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Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

joanwestenberg.com

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Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#131

Post by wallst07 »

pasquinelli wrote: post #55
NoPicklez wrote: post #49

Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit, because they're still a human being like all of us. It's easy to look at Musk and say, he's done some dumb shit when his dumb shit makes news. But very few of us have the same type of scrutiny that powerful people have. He's done dumb shit, but he's done a lot of pretty good shit across his lifetime. Nobody is infallible.

but i have to wonder what powerful people actually bring to the table.

Leadership.

Most here won't want to hear it, but the average person does not want to lead. They want to be told everything will be alright.

Leading + consequences is difficult and stressful. Heck, just leading your own household is stressful, try doing it for someone else or 1000s.

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#132

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #83
dzikimarian wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was part of CEO recruitment process (sadly not FAANG-like, so maybe it wasn't "so much"-level yet). Amount of people who are both seriously willing to take the job(considering pressure) and have necessary skills is not very high. Tbh same is truth for any management job - a lot of competent people prefer calmer life. Obviously for the very top compensation is bonkers and there's fair share of frauds that ended in t…

> a lot of competent people prefer calmer life I may not be _that_ competent, but the calmer life is worth sacrificing a fair few dollars for. For each job I've changed, I've gone to a lower paying position, such that I'm currently still on $10k (around 8%) less than I was earning... 5 years ago, two jobs ago, which was probably about the same as the job I left 6 years before that. All previous jobs were worth leavin…

Have you considered being paid $20 million for one year, and then staying home with family for the next ten years? Even after taxes, you'd still have much more of both time and money than a career in, say, air traffic control.

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#133

Post by yread »

Arainach wrote: post #51
Tinned_Tuna wrote: post #39

I don't think the author read even the Wikipedia page on Napoleon's invasion of Russia? Napoleon _did_ have reasons for attacking Russia, he _did_ prepare logistics. His motives, rationale, and actions are well-documented and widely studied. > watching an unchecked megalomaniac march 685,000 soldiers into a Russian winter without a fur coat in sight Napoleon famously crossed the Neman River in *June*.

If you believe a war with a country the size of Russia will be over within 4 months you might not be a genius.

Tell that to Germany in 1917

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#134

Post by eesmith »

TonyStr wrote: post #127
eesmith wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The 400,000 dead soldiers died mostly to disease. I believe that in every major war of the 1800s, more soldiers died from disease than from combat. Consider the War of 1812. "fully three-quarters of the war deaths resulted from disease, most commonly typhoid fever, pneumonia, malaria, measles, typhus, smallpox and diarrhea" - https://www.nps.gov/articles/military-medicine.htm Consider the Crimean War. "death by dis…

You are completely right. Disease has been the major killer in most military campaigns of history. The original post stated that 400,000 soldiers died "mostly from starvation and exposure", which isn't correct. However, loosing over a third of an army to disease in 52 days, before any major battle solely to disease (Allen, B. M., https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA398046.pdf ), is unusually high. Starvation became a m…

What other campaigns had a 52 day march or longer before the first major battle?

Perhaps the Siege of Baghdad, or some other Mongolian campaign? Or Hannibal's route to Italy?

I can't think of a comparable from the 1800s.

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#135

Post by cindyllm »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #132
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a lot of competent people prefer calmer life I may not be _that_ competent, but the calmer life is worth sacrificing a fair few dollars for. For each job I've changed, I've gone to a lower paying position, such that I'm currently still on $10k (around 8%) less than I was earning... 5 years ago, two jobs ago, which was probably about the same as the job I left 6 years before that. All previous jobs were worth leavin…

Have you considered being paid $20 million for one year, and then staying home with family for the next ten years? Even after taxes, you'd still have much more of both time and money than a career in, say, air traffic control.

[dead]

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#137

Post by TruffleLabs »

https://www.edwardtufte.com/product/napoleons-march/

Via Edward Tufte

"Probably the best statistical graphic ever drawn, this map by Charles Joseph Minard portrays the losses suffered by Napoleon’s army in the Russian campaign of 1812. Beginning at the Polish-Russian border, the thick band shows the size of the army at each position. The path of Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow in the bitterly cold winter is depicted by the dark lower band, which is tied to temperature and time scales."

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#138

Post by hackable_sand »

sfink wrote: post #4

I kind of feel like people know how to human, and how the humans around them human, but someone they've never met but only heard about or seen on TV or in meme posts? No clue at all. Sure, we know the hotshot CEO of COMPANY_NAME_HERE has to put on his pants one leg at a time, but the similarity ends there. They're different, they won't fall for the stupid tricks we fall for. They don't have trouble getting out of bed…

... no... you are just incredibly condescending.

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#139

Post by ptsneves »

cess11 wrote: post #105
ptsneves wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

"I have no doubt any other western country would do the same if 1000s of their civilian citizens including children were kidnapped and murdered." So this is how you expect the rest of the world to treat the US? Just torture and murder their civilians and erase their homes and culture? The US killed, maimed and displaced many millions of iraqis, should we help the iraqis exterminate the US population?

The US does not set out to capture civilians, while the hamas does. It matters. All the rest of the comment makes no sense in light of that.

Also you omitted the part where I said I disagreed with what Israel did. But as a human I believe we are evil like that, and I am really sorry about it.

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#140

Post by margalabargala »

schnebbau wrote: post #32
margalabargala wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terrible. Twitter is just now back to the valuation he bought it for, four years and lots of inflation later. If the best you can do with $44B is break even after 4 years that is a piss poor investment.

Do you think Elon bought Twitter as an investment?

No. I'm just replying to someone else who is arguing that Elon buying Twitter was a good investment.
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