Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit • Hacker News Board

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#161

Post by ekianjo » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 12:46 AM UTC

Arainach wrote: post #160

ekianjo wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> country the size of Russia density of population is not equal to land mass, you know

I intentionally didn't say "the population of Russia". Occupying an enormous land mass takes an enormous amount of time (arguably infinite) and resources. OK, Napoleon is right and he's "conquered" Russia in a month. Are all of those troops being sent home before winter?

Napoleon was never going to go to Vladivostok. You do know that most of Russia is empty apart from the western part? So in effect if you capture Moscow and a few other major cities you are done.

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#162

Post by lmm » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 1:29 AM UTC

margalabargala wrote: post #140

schnebbau wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm saying I think he got his money's worth overall, not that it worked great when considered solely as a financial investment.

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#163

Post by dzikimarian » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 9:03 AM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #126

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…

>Amount of people who are both seriously willing to take the job(considering pressure) and have necessary skills is not very high. I don't believe that. The average CEO is going to have perhaps ten direct reports. I'm willing to bet nearly every one of those is capable and up for the job.

Well, consider typical dev team - how many members usually are able to and want to jump to the staff level?

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#164

Post by wasmainiac » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 12:29 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #121

wasmainiac wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The truth is all of us treat our fellow humans this way. Nah, I think it is more common of a cultural thing in individualistic societies. I know plenty of people who are worried about the future outlook of others they have never met. For example what phones and social media is doing to our children, or the state of the economy for young people.

I don't think it has much to do with individualism/collectivism. A lot of people are worried about a lot of things beyond themselves; most eventually realize it's bad for mental health and grow out of it, some pick a cause or three and act to make things better , and then there's also the lot that signal worry because it makes them look good. Of course this is a process, so especially with younger populations, you ar…

Sure people worry regardless. If it’s not A it’s B. Im talking about societies for example that ignore homeless and poverty, vs societies that have social welfare systems at the expense of high tax rates.

Re: Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

#165

Post by wasmainiac » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 12:36 PM UTC

da_chicken wrote: post #102

wasmainiac wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The truth is all of us treat our fellow humans this way. Nah, I think it is more common of a cultural thing in individualistic societies. I know plenty of people who are worried about the future outlook of others they have never met. For example what phones and social media is doing to our children, or the state of the economy for young people.

I really don't think the collectivist societies are that far ahead. People just invent out groups. India's castes, China's Uyghur's, Japan's castes and treatment of Korea and China, etc. Religious out groups, ethnic out groups, cultural out groups, linguistic out groups, etc. The list is just as long.

This sounds like a big whataboutism, or at least oversimplification. The opposite of individualistic society could be western socialism.

> Religious out groups, ethnic out groups, cultural out groups.

Yeah, unfortunately seen this on all corners of the political spectrum, hidden or not.