Musk has gone completely mask off, and many in VC land have followed.
It's one thing to think the "woke" went too far or argue over some fringe issues.. its another to think any of the above statements are acceptable, make nazi salutes on stage (and then troll tweet about it), etc.
I think the absolute least one could expect from notionally respectable businesses is to not invite people currently staging coups against the US to their shitty promo days.
With Elon being such a politically contentious figure, I'm surprised the organisers are expecting his name to be anything but trouble by June. Then again, if his actions up till now haven't gotten him shunned yet, maybe nothing will.
I'll disagree on this one. The goal here is to pair capital with talent (either via employment or funding), and almost nobody has deployed more capital into AI than Satya.
One thing I always loved at YC was that it always felt like the aspirational version of what the tech industry could be. As big tech became the "bad guys", YC has continued to forge the inspirational path... quietly helping the builders and the makers.
Inviting Elon Musk, who is a Nazi sympathizer currently trying to take down the American government, really sucks.
I didn't necessarily say public good or public progress.
There's two ways capitalism can go: it's either the ability for anyone to build and create something from nothing, or a small group of people amassing a large portion of the power and wealth.
Unfortunately, we see mostly the latter. But YC has always felt like the former to me... if capitalism is going to exist, it's wonderful that anyone can participate. And yes, YC has made billions with this strategy and it's not a charity. But that's what makes it special – they've found a way to make money by enabling and supporting hard working people.
That being said, YC does give back. They invests in and help non-profits (https://www.ycombinator.com/nonprofits/). I did contract work for their first non-profit, Watsi, and YC was incredibly active in helping them (with no hope of any profit in return).
And finally, to answer your question about actors for good: pg and jessica are brilliant people who genuinely care. As are most, if not all, of the YC partners.
I mean, I kinda get the YC point of view. How do you not invite the most powerful person in the country's history? Everyone appears to be afraid, and mostly rightly so. I guess that's just how it works now.
Integrity is the only long term defense against tyrants. Giving in kills your ability to think honestly (and like a chicken without a head these people can walk around thinking "they like Nietzsche" etc. but Nietzsche never knew them and never will, so to speak), you lose yourself and gain no physical security. You gain the company of other empty vessels.
And that's why fascism doesn't work in any sense worth caring about, IMO. It's built on the impotence and personality disorders of individuals, who seek to gain power over others as a result, and the ability to exploit and coerce masses with violence and lies. It's a parasite that destroys itself along with the host. Just look at the people most staunchly for it. They're all trash. They've always been, historically, and currently. Call that a personal attack I call it not pretending 2+2=5. There's plenty of scholarly ways to say the same thing, but it won't change the thing.
You see a rich turtle on its back in the desert. It cannot even cook its own meals. It seems nasty, and like quite the bore. Do you walk on, taking a sip from your jug, or do you wear it on your head and ask it where to go and what to do, for no reason at all?
Why not indeed? Why not also invite Curtis Yarvin and Steve Bannon? Have some nice talks about how AI can implement oligarchic fascism and further the cause of white supremacy? (Sorry, I mean "eliminate the woke mind virus.")
This tacit endorsement by YCombinator of the likes of Elon Musk and Sam Altman must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Like Sam Altman's abrupt Face-Heel turn from staunch and eloquent Trump critic into gushing bootlicker [0], it is a shocking wakeup call that Silicon Valley monied interests either lack principles entirely, or else adhere to principles fundamentally at odds with liberal democracy [1].
I found myself hesitating to post this, here on news.ycombinator.com. This forum has always discouraged "politics". But in the final analysis, you cannot separate politics from everything else. The suffering and death that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are currently in the process of expediting[2] is no less real for being "political". And if criticizing YCombinator for endorsing - or at least turning a blind eye to - this death and suffering, is considered "off topic", then this will be my last comment on this platform.
> Like Sam Altman's abrupt Face-Heel turn from staunch and eloquent Trump critic into gushing bootlicker [0],
Didn't the OpenAI drama (and the other stories about Altman that came out of that) already make it clear he is not a trustworthy person?
> it is a shocking wakeup call that Silicon Valley monied interests either lack principles entirely, or else adhere to principles fundamentally at odds with liberal democracy [1].
I'd take it farther: it's testament to a fundamental terribleness of computer geeks. I remember when people would say we'd make better leaders (and we'd say things like that to ourselves). It turns out our kind is way worse.
In fairness, most of these Trump lickers are not "computer geeks." They're venture capitalists and businessmen working in tech who pretend to be geeks.
> In fairness, most of these Trump lickers are not "computer geeks." They're venture capitalists and businessmen working in tech who pretend to be geeks.
elon has a bunch of young newbs working for him at the treasury department. script kiddies. one of them already resigned because of all his racist tweets[1]. another tweeted something recently asking "are there any LLMs made specifically for parsing things like documents/forms/PDfs/json/html/excel/etc and converting them from one format to another" [2]
Musk has shown he has a real lack of business acumen about most things. He ran Twitter into the ground and is doing the same with Tesla. I have no interest in what he has to say. That of course is leaving aside everything else going on.
Y Combinator is really showing an incredible lack of judgement in even thinking this was a good idea. SV bubble I guess?
This is the guy who said things like:
“You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.”
“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.”
“Normalize Indian hate.”
“I just want a eugenic immigration policy, is that too much to ask.”
Why is YC normalizing what looks a whole lot like neo-nazism with a smug grin?