This is the epitome of Silicon Valley altruism. Everyone’s start up is going to change the world and help out millions of disadvantaged people. But it’s all about money and power, what a farce. At least I now have a solid thing to point towards when people ask why I originally left the Bay Area and why I will always stay away from tech.
"Why should I give you my money?" "Because I'm a nice guy." "I'm a nice guy, too. We're all nice guys." "Yeah but I have codified my niceness." "Great, so you have a code." "Naah dawg I have a whole nonprofit." "You need a nonprofit to be nice?" "fuck no, A16Z needs a nonprofit to be nice." "So I can be nice and dodge taxes? NICE" "Right? Gimme your money."
yeah.. I hate that aspect of EA where donating is the greatest possible good regardless of where the money comes from. Like, in the end the people you're paying to do the cool thing are the ones actually doing the cool thing you're just sitting there feeling smug about it. (Not trying to bash donations as a concept but aaa it just frustrates me) tech's awful, finance is awful, god forbid they combine
So look. Here's the thing. you can't bullshit a smart contract. Something that the normie press hasn't quite figured out is pretty much everything we know about FTX's actions since their balance sheet leaked is due to normies investigating public data on the blockchain. Something the normie press hasn't narrowed in on is that the algorithmic contracts engaged in distributed finance with FTX? got paid. It's an equation, not an agreement, and you can't bullshit it. Done right? Tech and finance combine in a way where the assholes can't fuck it up. Catherine O'Niel, in Weapons of Math Destruction, said that the difference between a good algorithm and a bad algorithm is the good algorithm is (1) transparent (2) trainable. Smart contracts on Ethereum are open. You can't run opaque code. And they cost per execution, so the more efficiently they run the less they cost. DeFi, done properly, replaces "the unholy alliance of tech and finance" with "good algorithms." But we gotta clear all this bullshit out first because it's getting in the way.tech's awful, finance is awful, god forbid they combine
all of this... yes... please. It's so frustrating that the insane gains from crypto haven't been enough for some people... they have to bring in traditional banking/finance fraud and schemes into crypto... because people like me are dumb and don't code - but for crying out loud - I'm tired of the old tricks ruining the news cycles for what could be.But we gotta clear all this bullshit out first because it's getting in the way.
Ah i'm ok with that aspect honestly. Let people feel smug about their donated money, it enables more donations. My hate goes towards those who front that they are altruistic solely as a means to an end. SBF, as further shown by these messages, is a prime example.
fair enough, I'm all for being smug tbh, worded it wrong maybe. just disagree with the very banker / techie idea that donating is better and that really is there any more noble moral good than working for Facebook. (or worse, founding facebook) or I guess put differently- for every oil baron that donates their wealth, a better impact to the world and the better thing to do would be to not have gotten all that dirty money to begin with. it's not robin hood if what you're robbing is the commons. SBF doing it purely for PR like in the article is obviously even worse than both for sure Jeff Bezos just pledged 100%, never thought it was gonna happen, wonder how that plays out
Goddamn poetry, right there. Nailed it. I may steal this and make it my first (and last) Tweet. (Yes, I created a Twitter account to watch it burn to the ground.) And it would be ironically poetic to make my one and only tweet a stolen and unattributed quote... :-) for every oil baron that donates their wealth ... the better thing ... would be to not have gotten all that dirty money to begin with. it's not robin hood if what you're robbing is the commons.