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Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

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Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#31

Post by Schiendelman »

walrus01 wrote: post #28
LandR wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does SV now optimize for evilness? Since when has it not ?

I think the existence of the internet as a mass-market entertainment platform used by billions of non-tech users is part of it. SV from like the 1970s/1980s seemed a much more innocent place. The microcomputer/home computer boom (1978 to let's say 1998 or so) and growth of software companies selling packaged box software you could run on your PC was in many cases not run by people who I would categorize as fundamenta…

What makes you think they are less evil other than absence of high-quality information?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#33

Post by vintermann »

> Lee's stated goal was to “desensitize everyone to the phrase ‘cheating.’” If you say it enough, he argues, “cheat begins to lose its meaning.” A16z praised Lee's approach as “rooted in deliberate strategy and intentionality.”

Investors: but surely they won't cheat me!

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#35

Post by vintermann »

wseqyrku wrote: post #24

All investors do this, they don't really have an idea of "the future" they want to build. They just "find something they can throw money at". Their words, not mine.

One way to cope with the world going to shit is that to pretend that you want it, and thus you're somehow "winning" when the world goes to shit.

It'd be nice if it was limited to places like 4chan. But as I always say, powerful people believe all the stupid things regular people believe, so no surprise investment funds act like that too.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#36

Post by walrus01 »

Schiendelman wrote: post #31
walrus01 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the existence of the internet as a mass-market entertainment platform used by billions of non-tech users is part of it. SV from like the 1970s/1980s seemed a much more innocent place. The microcomputer/home computer boom (1978 to let's say 1998 or so) and growth of software companies selling packaged box software you could run on your PC was in many cases not run by people who I would categorize as fundamenta…

What makes you think they are less evil other than absence of high-quality information?

Well, for one they had less capability to execute evil plans on a worldwide Internet scale.

Maybe some of the early 80s tech entrepreneurs very well could have become the same sort of founders that are in this list of horrid a16z things. But the reach and scale just wasn't possible.

The whole paradigm of software development, and distributing that software product to end users was completely different than what we have today.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#38

Post by icantevenhold »

vintermann wrote: post #35
wseqyrku wrote: post #24

All investors do this, they don't really have an idea of "the future" they want to build. They just "find something they can throw money at". Their words, not mine.

One way to cope with the world going to shit is that to pretend that you want it, and thus you're somehow "winning" when the world goes to shit. It'd be nice if it was limited to places like 4chan. But as I always say, powerful people believe all the stupid things regular people believe, so no surprise investment funds act like that too.

Liminal places like 4chan are upstream to mainstream culture/sentiment.

Most of the incel, anime, doomed, and bro culture that was prevalent / nascent there 15-20 years ago is now super mainstream.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#39

Post by wseqyrku »

vintermann wrote: post #35
wseqyrku wrote: post #24

All investors do this, they don't really have an idea of "the future" they want to build. They just "find something they can throw money at". Their words, not mine.

One way to cope with the world going to shit is that to pretend that you want it, and thus you're somehow "winning" when the world goes to shit. It'd be nice if it was limited to places like 4chan. But as I always say, powerful people believe all the stupid things regular people believe, so no surprise investment funds act like that too.

You think you "cope" and are being resilient, but enough people doing that actually leads to the said bleak future, at which point it doesn't matter who's to blame.
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