Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

frankzliu.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 150 posts

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#121

Post by llamaimperative »

corimaith wrote: post #117
defrost wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the US as it operates today a free market (how free?) or a weighted control economy where the larger players have a greater weight of control of media and the political landscape via owned outlets and subsidised senators? Do small players in the US economy have equal access to the market, or are they overshadowed by near oligarchies? Are you always so bicameral?

How would your "ideal" market then look like? I'm not getting what it "means" for small players to have equal access to the market than large players, of course greater resources will lend itself to greater reach.

The ideal free market is one where that exact effect doesn’t exist. Why would it be optimal for more wealth to naturally accrue more wealth? That is definitionally anti-competitive ergo suboptimal in the capitalist’s worldview.

Very good in the feudalist’s worldview though!

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#122

Post by maigret »

chaostheory wrote: post #115
gen220 wrote: post #14

Most "news" in the tech industry is funded by VCs, if you follow the money. It's not a terrible fact, but it's one to be aware of. All the `"X Technology" [that Y VC firm has recently raised $4Bn of capital to chase, cough cough] has massive potential to upend [big industry], here's why` articles are compensated-for boosterism. There's still signal in there, although it's mostly in the meta-facts of what they choose…

It extends beyond the tech industry. https://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Thanks for the link. This hasn't aged too well (for parts), PR has taken over most of the internet too, bloggers have become "influencers".

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#123

Post by steveBK123 »

Most industry rags are just PR mouthpieces. Once you see it you can't unsee it. I worked at a shop that had some sort of cozy relationship with an online business paper and had many puff pieces published over the years.

What was interesting was once things turned for our fund, we must have fired whoever was their source because the paper went hostile and published some really detailed and damaging articles.

That or the press is just trend following - always backwards looking trying to come up with reasons for what already happened. (CEO was great until CEO was awful). You will see many cases of this in how the press covers particular companies/CEOs. Guys like Bezos who jump before the worm turns are smart.

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#124

Post by gengwyn »

akvadrako wrote: post #107
vmurthy wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that if you are really interested, you can follow a few academics and read up on their papers etc. Of course, that's a big undertaking but it's the only alternative I can think of given the incentives for pushing shit at us

That's just subjecting yourself to more marketing. They're trying to sell you their theory and get you to cite it or even better fund the work. It's quite common to gloss over arguments or ignore data that don't support their cause.

I feel like this is equivocating a bit. Scientific papers exist to put forth an argument and change minds, yes. That’s the entire point of science as an endeavor. It’s not perfect, but if we’re going to define “marketing” as “anytime someone tries to convince me of anything”, I think we’re getting a tad reductionist.

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#126

Post by acdha »

margalabargala wrote: post #82
dools wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's horrifying because it's not an isolated wild rich man seizure, it's the same shit that Musk, Dorsey et al believe. The whole effective altruism movement is infected with this bizarre space feudalism.

> The whole effective altruism movement is infected with this bizarre space feudalism. This is basically what "longtermism" is. It's "we will amass huge amounts of capital to rule you now, because we know best, and we promise that as a result your (great-great-...)grandkids will have it better than if we hadn't". It's just getting rich and playing with toys but with an ethical justification for it. It reminds me of h…

The comparison to the false theology is really apt. That goes back to at least the 11th century and it’s part of an even older tradition[0] trying to tell rich people that they can ignore a pretty clear biblical injunction. It’s been interesting seeing how as atheism becomes more popular there’s been a rise of secular thinkers selling an almost identical message that it’s okay to be basically as selfish as you want as for your entire life as long as you end with a grand philanthropic act to balance it out.

0. 2nd century softening: https://www.academia.edu/40130012/Widening_the_Eye_of_the_Ne...

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#127

Post by andsoitis »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #73
henry2023 wrote: post #5

Not all of them are marketing. Some of them expose his belief system. After “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto” it’s very hard for me to take him seriously again.

About four years ago Andreesen published this: https://a16z.com/its-time-to-build/ They were and remain big crypto investors and it's pretty weird that the essay doesn't acknowledge how much talent and money crypto sucked up. He asks where the supersonic aircraft are and - ignoring that they have awful externalities - there is actually a supersonic jet startup. A16Z hasn't invested in Boom, though, near as I can tell…

> So why is so much of what Andreesen wants from the future not what they've invested in?

You still want to invest in a particular company or people who you believe will make you tons of money. Just because someone is active directionally in what you believe will be the future does not necessarily mean you should put your money with them.

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#129

Post by chaostheory »

maigret wrote: post #122
chaostheory wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It extends beyond the tech industry. https://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Thanks for the link. This hasn't aged too well (for parts), PR has taken over most of the internet too, bloggers have become "influencers".

Just switch YouTubers and Instagram models for bloggers. His point is that everything is advertising

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#130

Post by itishappy »

gen220 wrote: post #14

Most "news" in the tech industry is funded by VCs, if you follow the money. It's not a terrible fact, but it's one to be aware of. All the `"X Technology" [that Y VC firm has recently raised $4Bn of capital to chase, cough cough] has massive potential to upend [big industry], here's why` articles are compensated-for boosterism. There's still signal in there, although it's mostly in the meta-facts of what they choose…

This shouldn't be a surprise to any of us here on news.ycombinator.com.
Post reply on HN