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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

#531

Post by jjk166 »

FunnyUsername wrote: post #138
jjk166 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The next census will be in 2027. No one knows the population until then. It’s not clear that Hamas limits their counts to excess deaths. Even if they intended to, a lot of it is based on a web form, with not much validation besides basic checks that the person exists etc. As with pretty much any conflict, there's a ton of uncertainly, and people shouldn't be recklessly speculating based on things like WhatsApp chats.…

You are the one who proposed birth estimates and casualty claims suggest population increased. How do you think population estimates work?

There is no census scheduled for 2027. Gaza (much like Israel) does not conduct full censuses on a regular schedule. Neither Gaza nor Israel have scheduled their next full census at this time. The most recent census for Gaza was 2017 (for comparison Israel's most recent was 2008). All population numbers of relevance are determined by statistical methods. For large numbers, this is perfectly adequate.

> As with pretty much any conflict, there's a ton of uncertainly, and people shouldn't be recklessly speculating based on things like WhatsApp chats.

Numbers of deaths aren't being estimated from WhatApp chats. The most widely agreed upon estimates are based on morgue data, which if anything should undercount the actual death toll as plenty of bodies never make it to a morgue operated by health professionals. These health professionals are the same ones giving the birth rate estimates.

> Responsible casualty estimates would look more like Ukraine, where for example Zelenskyy said "tens of thousands" (one significant digit) were killed in Mariupol.

That's not what one significant digit means. That is an order of magnitude estimate. I believe everyone is in agreement that the death toll of the gaza war was likewise in the tens of thousands. 1 significant digit would indicate how many tens of thousands. For example, death tolls for Mariupol range from between 20,000 and 90,000. Estimates for Gaza range between 60,000 and 100,000, or roughly half the band for Mariupol. Note that Ukraine does not have access to Mariupol to investigate, as the war is still ongoing, whereas we are several months past the ceasefire in Gaza. Based on pre-war numbers, natural deaths unrelated to the conflict should be a rounding error at this resolution.

Certainly the claim that the population increase is proof of anything is absurd.

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

#532

Post by lostlogin »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #378
lostlogin wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like it has to other business guys who have built a brand around politics?

I think it has negatively affected Elon yes.

I’m not sure that was his politics so much as it was him erratically doing whatever came to him that minute.

Elons politics are similar to Trumps, and Trump isn’t hurting.

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

#533

Post by lostlogin »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #530
lostlogin wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a war has finished, should the victor still be able to keep taking land off the loser? What’s the duration of that right?

Largely yes. That is a risk of starting a war. If an aggressor is defeated, the victor gets to make demands and set terms for ending hostilities.

And after that? How long can they keep taking?

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

#534

Post by ActionHank »

simonw wrote: post #483
ramon156 wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

It’s a puff piece with no substance that tries to frame the interviewee positively with no real apparent reason.

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

#535

Post by dcreater »

SwtCyber wrote: post #271
dcreater wrote: post #54

Replit seems to be another company that doesn't justify it's valuation in this bubble

Replit has been around for years, has real users, and now reportedly real revenue

That doesn't necessitate a fair valuation.

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

#536

Post by FunnyUsername »

jjk166 wrote: post #531
FunnyUsername wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next census will be in 2027. No one knows the population until then. It’s not clear that Hamas limits their counts to excess deaths. Even if they intended to, a lot of it is based on a web form, with not much validation besides basic checks that the person exists etc. As with pretty much any conflict, there's a ton of uncertainly, and people shouldn't be recklessly speculating based on things like WhatsApp chats.…

You are the one who proposed birth estimates and casualty claims suggest population increased. How do you think population estimates work? There is no census scheduled for 2027. Gaza (much like Israel) does not conduct full censuses on a regular schedule. Neither Gaza nor Israel have scheduled their next full census at this time. The most recent census for Gaza was 2017 (for comparison Israel's most recent was 2008).…

> There is no census scheduled for 2027

2027 is the expectation, since it's supposed to be at least every ten years.

> Numbers of deaths aren't being estimated from WhatApp chats.

Unfortunately they are. [1] was based on messages in "X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram". An example of content they scraped is [2], but they also included non-public chats in WhatsApp etc.

> The most widely agreed upon estimates are based on morgue data, which if anything should undercount the actual death toll as plenty of bodies never make it to a morgue operated by health professionals.

This isn't the case even for GHM's official counts. Anyone can report a Gazan "martyr" or missing person on a web form right here [3]. Those get included in GHM's counts, if they pass basic checks like the existence of that name and ID.

> That's not what one significant digit means.

I think the concept still applies, though I should have said zero significant digits, since "tens of thousands" implies an exponent but zero digits of the mantissa. But my point is that responsible estimates involve acknowledgement of uncertainty.

> I believe everyone is in agreement that the death toll of the gaza war was likewise in the tens of thousands.

Most of Israel's critics are not satisfied with Hamas' ~70k casualty figure, and seek out higher estimates like the aforementioned one that used WhatsApp chats. For example, a HNer yesterday wrote "They've killed people in the hundreds of thousands in Gaza now."

[1] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

[2] https://www.instagram.com/martyrs_gaza/

[3] https://sehatty.ps/moh-registration/public/add-order

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

#537

Post by siltcakes »

tguvot wrote: post #528
siltcakes wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened is that Zionists showed up and started murdering families and stealing land. The fictional Zionist “history” is no longer sellable.

[flagged]

Steinbeck isn’t a Palestinian name.

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

#538

Post by nerdsniper »

terespuwash wrote: post #276

It's fascinating to read how Hacker News helped make Replit successful. I hope everyone will try this tool! I wonder if Masad still scrolls here nowadays.

https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=amasad

Yep. Seems like he posts a bit more thoughtfully with deliberation ever since the "suing my intern over a weekend project" debacle.

Having other close friends from Jordan, it's not surprising that he's outspoken on the topic of Israeli occupation - it's very difficult to spend a significant amount of time in the affected regions and not come away with a very strong opinion.

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

#539

Post by primitivesuave »

kbelder wrote: post #526
primitivesuave wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Something to keep in mind, though, was that she was clearly wrong.

You are effectively saying that the indiscriminate slaughter of the Japanese civilian population was justified, due to the actions of a few Japanese leaders. In my opinion, there is no justification for violence against civilians.

Notice that we have a holiday for MLK, and Indians have a holiday to celebrate Gandhi. Something deep inside all of us knows that pacifism is “correct”.

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