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I Met Paul Graham Once

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Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#361

Post by musicale »

kps wrote: post #352
musicale wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> socially regressive robber barons At least we got some good universities (and a somewhat functional transcontinental rail system) out of the 19th century iteration. > In 1975 the student body of Stanford University voted to use "Robber Barons" as the nickname for their sports teams. However, school administrators disallowed it, saying it was disrespectful to the school's founder, Leland Stanford [1] It's a shame th…

And 2509 libraries.

Indeed – Carnegie Libraries may be one of the best results.

I would like to see our modern robber barons and philanthropists (and society in general) put some effort into creating a usable digital library system; we actually have things like Google Books, which scanned many university collections, but it will likely remain unusable as an actual digital library unless some sort of copyright reform can be enacted.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#362

Post by CPLX »

musicale wrote: post #342
afavour wrote: post #9

In the long run I think realizations like the authors are healthy ones. PG is not a hero. He's just a guy. A guy who entered into business transactions with a number of people, many of whom benefitted greatly (as did Paul himself). I'm not saying any of that as a negative! Just that we have a habit of attributing superhuman characteristics to folks (Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize comes to mind) and ending up dis…

> socially regressive robber barons At least we got some good universities (and a somewhat functional transcontinental rail system) out of the 19th century iteration. > In 1975 the student body of Stanford University voted to use "Robber Barons" as the nickname for their sports teams. However, school administrators disallowed it, saying it was disrespectful to the school's founder, Leland Stanford [1] It's a shame th…

> At least we got some good universities out of the 19th century iteration.

You mean the ones that turned around and produced the current market fundamentalist and elite-run culture we have today?

What a coincidence.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#363

Post by ziddoap »

itsoktocry wrote: post #357
gedpeck wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which of the accusations are wrong? Do you deny these well documented things?

Rape, for one. "The verdict was split: Jurors rejected Carroll’s claim that she was raped" https://apnews.com/article/trump-rape-carroll-trial-fe68259a... You are reciting points that are provably false. Low information voter, reason your party lost and will continue to. Normal people do not agree with your extremism.

>Low information voter, reason your party lost and will continue to

It's funny, in a sad way, that after so much discussion here about how silly it is to have this us vs. them, side vs. side mentality, that we end up with someone saying this.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#364

Post by lisper »

sho_hn wrote: post #354
ryantgtg wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is he well-read? His essay on the origins of wokeness was pure vibes, with hardly any historical accuracy or understanding of sociology. Many here on HN explained it as him not being well-read.

I assume OP meant that pg is read by many people.

Yes, exactly. (Maybe I should have said "widely read".)

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#365

Post by shermantanktop »

sbarre wrote: post #268
beardedwizard wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very underrated comment. Right and wrong are largely a function of culture, not universal law.

I dunno man.. When someone advocates for treating another person as "not human" or wants to deny them basic human rights, that's universally wrong in my book.

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Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#366

Post by nathansherburn »

coderc wrote: post #104
snowwrestler wrote: post #58

Once upon a time, not that long ago, within my lifetime in fact, being gay was targeted for public abuse the way that transgender people are being targeting now. That has declined as people came to understand that being gay, lesbian, bi is part of how a person is made. Under public pressure, a gay person can act straight or at least act not gay. But it doesn't change who they are, doesn't help anyone around them, and…

It seems to me that prigs, as defined in pg's article, are just jumping on the transgender issue because it's an easy way for them to enforce rules. From my understanding, having read both articles, PG might say that the prigs have chosen to ride the lgbt movement. The problem is not with the lgbt movement itself. Unfortunately, this gives the movement a bad reputation. Some prigs aren't lgbt people at all, but they…

I think this is spot on. The confusion for me comes from the fact that, as far as I can tell, I've never met a prig in real life. And yet they seem to be the biggest political issue of our time. Is it because I live in Australia and it's more of a US thing? Or is it because I'm not online as much maybe? I find it really confusing.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#367

Post by [deleted] »

afavour wrote: post #25
bobosha wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My only consolation is knowing that I'm seeing the world more accurately than I used to. also known as growing older ;-)

For sure. I almost included something in my comment about "I guess this is what getting old is like", losing your idealism as you age. But equally, maybe not. If I'd grown up in, I dunno the 60s? I would have witnessed enormous leaps in technological possibility and enormous increases in standards of living, personal freedoms, yadda yadda. In my youth it felt like there was a viable future where tech enabled radical…

[deleted]

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#368

Post by musicale »

CPLX wrote: post #362
musicale wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> socially regressive robber barons At least we got some good universities (and a somewhat functional transcontinental rail system) out of the 19th century iteration. > In 1975 the student body of Stanford University voted to use "Robber Barons" as the nickname for their sports teams. However, school administrators disallowed it, saying it was disrespectful to the school's founder, Leland Stanford [1] It's a shame th…

> At least we got some good universities out of the 19th century iteration. You mean the ones that turned around and produced the current market fundamentalist and elite-run culture we have today? What a coincidence.

And the modern generation of tech industrialists? Probably not a coincidence either.

Though technically universities are more than just their endowments, business schools, engineering schools, sports teams, etc. They often have pretty good libraries, for example. Many universities also provide a variety of educational and course materials for free over the internet. Some train physicians and operate hospitals. And many universities have at least some minimal diversity of opinion on politics and policies.

The idea that elite universities produce elite university graduates is probably not controversial, and many of them were founded with the idea of producing "leaders", which they have arguably done.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#369

Post by aclimatt »

jhp123 wrote: post #282

I'm not a target of tech's fascist turn, but my head is still spinning from the change of direction. When I entered this industry it was for hackers, nonconformists, weirdos, nerds, people who don't care about titles or clothes or what your genitals are. What particularly stings is that the vipers at the top tricked people into giving away an enormous amount of intellectual property. Zuck is removing tampons from the…

Amazing what a little (a lot of) money and power can do to a culture. Some of our worst traits come out when we're all of a sudden in charge.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#370

Post by itsoktocry »

snowwrestler wrote: post #150
coderc wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that prigs, as defined in pg's article, are just jumping on the transgender issue because it's an easy way for them to enforce rules. From my understanding, having read both articles, PG might say that the prigs have chosen to ride the lgbt movement. The problem is not with the lgbt movement itself. Unfortunately, this gives the movement a bad reputation. Some prigs aren't lgbt people at all, but they…

Self-congratulatory, self-righteous prigs are all over the place within human society. When people complain about them, the substantive content of their complaint is the context in which they issue it. For example pg is complaining about the prigs who nag everyone about transgender acceptance, but not the prigs who nag everyone to reject and abuse transgender people. Matters of speech, manners, and decorum are conven…

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