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by ur-whale 2289 days ago
Catmull reminds me of Fritz Haber [1] in that he both invented amazingly useful tech. while being an absolutely horrible human being.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber

2 comments

Fritz Haber is such a tragic character. Saved the world from hunger by inventing the process for ammonium fertilizer, helped to kill thousands by being a central figure in building up German chemical weapons for WWI, tried to extract gold from seawater to pay Germany's WWI debt but of course failed. He was a huge patriot, but being a Jew, he had to go on exile to England, where he died.
A nod to the graciousness of England, not just for accepting him as a refugee, but for those former military enemies and chemical warfare competitors, who actively helped him by offering a position at Cambridge:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber#Death

Are you comparing chemical-warfare to wage-fixing?
Probably the systematic sexual harassment he enabled at Pixar is the thing being compared to.

Dude’s a shithead in more ways than one.