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Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

joanwestenberg.com

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Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#91

Post by abdelhousni »

frereubu wrote: post #53
John23832 wrote: post #12

We all know he’s wrong. The problem isn’t that he is wrong, it’s that we have elevated the wealthy into a status where they can be wrong, have no correction, and make decisions whole clothe which negatively affect the rest of us. All while being insulated from their negative world view.

The penultimate sentence of this fantastic 1997 interview with Trump has stayed with me since I read it: "Trump, who had aspired to and achieved the ultimate luxury, an existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul." https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1997/05/19/trump-solo

[flagged]

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#92

Post by tombert »

foobiekr wrote: post #52
John23832 wrote: post #12

We all know he’s wrong. The problem isn’t that he is wrong, it’s that we have elevated the wealthy into a status where they can be wrong, have no correction, and make decisions whole clothe which negatively affect the rest of us. All while being insulated from their negative world view.

The reason he and Musk are anti-introspection is that when they do it, it hurts. Because they are terrible people. Better to just not think about it.

It says a lot that he thinks that empathy is the greatest human weakness.

One of many, many, many stupid things he's said.

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#94

Post by biophysboy »

delichon wrote: post #23

For me too much deep introspection does lead to depression. I am fully capable of diving into my navel, and it turns out to be a deep dark pit. Doing anything productive, or even just fun, is a cure for me. I often read the news, feel miserable about the state of the world, and then go outside and do yardwork, get my body in motion, and very soon feel much better about the world and my place in it. For me introspecti…

Introspection is not doomscrolling though. Being tugged around by short-lived stimuli from a feed is the opposite of deep self-reflection.

In order to go from reading the news to going outside and doing yardwork, you need to have a thought along the lines of "this doesn't feel good - I should do something else". That is introspection.

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#95

Post by jjulius »

wodenokoto wrote: post #31

Is the 1 percenters getting dumber or acting like it? Like 10 years ago, I felt like Andreesen and Elon were thought leaders. Now they sound like idiots. Did I or did they change? Did I grow up and they changed to a younger audience and what I used to enjoy was just a different kind of stupid?

This has always been the case with the massively wealthy. They may be incredibly smart in their specific line of business, which leads them to an enormous amount of wealth and fame. Because our culture likes to lionize success stories, we collectively lean hard into putting people like that on pedestals and giving them more opportunities to speak their minds. Their own egos get inflated as a result, and a feedback loop ensues - they think everything they do is great because, collectively, our culture wants everything they do to be great.

But the simple fact is, nobody's a genius in all areas. We all have our areas of expertise, but none of us can be trusted to speak wisely about all things all the time.

At the same time, as others have said, your BS detector has matured.

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#96

Post by hencq »

Sl1mb0 wrote: post #32
lenerdenator wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that we have made the latter condition an alias for the former. Redefining competence and intelligence as "ability to make money" has done untold damage to American society.

I have a personal belief that this is a result of the "can-do" attitude that pervades not only American society currently; but virtually all of American history. A small group of colonies managed to win a war against what was considered at one point the globe's strongest empire. Throughout the history-narrative of America there is a prevailing sense that the underdog can always overcome their circumstances and win th…

I think there's something to this. And while America has always had this can-do attitude (just look at the number of self help books), it does seem to be in another gear recently. I don't know what caused it, but I think there have been a number of indicators: Trump ignoring Congress and introducing wild tariffs, Musk firing half of Twitter's staff and then later repeating this with DOGE, the quick roll-out of LLMs. There seems to be this prevailing attitude of "we can just do stuff, damn the consequences".

It appears to come with a lot of corruption and anti-intellectualism. Like you say there are also benefits to this. I think the break through of mRNA vaccines was an early indicator. I just hope we can steer this attitude back to a more optimistic world-view instead of the blatant self serving one that is currently prevailing.

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#97

Post by bigyabai »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #38
John23832 wrote: post #12

We all know he’s wrong. The problem isn’t that he is wrong, it’s that we have elevated the wealthy into a status where they can be wrong, have no correction, and make decisions whole clothe which negatively affect the rest of us. All while being insulated from their negative world view.

[flagged]

> Step one is that all of us blue collar technologists need to get organized

So that Apple and Google can discriminate against us as a bloc, instead of individually?

As a programmer I struggle to see how organization would achieve anything. We hold no cards, it's the platform holders who won.

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#98

Post by vrganj »

tombert wrote: post #92
foobiekr wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason he and Musk are anti-introspection is that when they do it, it hurts. Because they are terrible people. Better to just not think about it.

It says a lot that he thinks that empathy is the greatest human weakness. One of many, many, many stupid things he's said.

Not just stupid, sociopathic. Definitionally.

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#99

Post by KaiserPro »

an0malous wrote: post #18

He’s right in that business success is largely correlated with sociopathy, it helps you focus on the goal of maximizing your own wealth without worrying about the messy details of how other human beings are affected. Going back four hundred years, it would have never occurred to anyone that humans shouldn’t be slaves or that the environment will be irrecoverably destroyed if everyone pillages it for their own busines…

> Going back four hundred years, it would have never occurred to anyone that humans shouldn’t be slaves or that the environment will be irrecoverably destroyed if everyone pillages it for their own business needs.

Thats catagorically wrong on both levels.

Common land was regulated and had a ton of bylaws to make sure that people didn't take the piss. There was lots of work done to improve the soil, (leaving fallow, crop rotation, fertilising, etc etc)

As for anti-slavery, there was a whole multi century effort to fight against surfdom.

The Quakers and other more radical religious types condemned it as unchristian,

The secular types also raged against it, thomas paine is most well known now, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Spence was also a key proponent.

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