Silicon Valley's Ideas Mocked Over Penchant for Favoring Young Entrepreneurs with 'Agency' (harpers.org) 47
In a 9,000-word expose, a writer for Harper's visited San Francisco's young entrepreneurs in September to mockingly profile "tech's new generation and the end of thinking."
There's Cluely founder Roy Lee. ("His grand contribution to the world was a piece of software that told people what to do.") And the Rationalist movement's Scott Alexander, who "would probably have a very easy time starting a suicide cult..." Alexander's relationship with the AI industry is a strange one. "In theory, we think they're potentially destroying the world and are evil and we hate them," he told me. In practice, though, the entire industry is essentially an outgrowth of his blog's comment section... "Many of them were specifically thinking, I don't trust anybody else with superintelligence, so I'm going to create it and do it well." Somehow, a movement that believes AI is incredibly dangerous and needs to be pursued carefully ended up generating a breakneck artificial arms race.
There's a fascinating story about teenaged founder Eric Zhu (who only recently turned 18): Clients wanted to take calls during work hours, so he would speak to them from his school bathroom. "I convinced my counselor that I had prostate issues... I would buy hall passes from drug dealers to get out of class, to have business meetings." Soon he was taking Zoom calls with a U.S. senator to discuss tech regulation... Next, he built his own venture-capital fund, managing $20 million. At one point cops raided the bathroom looking for drug dealers while Eric was busy talking with an investor. Eventually, the school got sick of Eric's misuse of the facilities and kicked him out. He moved to San Francisco.
Eric made all of this sound incredibly easy. You hang out in some Discord servers, make a few connections with the right people; next thing you know, you're a millionaire... Eric didn't think there was anything particularly special about himself. Why did he, unlike any of his classmates, start a $20 million VC fund? "I think I was just bored. Honestly, I was really bored." Did he think anyone could do what he did? "Yeah, I think anyone genuinely can."
The article concludes Silicon Valley's investors are rewarding young people with "agency". Although "As far as I could tell, being a highly agentic individual had less to do with actually doing things and more to do with constantly chasing attention online." Like X.com user Donald Boat, who successfully baited Sam Altman into buying him a gaming PC in "a brutally simplified miniature of the entire VC economy." (After which "People were giving him stuff for no reason except that Altman had already done it, and they didn't want to be left out of the trend.") Shortly before I arrived at the Cheesecake Factory, [Donald Boat] texted to let me know that he'd been drinking all day, so when I met him I thought he was irretrievably wasted. In fact, it turned out, he was just like that all the time... He seemed to have a constant roster of projects on the go. He'd sent me occasional photos of his exploits. He went down to L.A. to see Oasis and ended up in a poker game with a group of weapons manufacturers. "I made a bunch of jokes about sending all their poker money to China," he said, "and they were not pleased...."
"I don't use that computer and I think video games are a waste of time. I spent all the money I made from going viral on Oasis tickets." As far as he was concerned, the fact that tech people were tripping over themselves to take part in his stunt just confirmed his generally low impression of them. "They have too much money and nothing going on..." Ever since his big viral moment, he'd been suddenly inundated with messages from startup drones who'd decided that his clout might be useful to them. One had offered to fly him out to the French Riviera.
The author's conclusion? "It did not seem like a good idea to me that some of the richest people in the world were no longer rewarding people for having any particular skills, but simply for having agency."
There's Cluely founder Roy Lee. ("His grand contribution to the world was a piece of software that told people what to do.") And the Rationalist movement's Scott Alexander, who "would probably have a very easy time starting a suicide cult..." Alexander's relationship with the AI industry is a strange one. "In theory, we think they're potentially destroying the world and are evil and we hate them," he told me. In practice, though, the entire industry is essentially an outgrowth of his blog's comment section... "Many of them were specifically thinking, I don't trust anybody else with superintelligence, so I'm going to create it and do it well." Somehow, a movement that believes AI is incredibly dangerous and needs to be pursued carefully ended up generating a breakneck artificial arms race.
There's a fascinating story about teenaged founder Eric Zhu (who only recently turned 18): Clients wanted to take calls during work hours, so he would speak to them from his school bathroom. "I convinced my counselor that I had prostate issues... I would buy hall passes from drug dealers to get out of class, to have business meetings." Soon he was taking Zoom calls with a U.S. senator to discuss tech regulation... Next, he built his own venture-capital fund, managing $20 million. At one point cops raided the bathroom looking for drug dealers while Eric was busy talking with an investor. Eventually, the school got sick of Eric's misuse of the facilities and kicked him out. He moved to San Francisco.
Eric made all of this sound incredibly easy. You hang out in some Discord servers, make a few connections with the right people; next thing you know, you're a millionaire... Eric didn't think there was anything particularly special about himself. Why did he, unlike any of his classmates, start a $20 million VC fund? "I think I was just bored. Honestly, I was really bored." Did he think anyone could do what he did? "Yeah, I think anyone genuinely can."
The article concludes Silicon Valley's investors are rewarding young people with "agency". Although "As far as I could tell, being a highly agentic individual had less to do with actually doing things and more to do with constantly chasing attention online." Like X.com user Donald Boat, who successfully baited Sam Altman into buying him a gaming PC in "a brutally simplified miniature of the entire VC economy." (After which "People were giving him stuff for no reason except that Altman had already done it, and they didn't want to be left out of the trend.") Shortly before I arrived at the Cheesecake Factory, [Donald Boat] texted to let me know that he'd been drinking all day, so when I met him I thought he was irretrievably wasted. In fact, it turned out, he was just like that all the time... He seemed to have a constant roster of projects on the go. He'd sent me occasional photos of his exploits. He went down to L.A. to see Oasis and ended up in a poker game with a group of weapons manufacturers. "I made a bunch of jokes about sending all their poker money to China," he said, "and they were not pleased...."
"I don't use that computer and I think video games are a waste of time. I spent all the money I made from going viral on Oasis tickets." As far as he was concerned, the fact that tech people were tripping over themselves to take part in his stunt just confirmed his generally low impression of them. "They have too much money and nothing going on..." Ever since his big viral moment, he'd been suddenly inundated with messages from startup drones who'd decided that his clout might be useful to them. One had offered to fly him out to the French Riviera.
The author's conclusion? "It did not seem like a good idea to me that some of the richest people in the world were no longer rewarding people for having any particular skills, but simply for having agency."
Reinforcement (Score:3, Insightful)
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Psychopaths training psychopaths. Grift is the growth industry of the 21st century.
I had really thought we were headed to an advertising only economy, but it seems like we were just using advertising as a stepping stone to a completely grift based economy. And if you ain't asshole enough to want to ride the grift wave, you just don't deserve to participate.
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Re: ICE (Score:1)
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Huh? (Score:2)
Some Harper's weekly writer who never ran a lemonade stand, let alone founded a company trying to say people with a successful track record have no idea what they're doing?
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes and he is absolutely correct on the matter.
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Some Harper's weekly writer who never ran a lemonade stand, let alone founded a company trying to say people with a successful track record have no idea what they're doing?
Ya gotta admit, the modern Silicon Vally Young Entrepreneurs could be the same people that otherwise would be a Youtube influencer, doing open mouth reaction videos. And just as knowledgeable.
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Most of the, yeah. But Jobs and Wozniak were such.
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Most of the, yeah. But Jobs and Wozniak were such.
...45 years ago.
This is now.
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Most of the, yeah. But Jobs and Wozniak were such.
...45 years ago.
This is now.
This. a million times this. And I'll note that Jobs was what is known as a Pattern Weaver. https://katheryngreenleaf.subs... [substack.com].
I know because I'm officially a Pattern weaver. Those who know how to use my often infuriating talent profit greatly. As I've told people in here, I'm called an asshole most every day. 8^) Like I don't know.
Back to the discussion at hand, these people who are considered the new shakers and movers because they "have agency" without actual ability will crash and burn rather quickly
We're now at the token high school dropout phase (Score:5, Insightful)
That's the final step before the bubble pops, just like in the dotcom era.
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Just because you and some of your acquaintances were lucky doesn't mean everyone was.
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I would love to shed a tear over you story, you fucking sad sack. But you're making it hard by making it sound imaginary.
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I wasn't - others were, though. My turn came in 2008. You insensitive clod.
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That's the final step before the bubble pops, just like in the dotcom era.
it's going to pop. So now Day Drinkers and clueless High school dolts that hang out in the boys lavatory are the path forward?
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Introducing SPACEDEFENSEAICOIN (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Introducing SPACEDEFENSEAICOIN (Score:5, Funny)
Now where's my $20 million dollars in venture capital? BTW I'm 3 and my co-founder hasn't been conceived yet.
Your mom and I are trying though. She's a great lady.
Underpants Gnomes in real life (Score:5, Insightful)
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Step 1: Find a young entrepreneur with agency. Step 2: .... Step 3: Profit!!!! Except they are purposely leaving out step 2, which is: Pump 20 million in startup cash into the company with the goal of goading other rich VCs into pumping it up as well. Get the company up to 1 billion and then you sell out your shares. Step 3 is now complete. All you had to do is be the first one and then convince everyone else to follow suit.
It's an old story, yet we keep doing it. This modern AI entrepreneur thing is level 1000 weird. Heroes like a guy who is on track to destroy his liver and die in a few years, and a High School kid who's office is the boys room at school.
Maybe some of the disgraced Youtube influencers might find themselves the newest Silicon Valley AI ubermeisters? https://www.demilked.com/famou... [demilked.com]
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It used to be:
VCs have just figured out how to securitize the hoopties and avoid being around in the end.
Apparently "agency" means ... (Score:2)
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Rich people are stupid too. And they get Con'ed (Score:3)
This is no surprise. The real thing is there are unmentioned elements of:
1) First to use an idea - no matter how stupid it is.
2) Pure good luck plus the absence of bad luck.
These two things matter a lot more in life than Americans admit it (Russia totally knows about the luck thing - they think it is more important than competence or hard work). America has a myth that average intelligence plus hard work makes you money - refusing to admit that luck plays as much a part of it. Hard work without good luck leaves you tired and middle class. Hard work with bad luck leaves you tired, broke, and sick. You try getting rich if you are born a black woman with drug dealer parents and childhood cancer.
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Re:Rich people are stupid too. And they get Con'ed (Score:2)
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Or I want to clarify what I said for those that are challenged by the word pure. (I added the second part of that sentence after it was written to clarify it for fools).
As expected (Score:2)
Some investors are gamblers and fortune tellers, trying to predict an increasingly unpredictable future. They bet on long shots, knowing that most will fail. In some cases, they bet on really, really stupid ideas. This is unfortunately and really wasteful, but it seems to be the way that some think. It reminds me of poor people playing the lottery
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" It reminds me of poor people playing the lottery"
But they're not poor people; they're rich people who have every advantage in selecting investments but just don't use them.
Sam Altman has never produced a successful product in his life, so is bleeding him more or less wasteful than leaving the money with him?
Tax these fuckers (Score:2, Insightful)