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

Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

businesswire.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 85 posts

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#61

Post by samhw »

laingc wrote: post #42
samhw wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your 20 friends are all "massive fans" of a given person, I agree, that's a pretty solid indicator of significant bias. Well, maybe not if that person were the Dalai Lama or something like that, but Thiel is not the Dalai Lama. (Even a regular llama would be strong competition.) I should add that the same would very much apply if all your 20 friends felt the opposite way - that would be closer to the norm, but sti…

> If your 20 friends are all "massive fans" of a given person, I agree, that's a pretty solid indicator of significant bias. I'm glad you agree. Would you say that the tone of your comment reinforces, diminishes, or is neutral with respect to my comment about starting flame wars?

Well, how do you define a 'flame war'? Specifically, what besides the fact that someone is challenging your view?

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#62

Post by ksec »

laingc wrote: post #34
ksec wrote: post #26

Considering Peter Thiel is on the list [1] of most hated person on HN and Silicon Valley, I am kinda surprised this reached front page. Does Peter Thiel still does VC? I thought he left YC and Silicon Valley. [1] Mark Zukerberg, Larry Ellison and Peter Thiel.

I can't speak for Silicon Valley, nor for the majority of HN, but my (obviously biased) sample of approximately 20 HN-reading friends are all massive Thiel fans. Myself included. So perhaps there are more of us than you think, we're just not keen to speak up in the comments section because it just invites a flame war?

>So perhaps there are more of us than you think, we're just not keen to speak up in the comments section

May be. But I certainly know he is extremely unpopular on twitter, HN along with pretty much all mainstream media. You just have to look at some of the comments in this thread ( some of them are filtered as dead )

To the point I think it is extremely courageous to admit you are a big fan of him.

I dont want flame wars. But I certainly want balance of opinions. Whenever something is extremely one-sided I tends to get wary. But then I also understand why replying may start a flamewar. Discussion is hard.

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#63

Post by Mountain_Skies »

mwattsun wrote: post #56
ksec wrote: post #26

Considering Peter Thiel is on the list [1] of most hated person on HN and Silicon Valley, I am kinda surprised this reached front page. Does Peter Thiel still does VC? I thought he left YC and Silicon Valley. [1] Mark Zukerberg, Larry Ellison and Peter Thiel.

I don't hate Peter Thiel but I feel compelled as an American to say I believe that we should find ways to improve our democratic system, not get rid of it. Thiel seems to believe democracy doesn't work and presumably technocrats such as himself would be better running things. Perish the thought.

A rapidly growing opinion on HN that's approaching majority status is that tech titans should be able to tightly control what information people see in order to control their votes because otherwise they will vote incorrectly. This might not be your view, but it is incredibly common here and in the tech sector. Guess it's still technically a democracy if everyone votes after having their information highly curated by the tech industry but it certainly isn't one spiritually.

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#64

Post by ibn-python »

adventured wrote: post #29
ksec wrote: post #26

Considering Peter Thiel is on the list [1] of most hated person on HN and Silicon Valley, I am kinda surprised this reached front page. Does Peter Thiel still does VC? I thought he left YC and Silicon Valley. [1] Mark Zukerberg, Larry Ellison and Peter Thiel.

> Does Peter Thiel still does VC? I thought he left YC and Silicon Valley. They've recently legalized doing venture capital in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Boston and dozens of other cities (including those outside of the US too).

What do you mean legalized? Was it not legal before?

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#65

Post by mwattsun »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #63
mwattsun wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't hate Peter Thiel but I feel compelled as an American to say I believe that we should find ways to improve our democratic system, not get rid of it. Thiel seems to believe democracy doesn't work and presumably technocrats such as himself would be better running things. Perish the thought.

A rapidly growing opinion on HN that's approaching majority status is that tech titans should be able to tightly control what information people see in order to control their votes because otherwise they will vote incorrectly. This might not be your view, but it is incredibly common here and in the tech sector. Guess it's still technically a democracy if everyone votes after having their information highly curated by…

> should be able to tightly control what information people see

You don't say what you mean by this so I don't know how to respond. Some say the tech companies lean left, some say they lean right, but HN is not the place to discuss politics. I will say most of the posts and comments I see are aligned with the hacker's ethos of opposing censorship. Banning Rep. Greene for vaccine misinformation or former President Trump for inciting violence is not censorship.

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#66

Post by lupire »

Kranar wrote: post #49
samhw wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it's called a hypothetical. They're pretty common. They can even be used as thought experiments to bring out interesting aspects of moral questions.

If the person bringing up the hypothetical were remotely as talented as the people on this list and then made a claim that they'd refuse a free $100,000 in order to advance their interests, that would be a worthwhile discussion. Then we can expand on their point of view, what tradeoffs they make, what actual resources or funding they made use of as well as the kind of diligence they performed when accepting money...…

Tens of thousands of FAMANGA employees get $100K+ per year above and beyond a great income, which they can use for whatever they care about. A $100K fellowship gift isn't so different.

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#67

Post by bsder »

narrator wrote: post #30

Quoted post unavailable.

When I see someone funding a 40 year old and providing indemnification, I'll believe that they have a hope of doing anything in the biomedical space.

Biomedical is NOT stuck for innovation or execution. It is stuck on indemnifcation.

For example, one doctor developed an asthma sensor for his daughter that would automatically let the school nurse know, let him know, and call 911 for an ambulance if the attack was bad enough. It works really well. Nobody will touch it with a 10 foot pole because when it doesn't work and somebody's child dies, there is an inevitable lawsuit incoming.

This is where biomedical is stuck--not engineering.

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#68

Post by laingc »

samhw wrote: post #61
laingc wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your 20 friends are all "massive fans" of a given person, I agree, that's a pretty solid indicator of significant bias. I'm glad you agree. Would you say that the tone of your comment reinforces, diminishes, or is neutral with respect to my comment about starting flame wars?

Well, how do you define a 'flame war'? Specifically, what besides the fact that someone is challenging your view?

Which of my views are you challenging?

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#69

Post by JohnTHaller »

finite_jest wrote: post #31
JohnTHaller wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only certain folks think of the climate as a '"progressive" view'

Not really. It is certainly an issue which progressives put more weight on. And there is a disagreement on the solutions too: progressives are generally apprehensive about nuclear. [1] You can personally attack me with any one of the "certain" labels in the arsenal. But you can also choose to argue in good faith. [1]: e.g. https://www.greenamerica.org/fight-dirty-energy/amazon-build...

This has changed in the last few years: https://ecoamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/nuclear-su...

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#70

Post by JohnTHaller »

samhw wrote: post #47
finite_jest wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. It is certainly an issue which progressives put more weight on. And there is a disagreement on the solutions too: progressives are generally apprehensive about nuclear. [1] You can personally attack me with any one of the "certain" labels in the arsenal. But you can also choose to argue in good faith. [1]: e.g. https://www.greenamerica.org/fight-dirty-energy/amazon-build...

> And there is a disagreement on the solutions too: progressives are generally apprehensive about nuclear. Yeah, this is one of the things I really hate about my side of the aisle. It's stupid, unscientific, and just plain uninformed. Nuclear energy is one of our best, most actually viable ways out of this mess. (File with: GMO crops, 'chemicals', etc.)

I replied to parent. Democrats now poll around 60% in favor of nuclear energy while Republicans poll at 64% in favor. It changed a lot in a few years.
Post reply on HN