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What I Didn't Say

paulgraham.com

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Re: What I Didn't Say

#351

Post by coldtea »

mjburgess wrote: post #342
tvladeck wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the linked comment, and some of your other comments on the topic on this thread. You took this into meta meta (yea, 2x) territory. Not the actual issues, not the person who wrote the linked essay (pg), but the people discussing the person discussing the issues. Why would you do that? And furthermore, how can you possibly feel you survive your own critique of "pseudo-intellectuals"? This is you [0] spouting ama…

It's "amateur social science" in the sense that it's an "off-hand comment". I could write a 5k word essay on this very small point and make it respectable, I didnt because HN comment boxes are not vehicles of long essays. If pg's observations were confined to small discussion threads on HN i wouldnt have much issue. But he presented the article I mentioned at Defcon. And his "Essays" section are presented as essays,…

>It's "amateur social science" in the sense that it's an "off-hand comment". I could write a 5k word essay on this very small point and make it respectable

Pics or it didn't happen.

>I didnt because HN comment boxes are not vehicles of long essays. (...) Far too much effort to spend on a crowd whose faith in pg's intellectual status is based on his money-making ability.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backtracking

Re: What I Didn't Say

#352

Post by dinkumthinkum »

I hate that pg even has to make this explanation. It is easy to understand what he meant even in the hit job "interview." I didn't realize how it was constructed. Now it makes a lot of sense. I mean what goal would it serve for pg to misogynistic claims? It defies common sense. I think the "interviewer" represents the worst of journalism, simply trying to peddle controversy where there is none. It is sort of infuriating to me because there actually is misogyny in our hacker culture but this is NOT it.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#353

Post by [deleted] »

mjburgess wrote: post #302
jraines wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pg's writing has made a big impact among a lot of people, the majority of whom don't view him as a cult-like leader or personality at all. It sounds like you disagree with his ideas; what qualifies someone as an intellectual in your book and not a pseudo-intellectual?

"pseudo" was a little strong. But if you have any serious familiarity with his "off-topic" rants, youll see he writes about issues glibly and with a severe lack of information. I dont mind "academic journalism", I do it a lot myself: write on difficult topics for a lay audience and maybe sacrifice a little accurasy a long the way. I think pg likes be seen making points more than he wants further understanding/truth/e…

[deleted]

Re: What I Didn't Say

#354

Post by bluekeybox »

davidp wrote: post #117
crassus wrote: post #10

At the heart of the matter is that witch-burnings are popular (turn into clicks) and that Gawker has a witch quota to keep up. I'm glad to see such a thorough, intelligent reply from PG. He is extremely careful and precise in his language, without coming across as robotic or inhuman. It's impressive. But this kind of thing is going to continue to happen. There is no market for taking an honest man at his word without…

> The talkers have gained power over the doers, and it is wrong. Somehow critics have grown in power to be able to extract punishment and concessions from people actually on the ground. Agreed, although I don't think it's the talkers vs. the doers; it's the talkers' audiences vs. the doers. Here's your "somehow": The lack of critical thinking skills in the general population (not new), combined with the power of inst…

To blame the listeners is one step short of accepting things as they are. In this case, it is most certainly the talkers, since it is they who immediately profit from their deeds. Don't forget that every listener is also a talker (I bet there is a Nietzsche quote about it somewhere).

Re: What I Didn't Say

#355

Post by dinkumthinkum »

mjburgess wrote: post #236
grellas wrote: post #229

A word about credibility. It comes from the Latin word credo , meaning "I trust." Its value exceeds that of money because it marks you as a person - as someone who is respected, who is trustworthy, and whom you would want to count as a friend. It marks you not as perfect but as special. It makes others ponder not so much that they did the last deal with you but that they would want to do the next deal too. Just as we…

Fine, he was mischaracterized and he replied. But jesus, > pg's response is actually priceless: it is like a soft-spoken witness upending a bullying lawyer who had just viciously attacked him, leaving the attacker reeling for all to see. What's with the almost cult-like reverence for this largely pseudo-intellectual entrepreneur?

Honestly, this is a troll comment.

By making the comment you will assuredly elicit the response you expect, imply, but it is not necessarily for the reason you state.

pg was misrepresented and held out as a misogynist. We think highly of pg, why should we not defend what is merely slanderous nonsense?

I'm the first one to disagree with many ideas in our echo chamber ... That's healthy. But the idea that pg said anything wrong is ridiculous.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#356

Post by mjburgess »

coldtea wrote: post #349
mjburgess wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of his achievements as an entrepreneur give him insights into philosophy, political economy or anything else he writes on. I granted him "entrepreneur" status. He can have "compu-sci" intellectual too. You can see my comment here on his pseud-osity: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6988150 to save repeating myself.

> None of his achievements as an entrepreneur give him insights into philosophy, political economy or anything else he writes on. You don't get insights into these by getting a degree from some university on the subject. You get insights into those things by studying them, practical experience, and more importantly thinking. If anything, the most clueless people in those areas I know are tenured professors. And REAL…

> the most clueless people in those areas I know are tenured professors.

Not about the subjects they research. That is the purpose of research.

> are full of scorn for academia in general

All of those people are academics par execellance. I'm not talking about business-ified institutional academica. I'm talking about spending a long time on a topic, researching it and thinking deeply, clearly on it before you offer your opinion as though it were valuable.

> do a SPECIFIC critique of what he wrote somewhere

I have on one of his essays, but I took it seriously to write that critique.

The audience I would be targeting in a critique of the man (via a critique of his under-informed rants) are those who equate money with success and "money-making" with intelligence. I value my time too much to spend the amount required undoing that confusion.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#357

Post by hacker789 »

jsmthrowaway wrote: post #335
gfodor wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the SJW thing is in the most classic sense a meme. it's spread into tech and it's really disappointing. i don't really get it. the only explanation I have is that it offers people the feeling that they are somehow smarter than the rest of the sheep for realizing the effects of "the patriarchy" and "privilege". They have a more enlightened perspective and one which has easy to use go-to rhetorical defenses when called…

> sets you up to be labeled at best ignorant and at worst sexist/racist/intolerant/etc. Indeed. Here's a reply to my comment[1] from yesterday: https://twitter.com/ashedryden/status/417475900850974720 There is no racism, misogyny, or meritocracy worship anywhere in my comment. To be clear, after that comment, a person who has never met me felt the appropriate conclusion was "that guy hates people who aren't white, ha…

I appreciate your posts here on Hacker News. Don't burn yourself out—those bullies aren't going away any time soon.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#358

Post by lcc »

_delirium wrote: post #91
crazygringo wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blind applications would be great if they were possible, but I suspect they would be as helpful as a blind audition for concert conductors -- i.e., not at all. When you evaluate a team, you need to be able to judge their confidence, see how they interact with each other, get a feel for the trustworthiness, the way they look at you when they answer a question, and so on. If you can't see them, and their voice is disto…

That's a plausible hypothesis, but it'd be interesting if someone were willing to test it experimentally. Some evidence for the hypothesis could be found if a "blind" YC batch did much worse than a typical YC batch, measured say 3 or 5 years in the future. Of course, with relatively small sample sizes nothing is likely to be proved beyond doubt, but it'd be interesting to know, and the amount of money needed to test…

Your idea is reminiscent of the Rosenthal-Jacobson study, so it might have some basis in reality :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect#Rosenthal.E2.8...

Re: What I Didn't Say

#359

Post by mjburgess »

coldtea wrote: post #351
mjburgess wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's "amateur social science" in the sense that it's an "off-hand comment". I could write a 5k word essay on this very small point and make it respectable, I didnt because HN comment boxes are not vehicles of long essays. If pg's observations were confined to small discussion threads on HN i wouldnt have much issue. But he presented the article I mentioned at Defcon. And his "Essays" section are presented as essays,…

> It's "amateur social science" in the sense that it's an "off-hand comment". I could write a 5k word essay on this very small point and make it respectable Pics or it didn't happen. > I didnt because HN comment boxes are not vehicles of long essays. (...) Far too much effort to spend on a crowd whose faith in pg's intellectual status is based on his money-making ability. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backtracking

It isnt back tracking when at the time you made the comment you said it was an off-hand comment.

It isnt "backtracking" to criticize a person for one thing while you are doing another. Jon Stewart criticizes news programs whilst his program isnt a very good news program. Fortunately he's in the comedy business.

Equally, my off-hand comment isnt a very good essay but fortunately I didnt post it to an Essays section of a website and then go and read it to a conference audience.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#360

Post by squozzer »

ericabiz wrote: post #32

As a female founder, I think this is a well-thought-out, articulate response, and I appreciate pg stepping up to say something about women in tech. In a similar vein, I'd love to see YC take on one or both of the following: 1) Do at least one application cycle completely blind. How could you accomplish this? Much like in the concert auditions where this was first tried, put people behind a curtain--and then use techn…

the whole notion of blind studies I would love to see implemented not just for tech startup funding, but jury selection, and a few others I'm having trouble imagining at the moment.
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