Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now • Hacker News Board

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#361

Post by metadat » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 8:40 PM UTC

reducesuffering wrote: post #221

belligeront wrote: post #15

Amazing that just a month ago he tweeted[1]: "It's remarkable how many people who've never run any kind of company think they know how to run a tech company better than someone who's run Tesla and SpaceX.". It's been fascinating watching so many VC types ignore so many red flags just because some of Elon's early actions validated their priors (e.g. tech companies are bloated and need to layoff staff). [1] https://twi…

And then immediately blocks anyone criticizing his asinine take: https://twitter.com/fennecsound/status/1592855964474298368 Called this a month ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33659020 "The emperors have no clothes"

Another well-known notable over-eager divergent opinion blocker is Garry Tan [0].

This is the first time I've seen the finger of accusation point to Paul Graham for excessively blocking. Is it possible the @fennecsound account participated in previous harassment and the target doesn't wish to endure more low-quality interactions?

My expectation is: HN folks, being generally sensitive souls, would have spoken up vocally on this site if it were a common ocurrence. I couldn't find any such prior accusations on algolia or web search.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32639125

Edit: Thanks for the reality check replies! Perhaps story submissions and discussions on this matter get flagged and die at a high rate.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#362

Post by jacquesm » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 8:40 PM UTC

insanitybit wrote: post #176

wpietri wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure. Given that Musk was fired from [deleted, see note 1] and PayPal, you'd think they might have had more questions. But people look at failure much more carefully than they look at success. I think the next wave of interesting questions is around the extent to which Musk contributed the apparent successes, SpaceX and Tesla. We won't know for a long time, as a lot of the people in the know have a strong incenti…

Musk is a celebrity. Celebrities start successful companies all the time. Is Rihanna a brilliant business woman for starting a successful beauty line? Is she a business genius , which is what Musk gets labeled so often? Maybe she really is, but I don't see her get that label, I think her value add is very clearly "she is famous, people will buy shit that she puts her name on". What they have in common is that they ha…

Fame is like a flywheel with a feedback loop. Once famous everything you do makes you more famous, even bad stuff.

Hence celebrities getting married and divorced every three weeks, it keeps them in the news.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#363

Post by mjmsmith » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 8:40 PM UTC

consumer451 wrote: post #223

DiNovi wrote: post #18

Paul is an out of touch reactionary billionaire. when you’ve lost your own, maybe it’s time to acknowledge you don’t know what you’re doing

> Paul is an out of touch reactionary billionaire My theory is that humans are just not evolved for billionaire levels of wealth disparity. It's not a criticism, it just appears to be a fact. Honest question: are there any "in touch" billionaires? Maybe Mark Cuban in some ways for example?

MacKenzie Scott.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#364

Post by brightball » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 8:40 PM UTC

It’s pretty common for platforms to combat promotion of competitor platforms on their sites.

I’m a member on the Clemson Rivals.com site and they regularly combat promoting competing sites. Have for years.

10 years ago I work for an audio equipment trading site and competitor sites constantly tried to use our own systems to promote their sites to our users.

IMO this behavior is fairly common and expected.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#365

Post by jerlam » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 8:41 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #210

sdiacom wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting how VCs suddenly seem to believe "tech companies are bloated and need to layoff staff", now that they can't just show up at a bank and get literal buckloads of other people's money with no justification or due diligence, but were all in on "tech startups must continually grow at any cost" just a few months ago. Once again, society will be left holding the rich sociopaths' bags and dealing with the ex…

I think the way Twitter is faring is actually proof to the contrary, you can't lay off half your staff and expect the machine to just keep chugging along. You either design it from day #1 to be run with a very tight crew or it becomes a much larger machine with a different kind of profile. Compare Instagram with Twitter.

Counterpoint: Netflix, which did a lot of layoffs in the 2000s and as the story goes, redesigned their entire HR process around 'lean'.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#366

Post by dnissley » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 8:41 PM UTC

talkingtab wrote: post #348

dnissley wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I disagree with someone, I do not necessarily think they're stupid. That's a needlessly polarizing mindset.

When I think someone is stupid, I don't necessarily disagree with them. That's a needlessly polarizing mindset.

Also true! Stopped clocks, etc.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#367

Post by the_cat_kittles » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 8:41 PM UTC

wwweston wrote: post #243

threeseed wrote: post #21

There’s an old adage about never meeting your heroes that applies well to PG. Some of his daily takes were so embarrassing and insipid that it was hard to maintain respect. It’s funny because his long form posts which are often insightful were likely reviewed/edited by a third person. A concept he has actually said only exists in the modern commercial publishing era.

It's very hard to be smart all the time, and you don't have to be stupid to be wrong.

what you have to do is correctly assess yourself, which is impossibly rare among people who made a bunch money

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#368

Post by red_trumpet » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 8:41 PM UTC

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #256

There are a lot of things that happened where I could see both sides of the debate. As usual, a lot of outrage on Tweeter was more about the reflex of it than something really meaningful, the Tweeter files were underwhelming and I didn't find anything in the new Twitter that I thought was completely bonkers. But this ban on link is, indeed, in my book, a bad move. And it will also make me reevaluate the past Tweeter…

Are you talking about Paul Graham or Elon Musk?

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#369

Post by mef » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 8:42 PM UTC

thepasswordis wrote: post #328

Here's the problem: https://mas.to/@paulg/109536476979036192 I can see that he's replying to somebody, but can't actually see the conversation (presumably because there is some problem with the servers all trying to talk to each other to reassemble it?) This is terrible.

entire conversation shows up fine for me. i have no mastodon account nor am i logged in.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#370

Post by agrippanux » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 8:42 PM UTC

sdiacom wrote: post #142

belligeront wrote: post #15

Amazing that just a month ago he tweeted[1]: "It's remarkable how many people who've never run any kind of company think they know how to run a tech company better than someone who's run Tesla and SpaceX.". It's been fascinating watching so many VC types ignore so many red flags just because some of Elon's early actions validated their priors (e.g. tech companies are bloated and need to layoff staff). [1] https://twi…

It's interesting how VCs suddenly seem to believe "tech companies are bloated and need to layoff staff", now that they can't just show up at a bank and get literal buckloads of other people's money with no justification or due diligence, but were all in on "tech startups must continually grow at any cost" just a few months ago. Once again, society will be left holding the rich sociopaths' bags and dealing with the ex…

I think we can be honest and admit many large tech companies are bloated and can lay off staff - with the proper planning and care. Taking an axe to an org you just took over is typically not associated with proper planning and care.