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

Replit founder Amjad Masad isn’t afraid of Silicon Valley

sfstandard.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 590 posts

Re: Replit founder Amjad Masad isn’t afraid of Silicon Valley

#61

Post by jjk166 »

FunnyUsername wrote: post #53
cholantesh wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As it happens, genocide scholars disagree with you, and in any case, Gaza's population has not increased.

It's at least plausible that the population did increase. Estimates of births during the war are larger than the casualty count that Hamas claims.

Gaza population September 2023: 2.3 million. Gaza population September 2025: 2.1 million.

Hamas casualties make up only a portion of palestinian casualties; palestinian casualties make up only a portion of excess deaths; excess deaths make up only a portion of total deaths.

Re: Replit founder Amjad Masad isn’t afraid of Silicon Valley

#62

Post by Cyph0n »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #59
FunnyUsername wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's at least plausible that the population did increase. Estimates of births during the war are larger than the casualty count that Hamas claims.

It'd be nice if Israel would let UN fact-finding missionaries or other independent research teams into Gaza to find out (in addition to not barring and/or killing humanitarian aid workers)

Or even international media outside of proctored propaganda trips. They obviously have learned their lesson since the 1982 invasion.

Re: Replit founder Amjad Masad isn’t afraid of Silicon Valley

#63

Post by catlover76 »

hiyer wrote: post #56
gameboy45 wrote: post #16

interesting hearing his justification for working w Saudi but not Israel: He says he would never work with Israel now. “I think it’s an illegitimate and criminal government,” he told me during our gun safety training. “I mean, [Benjamin] Netanyahu is a war criminal.” When I pointed out that Saudi Arabia has its own abysmal human rights record, Masad drew a contrast. “I just think about how Replit is going to be used.…

Seems like a silly excuse. If his concern is that Israel could use Replit for military purposes, then SA is perfectly capable of doing the same. And SA has - directly or indirectly - killed more people in Yemen than Israel has in Gaza.

[dead]

Re: Replit founder Amjad Masad isn’t afraid of Silicon Valley

#65

Post by simulator5g »

cholantesh wrote: post #26
didibus wrote: post #19

Reading through this piece and all I can think of is how he's just the other side of the same coin. Simply a different color of the same elitism that our world is moving into as money concentrates and starts to meddle more and more with our political spheres while accountability slowly errodes to zero.

I found the piece rambling and incoherent, but I don't really see how this follows. This is an individual Jordanian founder who made a political statement. That's not really the same thing as the deep integration between the Israeli state, Zionist organizations, and big tech.

The coin is wealthy people. They're different sides of that coin. Hence why the commenter above is sensing some malice from both sides.

Re: Replit founder Amjad Masad isn’t afraid of Silicon Valley

#66

Post by renewiltord »

All these things are so amusing. Amjad Masad dislikes Israel and is fine with Saudi Arabia. Palmer Luckey will spend his life doing rainman calculations on the angle of the car in Minneapolis. One is a “terrorist”, other is a “fascist”.

But you can tell it’s all motivated reasoning. Standing with your tribe. It’s not much of a matter of honour. It’s just flashing your banners.

In the end, they are wealthy, but they are just people. And they have all these things and why do I really care what Ja Rule has to say about the new cyclone.

Re: Replit founder Amjad Masad isn’t afraid of Silicon Valley

#67

Post by cholantesh »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #58
cholantesh wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found the piece rambling and incoherent, but I don't really see how this follows. This is an individual Jordanian founder who made a political statement. That's not really the same thing as the deep integration between the Israeli state, Zionist organizations, and big tech.

As the article mentions, Saudi Arabia is aiming to build its own deep integration with big tech, which Masad is enthusiastically participating in despite the Saudi government's own human rights issues. (He argues, quite conveniently if true, that the Replit tools he sells to the Saudi government won't be used for any of the bad stuff.)

This clarifies things, thank you. I've gotten the impression that Masad doesn't have a very coherent worldview so I doubt he has given this contradiction much thought.

Re: Replit founder Amjad Masad isn’t afraid of Silicon Valley

#68

Post by siltcakes »

primitivesuave wrote: post #3

Public opinion on Amjad shifted quite a bit in 2021 when he threatened to sue a former intern for his open-source project. https://intuitiveexplanations.com/tech/replit/

My opinion on him shifted because along with Paul Graham, they're the only tech leaders who have stood up for Palestinians. I don't agree with Graham on everything either, but I've gained a lot of respect for him speaking out against Zionism. They're rich, but it still is difficult to go against the entire venture capital industry to do the right thing.

Re: Replit founder Amjad Masad isn’t afraid of Silicon Valley

#69

Post by siltcakes »

jerlam wrote: post #22
user723432754 wrote: post #13

“Masad insists he speaks up even when it hurts his business. In that regard, ‘I’m probably the only contrarian in Silicon Valley.’”

The only contrarian, just like everyone else.

He and Paul Graham, truly are the only people speaking out against Zionism though. The rest of the VC industry is either staunchly pro-Israel or silent on the matter.

Re: Replit founder Amjad Masad isn’t afraid of Silicon Valley

#70

Post by siltcakes »

soldthat wrote: post #48
rowanseymour wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not and I don't think it's worth arguing with you but.. Zionism is the establishment of a Jewish majority state.. which requires the expulsion of much of the existing non-Jewish population. That not the same as other countries acknowledging the borders of Palestine.

[flagged]

Palestinians are the indigenous people to the land who were ethnically cleansed via Nakba. It's not "nationalism" to allow people to return to the land that was stolen from them.
Post reply on HN