[lp4v4n]

He is just being solipsistic and talking to a small circle of wealthy and well-connected Gen Zs that he probably knows in real life or who are part of his acquaintances. Or do you really think that people with his level of wealth remotely care about real career paths for the average youth?

[epistasis]

I don't know anybody with Hoffman's level of wealth, but I have come across a fair number of people with close to a billion dollars of wealth that now split their time between enjoying time with their own family and then trying to pursue philanthropy and non-profits meant to improve everybody's life in the community.

I run into them because of their attempts to improve the community. And there are those who do it super quietly, give big, and do everything they can to avoid getting credit for it; there's another Silicon Valley Reed that does this in my community. Steve Jobs apparently did this too, big donations but anonymously.

Do not take the blabbering idiots on the All-In podcast as representative of all of Silicon Valley, the old Valley was far different than those people and there are still plenty of people that pursue wealth not for the purposes of their own self-aggrandizement and power.

[pydry]

Ive also run into a few and they were without question some of the biggest assholes I ever met in my life.

I don't think theyre special. Years of being surrounded by yes men and sycophants will probably do that to most people.

One of them in particular was much less toxic and relatable pre-billions.

[zdragnar]

> I don't think theyre special

Where did you get that from the comment you replied to? They merely pointed out you couldn't paint everyone with the same brush, which is pretty much the definition of 'not special'.

[pydry]

I didn't. The point was that that amount of money turns most people into assholes.

Many of them donate money but it doesnt make them any less of an asshole.

[epistasis]

Power, including financial power, reveals who people really are without constraints. President Johnson has to be my favorite example of this, he spent a political career kowtowing to racists, enforcing racism where he needed to in order to acquire power, and then when full power was finally thrust on him by JFK's assassination, he flips and pushes through key legislation from the Civil Rights Movement.

I certainly didn't put forward an idea that having money makes people less of an asshole. Somebody who gives it away in a non-assholish way certainly makes them less of an asshole.

Or is your contention that anybody with money is an asshole, without exception?

[jfil]

I just thought of an interesting thought experiment. Inagine a politician who kowtows to racists and does their bidding for his whole career and then, just before grabbing the presidency, he has a heart attack and dies. How would you see his legacy? What can you say about the essence of this person?

[joquarky]

At the very least, I would question the motive of people who defend billionaires.

[zdragnar]

If we're casting aspersions, I guess based on my personal experiences of people in poverty, lower, middle and upper classes, then

> most people into assholes

might just be a you problem. Get out and meet more people, and if you're still surrounded by assholes, then the real asshole is probably you.

People are people everywhere. Money really doesn't change that as much as you're implying.

[pydry]

you seem weirdly committed to defending the billionaire class.

most people probably do have the capacity to be raging assholes but society doesn't indulge their every whim and prejudice or stroke their ego constantly. so they aren't.

[greenail]

maybe it doesn't turn them into assholes. maybe it just frees them to act naturally.

[blooalien]

The rare few wealthy folk I've met who genuinely try to spend some portion of their wealth to actually improve the world around them are truly doing the right thing. It's their responsibility for the privilege of being allowed to accrue so much more wealth than everyone around them, which would be simply impossible to do without the hard work of the many folk who worked for (and sometimes with) them to achieve that wealth for them in the first place. Giving back a bit in genuinely positive ways to a society that allowed (and helped) their wealth to even happen is just simply the correct "thank you" (no matter how hard they may have worked or sacrificed themselves in the process, as they absolutely did not become that wealthy all by themselves). At least a couple few of the very wealthy folks I've known who "gave back in kind for their good fortune" were genuinely nice (but "wickedly" smart / "sharp as a tack") people who really did deserve their wealth, as they weren't just rich kids in adult bodies like so many of the "personality cult" folks that society so foolishly worship solely because they're rich and "cult-leadery" (and often for no other remotely valid reasons).