Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future • Hacker News Board

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#151

Post by butlike » Mon, Aug 24, 2026, 1:59 PM UTC

throwaway13337 wrote: post #111

radarsat1 wrote: post #18

I know this is a very minor point in the article, but reading the message next to the Doublespeed phone farm: > out of 130 dms sent, 15 pointed to a conversion. > From a former ecom guy's lens this is insane Why do these otherwise very smart people always seem to draw these kind of shortsighted conclusions? It seems pretty obvious to me on the surface that this "works" because it's new. As soon as it becomes common p…

Marketers have a term for this - "breaking through the noise". I call it pissing in the pool. I hope one day we see paid advertising as immoral. Immoral acts can be defined as negative sum on society but possibly positive to the individual. A working society agrees, culturally, to think negatively on negative sum behavior. Social animals do this too - even vampire bats ( https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC46858…

You just nailed something for me, so I wanted to say "thank you." It's the _PAID_ advertising that's the issue. I've been struggling with hating advertising, yet having difficulties reconciling how I would know about anything I like if it wasn't advertised. But it's the PAID advertising that spurs the creation of advertisements with spectacle and cheap shit that ends up in landfills and the oceans.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#152

Post by kodoman » Mon, Aug 24, 2026, 2:02 PM UTC

Zigurd wrote: post #150

oezi wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nietzsche also described it well when noting there are those who deem themselves nobles and feel they are righteously above the laws and those who derive their identity from suffering under the same laws.

Nietzsche died broke and insane. Was that from following his own advice or failing to do so?

Newton put needles in his eye's and probably suffered greatly from self inflicted lead and mercury poisoning; Why do you trust his laws of motion?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#153

Post by rglover » Mon, Aug 24, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC

AlotOfReading wrote: post #130

rglover wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No sarcasm: play a different game. If you play their game, of course you'll suffer. But if you play a game they're repulsed by, you can win a life they'll never have access to: one filled with people who love and respect you and an environment where your best self and life can emerge.

The parent comments are talking about how the game is negatively impacting society. Your suggestion is to check out and leave society to them. One of the many problems with that suggestion is that it's hard for your best self/life to emerge in a bleak future.

That's not what I said. I didn't say anything about leaving society, I alluded to leaving their society. That's the thing: people keep giving these guys money and attention. If you take that away, they become more than irrelevant. Simplified: if they're going West, you go East.

The more "small time" people reject this narrative that we need a bunch of elitist white guys shoving their mediocrity down our throats, the faster we rebuild a society they're barred from accessing.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#154

Post by butlike » Mon, Aug 24, 2026, 2:09 PM UTC

the_gipsy wrote: post #42

bambax wrote: post #34

Marc Andreessen is an evil man with the behavior (and appearance!) of a Bond villain.

Had to google his name. Welcome to the Egghead's lair, Mr. Bond.

And to think him and Faye Wong are virtually the same age. She, a beautiful actress singer-songwriter, and him, a rather bulbous egg-headed villain. Are we SURE what you do doesn't influence how radiant you appear to others?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#155

Post by oezi » Mon, Aug 24, 2026, 2:10 PM UTC

Zigurd wrote: post #150

oezi wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nietzsche also described it well when noting there are those who deem themselves nobles and feel they are righteously above the laws and those who derive their identity from suffering under the same laws.

Nietzsche died broke and insane. Was that from following his own advice or failing to do so?

Being successful or not in your wealth doesn't make you right or wrong about anything with the exception of maybe running the business that generated your wealth.

Nietzsche presented two prototypical sets of human who interface with laws and ethics. He described why those believes exists and are self-reaffirming even if they are puzzling from the other side.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#156

Post by butlike » Mon, Aug 24, 2026, 2:12 PM UTC

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…

> But it all seems very cute and pales in comparison to today.

What if what happens today seems quaint in the future?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#157

Post by zby » Mon, Aug 24, 2026, 2:13 PM UTC

throwaway13337 wrote: post #111

radarsat1 wrote: post #18

I know this is a very minor point in the article, but reading the message next to the Doublespeed phone farm: > out of 130 dms sent, 15 pointed to a conversion. > From a former ecom guy's lens this is insane Why do these otherwise very smart people always seem to draw these kind of shortsighted conclusions? It seems pretty obvious to me on the surface that this "works" because it's new. As soon as it becomes common p…

Marketers have a term for this - "breaking through the noise". I call it pissing in the pool. I hope one day we see paid advertising as immoral. Immoral acts can be defined as negative sum on society but possibly positive to the individual. A working society agrees, culturally, to think negatively on negative sum behavior. Social animals do this too - even vampire bats ( https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC46858…

Advertising has a positive function - currently we don't have better (market based) was to make it working other than via paid advertising. The first step is to find the new business models.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#158

Post by teravor » Mon, Aug 24, 2026, 2:13 PM UTC

akudha wrote: post #129

pulkitsh1234 wrote: post #81

"A man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must necessarily come to grief among so many who are not good. Therefore, it is necessary for a prince, who wishes to maintain himself, to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case" -- Niccolo Machiavelli It's a self fulfilling prophecy... while us commoners, or so called "activists" or et…

Setting ethical and moral questions aside for a second: Never pay a human again Every time I see stuff like this (along with other more serious shenanigans like wage theft, union busting etc) I only ask myself the same question again and again - what is the end game here? If much of the population is too poor to buy anything, too sick to consume much etc - who is left to buy anything at all? If all their power comes…

there is nothing magically good about economic activity, it has merely been necessary thus far.

once it's no longer necessary and once they can have robot security they will decouple from the rest of society.

they would also require military grade deterrence. eventually they will either steal, buy or make nukes.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#159

Post by causal » Mon, Aug 24, 2026, 2:14 PM UTC

tedggh wrote: post #12

How come Flock is not listed? That’s the most troubling company a16z has heavily invested on and supported.

Yeah strange how this article is almost entirely focused on consumer apps. These examples might be unhealthy for society, but mostly represent (poor) choices for consumers. Digital cigarettes.

Surveillance tech is the opposite: It represents freedom taken away. That is the more bleak future IMO.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#160

Post by e40 » Mon, Aug 24, 2026, 2:15 PM UTC

serial_dev wrote: post #114

vintermann wrote: post #33

> 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 !

Some of these SV "founder mode" people do speak like sociopaths. It's probably a good base for success in the industry. "I don't get it, why are they confessing? They are not confessing. They are bragging"

They speak that way because they are.