Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union • Hacker News Board

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#131

Post by majewsky » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 4:54 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #96

arethuza wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly because large corporation do internally have a form of central planning - usually using Oracle Hyperion (which Google appears to use).... :-) Edit: I based my guess about Google using Hyperion for their financial planning based on the job adverts....

I’ve always found it ironic that the purest examples of communist style central economic planning are found within capitalist corporations. Raise your hand if your company’s budget, hiring, and other resource deployment is done democratically, through a vote.

Big corporations are basically communist empires in this regard. I think the reason why capitalism won over communism is that capitalism has a large number of centrally-planned enterprises where natural selection can take place internally and the failure of any single enterprise does not hurt (and even benefits) the others. In communism, however, there's only one big plan that's "too big to fail".

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#132

Post by JdeBP » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 4:54 PM UTC

One interesting thing is that this seems to be on the cusp of spawning an "In Silicon Valley ..." joke cycle.

* https://twitter.com/MarcLucke/status/1015211522111496193

* https://twitter.com/Vietpdx/status/1015253367285673984

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#133

Post by eeeuo » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 4:55 PM UTC

danharaj wrote: post #108

neuland wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very good answer. It puts us in the situation of weighing the suffering and death of the war against the continued Saddam rule. That's an interesting debate where it is possible that the invasion was less good.

Do you understand how bonkers it sounds to play calculus with millions of lives in the service of geopolitics?

Did you feel the invasion of Germany in 1944 was in the services of geopolitics?

It's not geopolitics to try and determine if fewer people would die with or without Saddam in power. Saddam's chemical attacks against civilians are well documented and not widely disputed. His internal security apparatus was open with their brutality in order to induce fear on the population.

I think that the 2nd Iraq War was a mistake, particularly how the government misled the people, but I find it absolutely baffling when people will not even honestly address the situation in good faith. You cannot simply argue that "many people civilians died as a result of the Iraq War therefore it's bad" without addressing the situation beforehand. Lots of people died during the Allied invasion of Germany, but I think most people would agree that it was the correct thing to do.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#134

Post by ummonk » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 4:55 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #24

21 wrote: post #7

> the United States as a whole is depicted as evil by default So true. The USA is viewed worse than China, Russia or Saudi Arabia. I also see a lot of it on HN.

Well, USSR fucked up half of Europe, but China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia didn't do much to anybody (except perhaps their immediate neighbours) in the 20th and 21st century. The same can't be said for the US. They might be whatever they are internally, but that's a problem for their citizens.

While the spread of Wahabism has been most acute in Saudi Arabia's neighbors, the growth in terrorism has definitely affected the whole world.

Granted though, not on the same scale that US wars do.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#135

Post by stcredzero » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 4:55 PM UTC

projectramo wrote: post #11

"I am unprepared for people who don't understand jokes" -- Anton Troynikov I don't know who he is but I really like this quote. That's consistently my biggest surprise on the internet. The #1 question I get for my posts is "Is that sarcasm?" I never answer.

"I am unprepared for people who don't understand jokes" -- Anton Troynikov

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#136

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 4:55 PM UTC

Semirhage wrote: post #19

projectramo wrote: post #11

"I am unprepared for people who don't understand jokes" -- Anton Troynikov I don't know who he is but I really like this quote. That's consistently my biggest surprise on the internet. The #1 question I get for my posts is "Is that sarcasm?" I never answer.

Ironic that this is getting so much traction on HN, where humor is actively crushed with downvotes and flags most of the time. I’m not even disagreeing with the rationale of keeping the site for intellectual inquiry rather than endlessly nested references and jokes. A lot of what people think of as humorous is inherently off topic or frankly not very funny or relevant. Sadly though, I’ve seen some genuinely funny and…

[deleted]

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#137

Post by joejerryronnie » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 4:56 PM UTC

danharaj wrote: post #92

neuland wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not really sure how the 2nd Iraq War is a testament to American evil. It sounds to me like you're saying the invasion was unjustified? But, is there really anyone who thought Saddam was a good guy? He was very obviously a brutal dictator. So, at the very least there's one fewer of those around. Sure, WMD turned out to be a total fabrication and the Iraq War ended up being a misguided attempt at democracy building…

> Even if the only outcome (as it seems to be) is getting rid of a dictator, Innocent people died, friend.

It's not as straight forward as this. Many innocent people died (and would have continued to die) at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime. So, was removing a ruthless dictator a good thing to do? On the surface, probably yes, but Saddam's removal left a huge power vacuum in the region, allowing even more extreme and violent factions to set up shop. So, in the end, would it have been better to leave a known genocide practitioner in place to maintain regional stability?

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#138

Post by AnimalMuppet » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 4:56 PM UTC

AlexandrB wrote: post #65

21 wrote: post #7

> the United States as a whole is depicted as evil by default So true. The USA is viewed worse than China, Russia or Saudi Arabia. I also see a lot of it on HN.

> So true. The USA is viewed worse than China, Russia or Saudi Arabia. I think this is a reaction to the perceived hypocrisy of the US. Like any country, the US has a complex history as well as a variety of cultural and political issues that need addressing. However the US also consistently and loudly bills itself as "The Greatest Country on Earth". I think this contradiction fuels a lot of hyperbole about how bad th…

But "The Greatest Country on Earth" does not mean "no flaws" or even "no hypocrisy". It may even mean "the flaws are more openly acknowledged" - that can be part of greatness, in fact.

Now, if you want to argue that somewhere else is in fact better, that could be valid, but it's a different argument.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#139

Post by joshuawright11 » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 4:57 PM UTC

woah wrote: post #23

zug_zug wrote: post #12

"- being told you are constructing utopia while the system crumbles around you" This is the one that resonated with me. Obviously "the system" as a whole isn't objectively crumbling by traditional measures like GDP, but there were things that could give that feeling: Homeless sleeping in the subway and on the main streets, the smells, crime so rampant it's basically ignored (my car was broken into > 5 times), working…

As a contractor for startups in SF for 6 years and now a founder for 1, I have found the opposite of what you have about business relationships. The homeless problem is not caused by the tech industry, it is caused by the homeowners who have been blocking apartment building construction in 90% of the city for 50 years.

Surely the abundant usage of crack has something to do with it too...

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#140

Post by jogjayr » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 4:57 PM UTC

timr wrote: post #113

nerfhammer wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

job growth is supposed to be a good thing...

Job growth is a good thing only if it benefits the people who live in a place before said growth occurs. Otherwise, you're incentivized to just keep shifting high-paid populations around and calling it success.

> Job growth is a good thing only if it benefits the people who live in a place before said growth occurs

Why so? Even if high-paid populations are being shifted around, it's better for the region as a whole to have more highly-paid people. They'll spend more and pay more in taxes (sales, property, income). The pre-existing population presumably owns property, whose value has increased now because it's close to high-paying jobs so they too benefit. This is exactly what has happened in the Bay Area btw.