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Replit founder Amjad Masad isn’t afraid of Silicon Valley

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

#481

well, it's not a high bar – these days anyone who says "I support Palestine Action" or "she was murdered by ICE" is called a terrorist sympathizer

I'll do you one better: Palestine Action is bankrolled by notorious pro-Russia tankie Fergie Chambers, who supports Vladimir Putin's genocidal campaign in Ukraine. So please add genocide sympathizer to your list.

[1] https://lamag.com/news/cox-family-heir-james-fergie-chambers...

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

#482
post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? She was a fake in every sense of the word, copying everything down to Steve Jobs' mannerisms, photo-ops, and black turtleneck sweater. The only interesting bit is how so many investors were unable to see through the obvious act and also failed to do the due diligence which is the One Job of VC firms (i.e., if I'm an investor, I'm trusting the VC to do real due diligence, otherwise why wouldn't I just inves…

I find her interesting because she is such a fake. More than Steve Jobs in some ways. I'm always fascinated about how people can be taken in.

Touché — worth looking more into that aspect!

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

#483
post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you accusing the SF Standard of running a paid promotion without disclosing it as such?

This is similar to a political campaign not telling you to vote on X, but still talking greatly about X. It's completely legal

Here's the ethics policy for the SF Standard: https://sfstandard.com/ethics-standards/

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

#484
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these days anyone who says "I support Palestine Action" You mean the group that sneaked in and damaged a bunch of UK Military’s planes on a military base? Was this the action that put them into the terrorist category?

"Damaged a bunch of UK Military's planes" == spray painted two planes

Spray painting a jet engine causes millions in damages, but it's a cute sleight of hand to insinuate it's just some graffiti on a wall or something.

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

#485

Know Amjad from years ago. We're on the opposite sides of ideological barricades, but he's no terrorist sympathizer. Just a man who loves his people. He seemed extremely pragmatic too-- if he ran Gaza it'd be an economic paradise by now.

He doesn't seem pragmatic because everything I read about him or any time I hear from him it's about this geopolitical issue. Doesn't he have a company to run? What's the point of making this front and center part of your personality. His thoughts on the war in Gaza is literally the only thing I know about him. That and him firing an intern about a weekend project. It's all just exhausting.

How is that pragmatic? If you want to do good things, build a business and donate money or whatever. Getting into Twitter wars with internet strangers and spending on PR to tell everyone what you think about geopolitics strikes me as anything but pragmatic.

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

#486

I remember learning to code with replit, the people from the course recommended replit because there was no setup to do

I used to teach with it - at classroom-scale it was really good. Unfortunately they shut all that down a little while back, and there wasn't really a good replacement. Which was a shame. Seems to have worked out for them, mind!

Such a shame, it was really good for that

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

#487

I remember learning to code with replit, the people from the course recommended replit because there was no setup to do

Some criticize that approach, suggesting that you're not learning important skills, but I applaud that approach. Anyone who's ever been in a workshop at a conference, where you have limited time to learn a topic, knows how much time is wasted doing initial setup.

I remember that was like workshop, something like learn to code in 20 minutes, and after learning the concepts and realizing you can control all those devices that power the world, just with code was magical.

I think that it had a big potential for that.

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

#488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree with you on this. It will be an unfortunate exercise for future historians to look back on this time, crunch through the enormous amount of data with their quantum computers, and end up realizing just how many people were willing to condone the slaughter of innocent civilians.

You say this as if the side you're advocating for didn't start the war by killing over a thousand civilians. Just in general, asserting that everyone will agree with your side in the future is such a bizarre rhetorical tactic. Do you honestly think this convinces anybody to reconsider their position?

My point equally applies to everyone who condones violence to achieve some end goal. Jeanette Rankin was vilified for her lone dissenting vote against war, yet decades later she is among the few of her contemporaries to have a statue in the Capitol to honor her dedication to pacifism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Rankin

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

#489
post #485

Know Amjad from years ago. We're on the opposite sides of ideological barricades, but he's no terrorist sympathizer. Just a man who loves his people. He seemed extremely pragmatic too-- if he ran Gaza it'd be an economic paradise by now.

He doesn't seem pragmatic because everything I read about him or any time I hear from him it's about this geopolitical issue. Doesn't he have a company to run? What's the point of making this front and center part of your personality. His thoughts on the war in Gaza is literally the only thing I know about him. That and him firing an intern about a weekend project. It's all just exhausting. How is that pragmatic? If…

Eh people get consumed by these things. It's very hard to resist when you have a platform and your own people are at war. Very very difficult to get past abstractions and just work to help in minute particulars.

Plus social media is a uniquely deranging technology. Persona on twitter is rarely who the person is in real life.

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

#490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the minimum threshold for that, I wonder?

Having "Fuck You" money[1] means you don't have to listen to anyone (but you still can be shunned, as described in the article). You'll substantially greater wealth that FU money to make people listen to what you have to say and be "uncancellable", like owning a media outlet, hiring a PR firm, or buying a pet politician or seat in government. Amjad seems to have crossed from the former to the latter by economic power…

Well, for the sake of being an aspiring contrarian, more power to him. Last thing I want is billionaires all being unified around one opinion.
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