Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What I Didn't Say

paulgraham.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 601 posts

Re: What I Didn't Say

#441

Post by beagle3 »

nashequilibrium wrote: post #161
Crito wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not say that 25+ is old, but I would say that it is slightly older . Slightly older than the people typically interested in a "fratty" culture.

You should read "The fall of Long Term Capital Management by Robert Lowenstein". Fratty culture is not limted to the young or inexperienced. John William Meriwether - born August 10, 1947 Myron Samuel Scholes - born July 1, 1941 Robert Cox Merton - born 31 July 1944

Meriwether apparently deserves all the scorn you can muster, but Merton and Scholes don't according to my recollection of the book (and from people who had actually been there)

Re: What I Didn't Say

#442

Post by MoosePlissken »

mjburgess wrote: post #350
jswinghammer wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing he said is out of line with what a lot of classical liberals were saying throughout the 19th century and they were refining ideas that basically go back to Aristotle. If echoing their thoughts qualifies one to be a pseudo-intellectual then I'm going to guess in horror at what you consider to be genuine intellectual thought.

He isnt "echoing their thoughts" any one who has read Adam Smith systematically would know that the very first few lines of this are explicitly rejected by him. They're childish research-lite versions of a 50s-style classical liberalism. It is much the same as Ayn Rand another amateur philosopher who knew very little on the topics she was writing about. I dislike the "talking head" approach to serious topics. I dont…

You obviously appreciate thoughtful investigation into serious topics, and that's commendable. But I think you're going a bit too far here. I think most people on HN enjoy pg's essays because they tend to be well written and logical. You're annoyed by some of the things he's written/spoken about, but that doesn't mean everyone who likes the guy is a "$-eye'd idiot". You're getting a negative reaction because you've gone totally off topic for the sole purpose of personally attacking people.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#443

Post by sontek »

yawn wrote: post #26

Jakob Kaplan Moss owes PG a public apology for his behavior. The witch hunt tweets that were coming out of him without getting the facts straight are downright disheartening.

At least the most notable woman and YC founder in the django community, Leah Culver, hasn't backed Jacob in any of his witch hunts. I think this says a lot about how the women in his community feel about his actions.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#444

Post by davidp »

bluekeybox wrote: post #354
davidp wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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).

> To blame the listeners is one step short of accepting things as they are.

I disagree:

- If the talkers are the problem, then the solution is... less speech? Muzzling/censorship? I'll pass, thanks. Better to have the frenzied finger-pointers grow hoarse blathering to a crowd that's ignoring them, than to give them the very attention that they crave and that drives their fortunes.

- I didn't mention solutions to the problem because my post was already long enough.

Solutions would involve (at least):

- Persuading people to take their media viewership and loyalty away from the worst offenders (MSNBC, Fox News, etc.). Hit them where it hurts, in the pocketbook. Do this by pointing out the emperor's nakedness. - Persuading people to give their media viewership to sources and outlets that don't pander to them (not quite the opposite of the first point). This gives influence (money) to media voices who, eventually, can credibly call our leaders to task for their race-to-the-bottom mentality. - Improved critical thinking curricula in formal education at all levels.

The above improvements would have gradual second-order effects on civic life, e.g. you might eventually end up with real town hall meetings instead of staged, scripted tripe. It really wouldn't take much overt change to see results -- you don't have to boil the ocean.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#445

Post by dinkumthinkum »

wrongc0ntinent wrote: post #430
dinkumthinkum wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you think, though, if you have such arbitrary biases, it would be better to work on them than hide the problem?

It wouldn't be hiding biases, it would be making them inconsequential. That's pretty much the best you can hope for, once you admit the possibility that there's no such state as bias-free.

So what, you're going to get all the way to the job offer without knowing their name?

Re: What I Didn't Say

#446

Post by sontek »

yawn wrote: post #26

Jakob Kaplan Moss owes PG a public apology for his behavior. The witch hunt tweets that were coming out of him without getting the facts straight are downright disheartening.

I think Jacob's and Alex's criticisms and attacks on other communities/companies would be more relevant and credible if their own Django community would start being more inclusive, I only see one woman committer: https://github.com/django?tab=members

Re: What I Didn't Say

#447

Post by xs_kid »

crassus wrote: post #310
crassus wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm of mixed opinions about him. On the one hand, he's been influential in making Pycon more friendly to women, which I support[1]. On the other hand, he appears to have swallowed the feminist kool-aid without reflection. He has a knee-jerk reaction whenever an alleged case of "sexism" comes up - he is inclined to take the side of the "oppressed" group and facts be damned. He takes a guilty until proven innocent stan…

After reading his tweets, my opinion of Jacob Kaplan Moss is more unmixed. I would never want to work with him on anything, even something as small as a lemonade stand. Keep that SJW BS out of tech and in English departments on the East Coast, where it belongs.

what about the software that he creates? will you stop considering using Django in future projects?

Re: What I Didn't Say

#448

Post by ondiekijunior »

No offense intended but what am seeing are ad hominem attacks at worst and pointless agreements at best over suitability of a fellow hacker, pg in this case, to put things clear on a generally clear topic. We are introducing abstract reasons why he is correct or otherwise. Why don't we take him at face value, cause in general it's isn't good practice to discuss someones intellectual ccompetence unless they are a potential hire in our university start-up

Re: What I Didn't Say

#449

Post by johnbm »

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…

"Your misogyny is visible from space."

So is her hair.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#450

Post by hobs »

jacalata wrote: post #215
throwaway135 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no age limit for YC. Many people in their 30's (some in their 40's) have gone through the program.

There is no age limit for going to college either, but I have seen many people feel reluctant to begin/return to college later in life, for many reasons - they think they won't fit in with other students and hence will miss out on shared experiences, they think it's "too late" to get any use out of the degree by the time they finish, they think other people will think they are slow/stupid for being in college at thei…

I agree that people fear to do something if they think they might fail or have that the something might have a bias against them. However, I would argue YCom graduates are people who do a thing even if THEY ARE TERRIFIED. Being afraid of failure is not a justification for not trying, it is in fact a thing any healthy person has.

The successful among us are the ones who operate even though they are afraid of failure. Otherwise only the people that were born with a perfect hand dealt to them would ever succeed.

Post reply on HN