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Reflections on Palantir

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Re: Reflections on Palantir

#201

Post by bdjsiqoocwk »

samatman wrote: post #193
ak_111 wrote: post #173

Note that Palantir's moral stature isn't as grey or debatable as made in the article, it is basically clearly complicit in the genocide in Gaza. In other words, if you read the article I would add one more bucket to the three categories the author provided to classify palantir's work - genocide assistance. from https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-jd-vance-peter-thiel-f... """ Not only did it provide information to…

[flagged]

> Defeating Hamas is a moral imperative.

In that case what do you call the Netanyahu governament strategy of propping up Hamas?

https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up...

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#202

Post by mistermann »

itsoktocry wrote: post #133
ngcazz wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should stop defending an imperialist establishment which relies on the rampant exploitation of the global south and is committing genocide and calling it rules-based order. More like America rules. The containment rhetoric/logic is long past its use-by date - the US's pretense as guardians of a common moral high ground was shattered at the very latest with the Vietnam War, and in 2024 it is an absolute tragedy of…

> You gotta think this rules-based order is designed to drive anyone decent crazy. All complaints, no solutions. Typical. So who does have the moral high-ground around the globe? It's unbelievable to me how many people think it'd be all peace and harmony if the US disappeared. I can imagine much worse, just by reading a history book.

> It's unbelievable to me how many people think it'd be all peace and harmony if the US disappeared. I can imagine much worse, just by reading a history book.

What is the relevance of this to the content of the comment you are replying to?

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#203

Post by avmich »

asdasdsddd wrote: post #190

I worked there in the weird era. A couple things. 1. As per usual, the things that make palantir well known not even close to being the most dubious things. 2. I agree that the rank and file of palantir is no different from typical sv talent. 3. The services -> product transition was cool, I didn't weigh it as much as should've, but I did purchase fomo insurance after they ipo'd 4. The shadow hierarchy was so bad, it…

It would also be interesting to hear thoughts on the company of somebody like Cory Doctorow.

Edit: aha, found. https://doctorow.medium.com/how-palantir-will-steal-the-nhs-...

"Palantir is one of the most sinister companies on the global stage, a company whose pitch is to sell humans rights abuses as a service. The customers for this turnkey service include America’s most corrupt police departments, who use Palantir’s products to monitor protest movements.

Palantir’s clients also include the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency who rely on Palantir’s products for their ethnic cleansing..."

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#204

Post by gen220 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #78
Taikonerd wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they have 80% margin, according to the article... so those engineers are generating a lot of revenue per capita.

> they have 80% margin, according to the article I have a pet theory about private equity: they're in the business of laundering boring jobs for college graduates. Few kids dream of graduating college to work at a chemicals plant in Baton Rouge. But working for Accenture in New York or Atlanta, now that's sexy. Even if you spend your entire work week *checks notes* working at a chemicals plant in Baton Rouge. (Invest…

I like the pet theory!

just quibbling on profitability. it's not ostensibly 80%, it's 80%. gross margin != "net profit" != cash flow positive, thanks to GAAP.

Compare the margins (gross, operating, net) here [0]. Observe the historical changes in cash on hand (i.e. cash flow) here [1].

They have been accruing cash-on-hand on a YoY basis since 2021Q4.

80% gross margins on 2.5B TTM revenue is really impressive.

For comparisons, Cloudflare sits around 77% (on 1.5B TTM Revenue), Salesforce around 75% (36.5B TTM revenue), Datadog around 80% (2.4B TTM revenue).

It does remain to be seen on whether they can translate that into meaningful operating margin over time. But they're well on their way [1]

[0]: https://macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/PLTR/palantir-technolo...

[1]: https://macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/PLTR/palantir-technolo...

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#205

Post by mega_dean »

stackskipton wrote: post #55
orochimaaru wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does AT&T and Verizon which would fall in the morally neutral category. Even big tech - Google/meta are probably classified as morally neutral but in reality gray areas. The US government probably has access to all that data - with our without warrants. I also agree with his premise. There is really no gray area working for defense tech in the US. In my opinion people have a rather lopsided view of that. You would…

>You would rarely find any other nation that where defense tech companies are turned away from job fairs. Kinda ridiculous. Probably because US MIC is weird political place. On one hand, it's turns out really cool tech and US needs defense. On other hand, who are we defending from and why are spending all this money on world police when we have a ton of internal problems? Throw in some pork barrel in there to add to…

> On other hand, who are we defending from and why are spending all this money on world police when we have a ton of internal problems?

Reminds me of this scene in Wag the Dog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwgPnYVg74Y

"The war of the future is nuclear terrorism. It is, and it will be against a small group of dissidents who, unbeknownst to perhaps their own governments, have blah blah blah blah blah. And to go to that war, you have to be prepared."

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#206

Post by bdjsiqoocwk »

renegade-otter wrote: post #84

Palantir is neck-deep in Ukraine: https://time.com/6293398/palantir-future-of-warfare-ukraine/ From what I understand, their software is also responsible for deep-strike drone path planning, avoiding air defenses through Russian terrain.

I'd be curious to understand what speciality they have that they can do drone path planning better...?

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#207

Post by sleepybrett »

newprint wrote: post #2

Can someone explain to me what is the Palantir's business model ? I haven't heard any large, meaningful project they been involved in, but I keep hearing the company name & how hot they are and their stocks are going to blow-up any day (some of my friends kept their stocks for the last 4-5 years with very little gain compared to other software companies). I know of the smaller software companies that are less than 10…

your own private digital cia, for hire to the highest bidder.

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#208

Post by slibhb »

ak_111 wrote: post #173

Note that Palantir's moral stature isn't as grey or debatable as made in the article, it is basically clearly complicit in the genocide in Gaza. In other words, if you read the article I would add one more bucket to the three categories the author provided to classify palantir's work - genocide assistance. from https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-jd-vance-peter-thiel-f... """ Not only did it provide information to…

> Note that Palantir's moral stature isn't as grey or debatable as made in the article, it is basically clearly complicit in the genocide in Gaza.

That there's a genocide in Gaza is objectively debatable. In the sense that people debate it.

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#209

Post by slibhb »

bdjsiqoocwk wrote: post #201
samatman wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Defeating Hamas is a moral imperative. In that case what do you call the Netanyahu governament strategy of propping up Hamas? https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up...

A mistake? The Israelis didn't understand the extent to which Hamas views itself as engaged in a holy war. They (and many others, including me) thought that Hamas would prioritize building Gaza and providing services to its people over murder/kidnapping raids.

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#210

Post by mperham »

hammock wrote: post #17
danudey wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC part of it is that the software itself can make connections between separate data sets. You're not just ingesting data about purchasing information and drug convictions and so on, you're getting automatic relationship detection. For example, figuring out that the cust_ss_num field in one dataset correlates to the conv_ssn_full field in another dataset, and knowing that those fields are the "SSN" field from a thi…

That makes sense and sounds really useful

Building a panopticon is always justified as a way to fight crime and then becomes a way to control the population. Tracking women getting Plan B, tracking people buying birth control, etc.
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