2 »

lxgr wrote: post #193
molteanu wrote: post #192

I thought the US was the land of Free Speech. And yet, when a guy speaks his mind he's burned at the stake. Of what use is that freedom, then? Or do you have to be poor and uninteresting to exercise it? Or only in front of your own mirror? So many paradoxes. If the reference to Biden is the unacceptable one, I see President Biden daily expressing his thoughts on other world leaders, calling them names, saying who mus…

Freedom of speech in the US protects you from government prosecution for speech, not from the criticism of people that don’t agree with your speech.

That's not what free speech is. It is a concept that lives far beyond what's written in a document.

You can violate free speech all day every day in full view of the world and them having taken very articulate notes on your violations and not see a single day in court or jail.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#273

Post by mcv »

tempestn wrote: post #257

I'm a little bit aghast at all the comments saying this is normal or no big deal. Maybe it is normal (or at least common), but it shouldn't be. If you believe it's no big deal, I can't agree. I can see this kind of behaviour from adolescents, but adults should understand that words are meaningful and have consequences, and that even if you disagree with someone, they're still a human being who deserves some modicum o…

Yeah, apparently it was a pop reference, and that makes it okay?

The problem with references is that not everybody gets the reference, and without that (and possibly even with) this is a death threat. And with today's highly polarized and volatile political situation, you need to be really careful with that.

I've come to expect this sort of behaviour from random internet trolls, but a CEO really should know better. I think this counts as a disqualifying lapse of judgement.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#274

Post by handoflixue »

echelon wrote: post #253
Arainach wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Posting that you want a group of city councilors to die is not normal behavior. It's not normal when sober, it's not normal on alcohol, it's not normal for any functioning member of society. Anyone saying these things is disturbing. The fact that someone who a number of people believe is intelligent and worth listening to would say such things is extremely disturbing.

If one's own side of the horeshoe [1] had made the gaffe, it's sticks and stones. We're a bunch of evolved apes. Sometimes we say things we don't mean. They'll get over it. If the other side said it, oh dear. We'd best remove them from their job, their payroll, shun them forever, and make sure they never have power again. I think the correct approach is to have a conversation, to seek an apology, and to hold the part…

> If one's own side of the horeshoe [1] had made the gaffe, it's sticks and stones.

Some of us have enough principles to complain even when "our" side does horrible stuff. When a friend does it, I might be more inclined to talk to them in private rather than blast them in public, but that's a mix of "I am more likely to change their mind if I don't antagonize them by making this public" and "I have absolutely no social media presence, so me calling someone out doesn't really make a difference."

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#275

Post by andy99 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #196
bhawks wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that it is a quote (which I didn't know) moves it out of the extremely disturbing category and into the extremely cringe & very disappointing category. SF politics is a clown show on all sides - Garry has lost serious credibility that he could play some part in cleaning it up. I think he knows that.

To me, it's extremely disturbing that someone would consider this whole thing as extremely disturbing in the first place. Whether people in the US are extremely oversenstive to tweets and words, or that the tweets and words have the power to suddenly make regular people hateful and violent - neither of those states are normal . Either that, or the country really is a few Twitter sparks away from civil war, which agai…

I wish I could find the clip, I think it's another Tupac song, where it plays a news clip of a stressed sounding woman saying "he says he wants to see his rivals deceased" (roughly) in response to what I assume is a line in "Can't C me". Anyway, it's funny because that clip was making fun, but sounds a lot like all the "calling for someone to die is never ok" feigned pearl clutching I've seen here. The tweet was dumb, insisting on taking it literally in spite of all evidence, for the purpose of outrage is worse.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#276

Post by latency-guy2 »

usea wrote: post #76
whoswho wrote: post #73

Not to sound snarky but who is mission local and why should a reader of HN care for their opinion? Have they done a noteworthy op-ed? If so, which one?

Is that how you judge others' words? By what accomplishments they have?

Yes? I definitely don't plan on treating someone's opinion on how to handle fleets of server racks worth $15k/unit equivalent to mine when they're a 19 year old underachiever who has written basic calculator apps for 2 years.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#277

Post by mcv »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #196
bhawks wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that it is a quote (which I didn't know) moves it out of the extremely disturbing category and into the extremely cringe & very disappointing category. SF politics is a clown show on all sides - Garry has lost serious credibility that he could play some part in cleaning it up. I think he knows that.

To me, it's extremely disturbing that someone would consider this whole thing as extremely disturbing in the first place. Whether people in the US are extremely oversenstive to tweets and words, or that the tweets and words have the power to suddenly make regular people hateful and violent - neither of those states are normal . Either that, or the country really is a few Twitter sparks away from civil war, which agai…

It's nothing new that words have power. Death threats have the power to silence or coerce people just as much as blackmail does. There's a good reason these are both forms of illegal, punishable speech. Because they can hurt others, even if you don't actually execute the threat.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#278

Post by TeMPOraL »

publius_0xf3 wrote: post #218
TeMPOraL wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, it's extremely disturbing that someone would consider this whole thing as extremely disturbing in the first place. Whether people in the US are extremely oversenstive to tweets and words, or that the tweets and words have the power to suddenly make regular people hateful and violent - neither of those states are normal . Either that, or the country really is a few Twitter sparks away from civil war, which agai…

Where or what do you consider normal? The United States is far from the only place where harsh words provoke outrage, rightly or wrongly. It's actually a cultural and historical norm.

> The United States is far from the only place where harsh words provoke outrage, rightly or wrongly

Elsewhere in the world, only retroactively - in retellings, in legends, in K12 history lessons. The nice, patriotic fiction of good person saying something, galvanizing the population, and then large changes happening.

> It's actually a cultural and historical norm.

It's not. Broadcast media are barely 100 years old. The ability for any rando to broadcast thoughts outside their direct social circles exist for less than two decades.

Randos telling other randos within their social circles that they want bad things to happen to public personas - that is a cultural and historical norm. Nothing ever coming out of it, except maybe said randos landing in shit if the word reaches the public personas - that too is the cultural and historical norm. For such talk to be an actual danger to anyone else, and especially the subject of discussion? That is a very recent historical and geographical aberration (or rather, I suspect believing such talk to be dangerous is the aberration).

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#279

Post by rsanek »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #196
bhawks wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that it is a quote (which I didn't know) moves it out of the extremely disturbing category and into the extremely cringe & very disappointing category. SF politics is a clown show on all sides - Garry has lost serious credibility that he could play some part in cleaning it up. I think he knows that.

To me, it's extremely disturbing that someone would consider this whole thing as extremely disturbing in the first place. Whether people in the US are extremely oversenstive to tweets and words, or that the tweets and words have the power to suddenly make regular people hateful and violent - neither of those states are normal . Either that, or the country really is a few Twitter sparks away from civil war, which agai…

I agree; I probably wouldn't go as far as "extremely disturbing." But at minimum it's pretty lame and cringe. I want our leaders to be held to a higher bar, and the head of YC should be above this stuff. The sad thing is that it feels fairly in character with what I've seen from Tan in the past.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#280

Post by jacobriis »

tempestn wrote: post #257

I'm a little bit aghast at all the comments saying this is normal or no big deal. Maybe it is normal (or at least common), but it shouldn't be. If you believe it's no big deal, I can't agree. I can see this kind of behaviour from adolescents, but adults should understand that words are meaningful and have consequences, and that even if you disagree with someone, they're still a human being who deserves some modicum o…

Are you also aghast about Tupac?

Oh my this rapping is outrageous! Mr. Tupac pull up your pants and clean up your language young man!

And Gary isn’t a rap artist anyway!

Well isn’t he?

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