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Commoncog hits a home run again. This is fascinating. It is more Suits than Suits. Showing how strategy > law when fighting a case. But also the interesting fraternity (not all boys of course) that YC is. Feels like the only other place you would see it is organized crime or corrupt politics where you then owe a favour. But that isn't what it is here. I guess it is about honour.
The way YC closed ranks was my favorite anecdote from Chaos Monkey’s. I always find it interesting though YC leaders are extremely against cancel culture, but when it comes to business, its okay to threaten that someone will never work in the valley again if they don’t accede to their demands.
> I always find it interesting That's not interesting. That's not understanding capitalism. It's all about Incentives. The idea that business leaders can be ever considered genuine political or cultural voice or actor is the problem. Silicon Valley and hacker culture has created an atmosphere of business politicians and for some reason hackers take them seriously and don't laugh at their faces. The talk is just empty…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is the game though. If I bet $100k on each of 10 contestants. That’s $1m total. With odds of 1000:1, a single win pays $100m enough to cover all bets and leave a huge profit.
If the horse race has 10 contestants why would the odds be 1000:1?
The way YC closed ranks was my favorite anecdote from Chaos Monkey’s. I always find it interesting though YC leaders are extremely against cancel culture, but when it comes to business, its okay to threaten that someone will never work in the valley again if they don’t accede to their demands.
> I always find it interesting That's not interesting. That's not understanding capitalism. It's all about Incentives. The idea that business leaders can be ever considered genuine political or cultural voice or actor is the problem. Silicon Valley and hacker culture has created an atmosphere of business politicians and for some reason hackers take them seriously and don't laugh at their faces. The talk is just empty…
Traditionally business people have always done that:
> > Y Combinator was the sort of unforgiving power player that remembered the names of investors who had crossed portfolio companies in the past, or who had disseminated unflattering portraits of YC, and blacklisted them from any YC dealings, or from the minds of YC founders. Do we have to be careful what we say on HN?
Commoncog hits a home run again. This is fascinating. It is more Suits than Suits. Showing how strategy > law when fighting a case. But also the interesting fraternity (not all boys of course) that YC is. Feels like the only other place you would see it is organized crime or corrupt politics where you then owe a favour. But that isn't what it is here. I guess it is about honour.
Perhaps and it makes both excellent marketing as well as fantastic word of mouth.
Does YC do this consistently though. Even they have to choose battles.
> > Y Combinator was the sort of unforgiving power player that remembered the names of investors who had crossed portfolio companies in the past, or who had disseminated unflattering portraits of YC, and blacklisted them from any YC dealings, or from the minds of YC founders. Do we have to be careful what we say on HN?
Not because of YC. I think that what people say here, is only a fairly small data point, for them. But I would encourage folks to consider their approach, in general, whenever we are in a professional context (and, despite the casual nature of HN, this is very much a “professional context”). I think that some few people here, are able to post in a truly anonymous fashion, but most folks could be doxxed fairly easily,…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I always find it interesting That's not interesting. That's not understanding capitalism. It's all about Incentives. The idea that business leaders can be ever considered genuine political or cultural voice or actor is the problem. Silicon Valley and hacker culture has created an atmosphere of business politicians and for some reason hackers take them seriously and don't laugh at their faces. The talk is just empty…
If I have the choice of people from my industry or people not from my industry why would I ever choose the latter?
The way YC closed ranks was my favorite anecdote from Chaos Monkey’s. I always find it interesting though YC leaders are extremely against cancel culture, but when it comes to business, its okay to threaten that someone will never work in the valley again if they don’t accede to their demands.
> I always find it interesting That's not interesting. That's not understanding capitalism. It's all about Incentives. The idea that business leaders can be ever considered genuine political or cultural voice or actor is the problem. Silicon Valley and hacker culture has created an atmosphere of business politicians and for some reason hackers take them seriously and don't laugh at their faces. The talk is just empty…
> Traditionally business people don't get into discussions of culture or politics directly. They might work in the background, but never directly. There is a good reason for that.
What is "traditional" for you? East India Company and the VOC (Dutch East Indies Company) conquering lands and colonising people, and directing foreign and military policy for centuries traditional enough?
Stabdard Oil's Rockefeller influenced politics aplently. William Randolph Hearst was the son of a Senator, businessman, newspaper publisher and politician who was among the main causes for a war for colonies. The Dole Company, United Fruit company, Standard Fruit company literally toppled governments and operated death squads, and often had enough influence to get the US marines involved ("War is a Racket" by a Marine general who took part in the banana wars describes this nicely). JFK's father was a businessman who got into politics for his and his family's interests.
In Russia, oligarchs are the ruling class and are politics, and have been for the past 30 years. In the US, you have multiple businesspeople and very rich people in the upcomming cabinet.
South Korea is sometimes jokingly referred to as the Republic of Samsung due to the outsized influence Samsung have on their GDP (22%), with ramifications such as their high level execs getting pardoned of crimes such as bribery of public officials due to the impact it would have on the company and country.
Business has always tried to influence politics in its favour, which often escalated into branching put into politics, often directly.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I have the choice of people from my industry or people not from my industry why would I ever choose the latter?
Because you know the people from your industry well enough to hate their guts? :)