[HN Gopher] Welcome Home, Garry Tan
___________________________________________________________________
Welcome Home, Garry Tan
Author : todsacerdoti
Score : 584 points
Date : 2022-08-29 13:04 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.ycombinator.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.ycombinator.com)
| richarlidad wrote:
| Welcome back, Garry!
| threefiftyone96 wrote:
| Congratulations, Garry! Huge fan of your work, especially the
| high-value YouTube material.
|
| One question: what does this mean for Initialized Capital?
| Sytex wrote:
| Congrats Garry!
| justinzollars wrote:
| Garry is an awesome individual. Not only a mentor in tech, but a
| community advocate in San Francisco! I'm so happy about this
| news!
| exhaze wrote:
| I think Garry changed my life in 2013 and might be reason why an
| awkward inarticulate engineer got into YC. He believed in my me
| and my cofounder.
|
| To me, Garry is one of the people that embodies the spirit of YC.
| See some kind of potential in early founders (my cofounder called
| this "a twinkle in his eye"). Believe in them. Give them a shot.
|
| Being a founder is SO lonely. Especially when few believe in what
| you're doing.
|
| So happy that Garry's back.
| [deleted]
| cheeko1234 wrote:
| Please revive Posterous!
| swyx wrote:
| could you elaborate what Posterous did well, for those of us
| who never saw it?
| graderjs wrote:
| I liked the ability to cross post to Twitter, Facebook, Plurk
| etc. It was like the one place blog control panel, make a
| post there and spread it out.
| swyx wrote:
| have you tried Buffer for that? any pain points there?
|
| (asking because i have minor pain points but not sure if
| enough)
| panicpanicpanic wrote:
| He did in the form of Posthaven [1] but I'd say please keep it
| updated. The last post on the Posthaven blog is five years
| old.[2]
|
| [1] https://posthaven.com/ [2] https://blog.posthaven.com/read-
| about-how-fly-has-helped-wit...
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| Incredible, a public + private UGC hosting service with no
| service terms or code of conduct (that I could find, even in
| onboarding). That's so brave lol
| nik736 wrote:
| This is good news. Congrats!
| maram wrote:
| "Garry Tan is a moral canary in a coal mine. When people hate on
| Garry Tan, they out themselves as either evil or stupid, because
| in fact Garry is as close to a 100% good guy as you get". --Paul
| Graham https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1460931338131890180
| --------
|
| Congratulations Garry! Your blogs were my inspirations when I was
| running my startup. I always remember this line:
|
| "The ideal startup team involves really two major roles --
| builder, and hustler. I used to say it took three roles
| (designer, engineer, hustler).....In reality, I think designer /
| engineer can be abstracted to builder".
| stakkur wrote:
| I have no strong opinion of Tan, but calling a person who
| happily worked for (and profited from) Palantir a 'moral canary
| in a coal mine' seems a bit of a stretch.
| purple_ferret wrote:
| Yeah but that was before he had the type of money to buy the
| moral high ground
| LewisVerstappen wrote:
| Tan worked at Palantir prior to 2007, so if you're blaming
| him for Palantir's work with ICE then...
|
| > they out themselves as either evil or stupid
| stakkur wrote:
| Based only on your comment, I'm guessing you're unaware of
| Palantir's work with intelligence agencies even when Tan
| was there. Also, Thiel's mission from the start was this
| kind of work.
|
| I served in the Marine Corps. I've had some exposure to
| Palantir's 'offerings'. It's a fucking nightmare of a
| company, morally and ethically, and it always has been.
| systemvoltage wrote:
| I've studied Thiel, he's just not mainstream left. If you
| want to listen to him with good faith, I enjoyed this
| interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM9f0W2KD5s
|
| Doesn't come across evil to me unless by evil you mean
| just not mainstream left, which might be the correct in
| the valley.
| sterlind wrote:
| I tried to watch that interview. It's just dry, boring,
| slow and abstract (to me) but I'll grant you it wasn't
| what I was expecting.
|
| My issue with Thiel is his hypocrisy: he warns about
| surveillance AI and how it's evil, which is just rich,
| since he founded Palantir and holds shares of Clearview.
| systemvoltage wrote:
| Someone asked him directly this question and he addressed
| it in quite a lot of detail, something along the lines of
| two morally good ideas of extreme transparency and
| extreme privacy. I don't agree with him though, I
| personally stand strictly on the conservative/classical-
| liberal side that there is no compromise that's
| acceptable with regards to 4th amendment.
| hellomyguys wrote:
| Peter Thiel's in-house philosopher Curtis Yarvin is a
| monarchist. So yes, I guess you're correct he isn't
| mainstream left...
| chx wrote:
| Not "mainstream left"? I guess the right, what was once
| the far right but today is just the right is indeed not
| "mainstream left". Make no mistake where he stands: he
| was one of the largest donors of Trump, served on his
| transitional team and has once written "I no longer
| believe that freedom and democracy are compatible".
|
| https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-
| thiel/educatio...
| systemvoltage wrote:
| There were hundreds of doners to Donald Trump's 2020
| campaign, let alone 2016 campaign. If not directly, then
| through other superPACS including FAANG companies [1].
|
| https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-
| race/donald-tr...
|
| If your viewpoint is so myopically constrained by a
| single data point, I don't know what to say.
|
| I find intellectuals from all corners of political
| spectrum to be interesting. Usually, when people dismiss
| intellectuals not for their arguments, but by some
| ostensible thinly veiled morality or the media zeitgeist;
| it is already an indicator that something interesting is
| out there. Anyways, all I am saying is that Peter is not
| evil in any stretch of the definition as the media
| portrays him. He is just not your typical conformist
| thinker.
|
| [1] They only paused after Jan 6th, they were happily
| donating to both parties:
| https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-
| corporate-go...
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| you talk about donating to "both sides" however dems are
| also a conservative party and hardly a "leftist"
| organization, your point is not as strong as you make it
| seem
| systemvoltage wrote:
| I am addressing "mainstream left" and honestly, the main
| point of contention is that we should debate about Peter
| Thiel, but calling him evil is wrong and extremely
| misinformed.
| chx wrote:
| It is neither wrong nor is it misinformed.
|
| Do you remember why Thiel invested in Confinity which
| became PayPal? Because he thought a digital wallet could
| lead to "the erosion of the nation-state". If it's not
| self evident to you why that's a bad thing perhaps read
| https://eand.co/how-america-collapsed-and-became-a-
| fourth-wo...
|
| Max Chafkin argues that Thiel "has been responsible for
| creating the ideology that has come to define Silicon
| Valley: that technological progress should be pursued
| relentlessly--with little, if any, regard for potential
| costs or dangers to society." continued with "Palantir,
| his second company, popularized the concept of data
| mining after 9/11 and paved the way for what critics of
| the technology call surveillance capitalism".
|
| And of course there was gawker. No, what gawker did was
| not right but Thiel's reaction was not right either.
| That's some straight up vigilante BS.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| It's fine to want the erosion of the nation-state, but
| Thiel specifically wants to replace it with a monarch,
| not a free society
| blast wrote:
| He does? Where has he said that?
| chx wrote:
| > It's fine to want the erosion of the nation-state,
|
| this is crazy talk. Sorry.
| maram wrote:
| Not to defend Thiel, but don't you think that his exist
| from Facebook (after 17 years) because of the stance they
| took at the beginning of the pandemic is worthy of some
| attention?
|
| Specially, that Facebook suffocated voices of Trump's
| advisors who opposed the lockdown.
|
| "Social media, particularly Twitter, YouTube, and
| Facebook, was actively suffocating voices, including
| mine, that dissented from the accepted COVID narrative.
| By August, Facebook told the Washington Post they had
| taken down seven million posts "for spreading coronavirus
| misinformation." Meanwhile, Wikipedia crafted smears and
| distortions of my background and then locked it to
| edits". --Dr. Scott Atlas, A Plague Upon Our House: My
| Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from
| Destroying America
| [deleted]
| Aeolun wrote:
| I dunno, but Palantir has always been a little bit...
|
| I mean, it's kinda in the name.
| hackernewds wrote:
| Not really
| systemvoltage wrote:
| Being a good guy probably ranks the least IMO for leading VC.
| You need to be extremely shrewd and calculative, have a great
| bullshit detector, need to have solid intuition based on scant
| data, good general knowledge, well versed in various industries
| and areas of study, pragmatic and brutally honest. I am
| probably missing a few more. Speaking generally, nothing
| against Garry.
| devwastaken wrote:
| Do both. There's nothing preventing you from looking at the
| numbers, the pitch, and saying "no." In terms of being
| "good". You can be honest and kind the same as how one can be
| honest and mean.
| preommr wrote:
| > The extreme left in SF politics (which in SF = the
| Establishment).
|
| ???
|
| kind off topic, but I am curious what other people in SF think
| about this statement. I don't live there, but I find it
| surprising and dubious that the extreme anything is also "the
| establishment", not saying it's not possible but seems unlikely
| to me.
| hackernewds wrote:
| ? where do you get this?
| preommr wrote:
| It's from the twitter thread by paul graham that the OC
| linked. It was a response to someone asking who dislikes
| Garry Tan, to which Paul Graham replied:
|
| "The extreme left in SF politics (which in SF = the
| Establishment)"[1]
|
| [1]
| https://twitter.com/stevemushero/status/1461013669114892288
| vxNsr wrote:
| My guess is: the administration controlling North Korea would
| be considered by many to be extreme (left, right, you pick)
| but _in_ North Korea they are the establishment.
|
| So too in SF, outside of cali they would be considered
| extreme (left, right, you pick) but in SF they are the
| establishment.
|
| Not passing judgment on whether that's right or wrong just
| saying that's what that line could mean.
| jmtame wrote:
| Exciting news and big congrats to you Garry!
| throwaway20222 wrote:
| Congrats! Tons of respect.
|
| What is happening to your current VC fund? I may have missed it,
| but who do you hand the reins to?
| cedricd wrote:
| Jen Wolf and Brett Gibson
|
| https://blog.initialized.com/2022/08/jen-wolf-and-brett-gibs...
| balentio wrote:
| While I acknowledge business as a driving force behind tech, I
| think if you want to "change the world" all you really have to do
| is provide solid financial support to open source tech since that
| is where most of the "For profit" inspiration is coming from
| anyway.
| talhof8 wrote:
| Wow, exciting news!
|
| Congrats Garry. Feels like a John Frusciante comeback.
|
| Really hoping to be part of the W23 batch.
| tosh wrote:
| Great person/institution-fit!
| bobbygoodlatte wrote:
| This makes me so optimistic for the future of YC. Congrats Garry!
| sneak wrote:
| > _After earning a degree in computer engineering from Stanford,
| Garry was an engineer at Palantir and then created one of the
| earliest and best-designed blogging platforms, Posterous._
|
| This is a reminder that Palantir is the firm that sells data
| mining software to US police and military organizations that then
| use it to violate human rights.
|
| It should be a black mark on anyone's record.
| Aeolun wrote:
| I don't think it's necessarily his, or Palantirs' fault that
| the US government is evil.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| All states are evil
| dang wrote:
| Please keep generic ideological rhetoric off HN, regardless
| of ideology. It's repetitive and therefore tedious and
| therefore not what this site is for.
|
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&so
| r...
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| colesantiago wrote:
| I agree, but we should also go further:
|
| Employees at Meta{Facebook, Instagram, Oculus, etc}, Twitter,
| Google, Palantir and Uber are all complicit in building systems
| that amplify surveillance capitalism and this goes for any
| other company engaging in this space.
|
| It should be a big black mark on anyone's record working at
| those companies.
| deepspace wrote:
| > It should be a black mark on anyone's record.
|
| Exactly. I have always maintained that a small but significant
| way to put pressure on 'evil' companies, like Palantir, is to
| blacklist any employees who have them on their resume, making
| it difficult for them to attract talent. Unfortunately, I have
| found that very people share that view, and I am hard-pressed
| to figure out why.
| sabotista wrote:
| What are your thoughts on the MOC controversy? How do you plan to
| hold accountable those who called in the Quora ban? Are they even
| still part of Y Combinator? What documents in these matters will
| you release--and for those to be withheld, why?
|
| Thanks for answering, and good luck.
| dang wrote:
| Please don't start this up again here, and please stop creating
| sockpuppet accounts.
|
| We detached this subthread from
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32637821.
| cercatrova wrote:
| What's the context for this for someone not following?
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| "MOC" is an online blowhard with a cult-like following
| sabotista wrote:
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| brianliou91 wrote:
| When I was in YC Garry showed me how to be a founder. After YC
| Garry showed me how to be a more compassionate human to myself
| and others. I'd recommend everyone check out the inner work Garry
| has also achieved beyond his external achievements.
|
| Congrats Garry!
| aglazer wrote:
| Congratulations Garry and thank you Geoff!
|
| Very excited to see the next chapter of growth at YC!
| syrusakbary wrote:
| I'm incredibly happy with this move.
|
| I got to chat with Initialized (Garry was one of the co-founders)
| a while ago and I must mention that I was greatly impressed by
| Garry down-to-earth questions, knowledge, kindness and humility.
| I've been following him since on his Youtube channel... it's a
| gold mine for any entrepreneur out there.
|
| Excited for what lies ahead for YC.
|
| [1]: https://youtube.com/garrytan
| NCC1701DEngage wrote:
| I actually found his channel with the alternative YouTube
| recommendations database I'm working on. He was one of the top
| links off the list for Y Combinator's channel.
|
| The list for his channel includes some likely suspects like
| TechCrunch, Y Combinator, and a16z but also some smaller names
| doing business advice like Section4 and David Perell:
|
| https://channelgalaxy.com/id%3DUCIBgYfDjtWlbJhg--Z4sOgQ/
| todd3834 wrote:
| I didn't understand the title. Is it common to say welcome home
| when someone departs a company? I almost thought maybe he passed
| away and it was a reference to being "in a better place"
| garry wrote:
| I spent 5 years as a partner at Y Combinator previously, left
| to work on Initialized Capital (which is in good hands now with
| incredible early stage investors Jen Wolf and Brett Gibson),
| but now will be returning in the new year to work on the next
| phase of Y Combinator with many of my old friends and
| colleagues.
| todd3834 wrote:
| Thanks for the clarification. Congrats Gary!
| garry wrote:
| Believe it or not, my journey to Y Combinator started similar to
| how you may experience YC -- through being a regular lurker and
| reader on Hacker News.
|
| I went to Startup School, me and my cofounders applied, we got an
| interview, and we got in. I was an engineer, designer and PM. I'd
| built teams and products, but I'd never built a company.
|
| YC gave me a shot, a community, knowhow, and the ability to
| access capital, talent, and customers.
|
| YC changed my life. I want it to help a lot more people achieve
| their dreams and goals. It did for me, beyond my wildest dreams.
| tomrod wrote:
| I look forward to learning more about your journey. I've
| recently launched a company and I am finding the YC Startup
| School content fascinating.
|
| Being from a non-coastal area, my HN engagement has for many
| years been a lurker and general technology trend interest. I'm
| pleasantly surprised how well developed YC content is.
| pauldix wrote:
| Congrats Garry! So well deserved. I feel so lucky to have had
| your help as a group partner when we went through W13 as
| Errplane (hah, good thing we figured out something to pivot
| to).
|
| YC changed my life too and I can't imagine it in better or more
| capable hands.
| rmason wrote:
| Congratulations! While I am going to greatly miss the videos
| you did on YouTube the truth is you are so right for the job.
| Two words of advice for you - be bold.
| HorizonXP wrote:
| Garry, massive congratulations. Been watching your career
| growth for years, and been inspired by your every step. Being
| able to have you as one of my group partners was a blessed
| period in my own career that I'm glad to have had.
|
| Hacker News & YC have changed my life too. HN pulled me out of
| a funk during a Master's thesis that my heart was no longer in,
| and thrust me into the world of startups. Going through YC did
| the same, and put me onto a path of success with my own
| startup.
|
| I'm very excited to see you back at the helm of YC, because I
| know how many others you'll be able to help. I'm excited for
| this future.
| swayvil wrote:
| Me too. I too am inspired by Garry's growth.
| arjungupta-atx wrote:
| Thanks for sharing!
| wrst-alex wrote:
| Just incredible to see you complete the circle here Garry.
|
| I'll be really interested to see the perspective you bring,
| especially when it comes to the human side of the equation of
| founding a startup.
|
| I remember for some time you were looking seriously at mental
| health for teams. Any early thoughts on how you might adjust
| the current sentiment of hustle culture?
| nicholasjbs wrote:
| Congrats, Garry! Well-deserved. Excited for you and for YC.
| corywatilo wrote:
| You gave me my start in 2009 when you let me build Posterous
| themes. That experience introduced me into the world of
| startups, pushed me to become better at code, helped me get my
| start in design, and ultimately changed my life forever.
|
| I can't thank you enough for giving a nobody like me a shot,
| and I can't wait to passively watch as you continue to do this
| for countless others!
| yayitswei wrote:
| Congrats Garry! Will never forget how you helped us design our
| logo during office hours. Took 2 minutes and the result was
| better than anything we came up with that month.
| speby wrote:
| This is pretty fabulous news, Garry. You've been an
| inspiration, from meeting you back in the Posterous days during
| Summer '08 and seeing your contributions and achievements along
| the way since then. Bravo!
| mehuln wrote:
| Congrats Garry! This is wonderful news. Garry was extremely
| generous and helpful to us during our YC days. Cannot thank him
| enough for all his help. This is awesome for YC!
| bradgessler wrote:
| Congrats! Who knew in '08 that you'd be running the joint one
| day?
| tylermenezes wrote:
| I have nothing but positive memories from all the times we met
| in S12. Your genuine excitement for the cool products everyone
| was building was refreshing in a time when all my conversations
| were about customer development and building an org. (Not that
| we didn't also talk about that, of course, but you were always
| the biggest reminder WHY we were here.)
|
| I really think there's no one better for this role, it makes me
| really excited about YC again! Congrats!
| oluomike1 wrote:
| Hearty congratulations Garry, Start-up school was an awesome
| experience with you. Cheers!
| ignoramous wrote:
| Interesting you chose to become a VC given your reservations
| about growth v. sustainability:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5229805 (:
|
| Either ways, good luck!
|
| (btw, love the production quality of your videos on youtube;
| and now, YC-- Dalton, Michael et al-- who do have fantastic
| content, can use a bit of that production magic).
| arcticbull wrote:
| Where better to change things than from the inside?
| Dimidium-07 wrote:
| What are the biggest changes you want to do?
| con wrote:
| Congratulations! Quite the journey since we did YC S08! :D
| billclerico wrote:
| congrats Garry!! you are a founder's founder and will do great
| things at YC.
| qaq wrote:
| Congrats! YC is lucky to have you!
| gaganbiyani wrote:
| Congrats Garry - pretty amazing story!
| hailmac wrote:
| Super impressed by this comment, really shows a lot of
| character and humility from GT. Will be following the next
| chapter with interest.
| purple_ferret wrote:
| Did you cash out of COINBASE yet?
|
| 300k to 2.4 billion WOW
| leetrout wrote:
| That is awesome.
|
| Hope you enjoy the ride!
| math-dev wrote:
| Good luck! May the force be with you
| halfmatthalfcat wrote:
| What advice can you give to solo founders trying to break into
| YC, outside of the normal platitudes? Seems like there is an
| almost impossible bar to meet.
| mritchie712 wrote:
| What's your take on YC batch sizes? YC has gotten criticism for
| making them too big, but it seems totally natural to me to
| scale them up. Do you think they are right-sized now?
| FerociousTimes wrote:
| I like how this is turning fast into sort of a press
| conference minus the audio or video signal.
| fitzrocks wrote:
| I'm very, very excited for this!
| mattmaroon wrote:
| Congrats Garry! You're going to do a great job I am sure.
| Carlee wrote:
| Crazy to see you end up at the top! Excited to have you run the
| programme for all the newcomers!
| soheil wrote:
| I've been following your YT videos and glad you're back at YC.
| You're a total inspiration.
| jaxr wrote:
| Congrats Garry. As an S22 founder and long time follower of
| your content (and also HN lurker) I am excited that you are
| back in YC!
| upupandup wrote:
| jeremymims wrote:
| Congratulations, Garry! YC couldn't have picked a better
| leader.
| dzohrob wrote:
| congrats garry! huge news!
| cdelsolar wrote:
| Congrats Garry!!
| hellomyguys wrote:
| I guess everyone Garry has blocked on Twitter will not be
| applying to YC any time soon :)
| garry wrote:
| Twitter has been a tough one - I got involved in local politics
| which has been a challenge. Large accounts typically do have to
| block a lot to make it usable, and in particular I've had
| problems with folks doxxing my former home address (I had to
| sell that house and move), and making threats of violence
| against me.
|
| I'm sorry if I got it wrong, and I am happy to unblock if I did
| get it wrong.
| sandofsky wrote:
| I'm seeing many people say you've blocked them without ever
| having interacted with you. Many have jumped to the
| conclusion that you simply block people who disagree with
| your politics. I don't tweet about SF politics, but after I
| tweeted this, you replied tell me it's funny but wrong, and
| then blocked me:
| https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1491167231467999236
|
| Which is fine. I block plenty of people. I also mute people,
| because a block carries a message. And if I found myself in
| role that gets considerable scrutiny, I'd probably reevaluate
| my entire approach to social media.
| klintcho wrote:
| There are a bunch of block-tools which are of the kind
| "block everyone that liked this tweet", "block everyone
| that follows this person" etc. Casting that wide of a net
| probably also carries some "false negatives" (which could
| explain the "I'm blocked but never interacted with the
| person).
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| I'm in the blocked club and have no idea why. Here's the
| one tweet I ever sent @garrytan, responding to his reply to
| me: https://twitter.com/nelson/status/1185919273065041925.
| (I'm happy to report that business reopened with new owners
| and the rumor was the old owners just went broke.)
|
| I agree blocking people is fine and should be stigma free.
| But Mr. Tan's framing of his reasons for blocking seems at
| odds with the visible pattern. Fair enough; feel free to
| block me just because you're tired of my bullshit.
| Uhhrrr wrote:
| I'm in the blocked club and have never interacted with
| him!
| mempko wrote:
| I'm blocked by you and have no idea why! Same name on
| twitter.
| glenda wrote:
| The thing is you've also been quite aggressive toward other
| people on twitter. Making yourself out to be a victim is
| definitely en vogue.
| 908087 wrote:
| The fact that you've got countless people who have never
| heard of you blocked, would seem to indicate that you have in
| fact got it wrong.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| I don't see what's wrong about it. They are probably on
| some blocklist of low value reply guys.
| hellomyguys wrote:
| No, I think he blocks anyone who likes a tweet that
| disagrees with him. Not necessarily people who are
| replying to him.
| bot41 wrote:
| so? it's just twitter
| hellomyguys wrote:
| I was just correcting you're incorrect point...
| pain_perdu wrote:
| I am blocked by Garry despite having zero interactions with him
| on Twitter (nor ever tweeting anything controversial). I see
| numerous reports of other people stating the same both in this
| thread and on twitter: https://imgur.com/a/MOPDVSl
| 12_throw_away wrote:
| Besides the "block anyone remotely progressive" approach to
| social media (including industry folks like Anil Dash [1]) - he
| seems extremely uncivil and rude [2]. And Sam Altman has
| explicitly referenced his politics as a reason for this
| decision [3].
|
| This gives me the impression that there's a specific political
| agenda being advanced at YC ...
|
| [1]
| https://twitter.com/anildash/status/1564285359755874304?s=20...
|
| [2]
| https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FH6Y9DCUYAEkV1p?format=png&name=...
|
| [3] https://twitter.com/sama/status/1564256798323851265
|
| _edit_ : deleted a not very clear link about certain
| politically charged individuals.
| 1123581321 wrote:
| Anil can be combative on Twitter. I have respect for him and
| positive interactions under my real name, but I'm not
| surprised he would have gotten into a heated discussion at
| some point with Garry.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| so YC is celebrating having political influence that is
| explicitly pro-cop, hard on crime via punishment, etc.,
| that's lovely
| 12_throw_away wrote:
| So, why the downvotes? We're not allowed to talk about this?
| Vaslo wrote:
| You can talk about it but when most folks in tech are
| fairly to extremely liberal, why is it bad to have
| representation from all sides? The left (which I'm guessing
| you are a part of) preaches diversity. Shouldn't diversity
| also include political views as well as race, class, and
| gender affiliation?
| xmonkee wrote:
| Nope. Look up paradox of tolerance
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| this is their first and only openly politically-active
| hire at this level, with the politics explicitly relevant
| to their hiring, I don't know why you're calling that
| balanced representation unless you mean that it's
| balanced to have right wing leader-owners dominate
| liberals and leftist workers (lol)
| smcl wrote:
| Kinda wondering what his beef with Hamasaki was that
| prompted "Resign you piece of shit". Seems like this was a
| Board of Education person, was he that bad, like poisoning
| the kids school lunches?
|
| edit: sorry I realise that I may asking some stupid
| questions that everyone knows already. But to me Garry Tan
| was just the Posterous guy. I'm just a bit floored to hear
| that there's more to this and I'm trying to find my
| bearings. Seeing the name Andy Ngo is a massive red flag to
| me, but I can't really parse what was being said in the
| tweet.
| shuckles wrote:
| John Hamasaki is a criminal defense attorney in San
| Francisco who was a former member of the police
| commission. He seems to advertise himself by being
| intentionally incendiary, making up lies like the police
| get paid overtime to participate (i.e. walk) in the pride
| parade. There is also a group of people around him who
| amplify his lies. I can imagine people being fed up with
| being the target of his harassment, which I believe Gary
| was.
| smcl wrote:
| This seemed to be about some board of education thing
| though - Garry's tweet features a screenshot saying
| "THANK YOU for donating to our campaign to recall the
| school board..." but it's aimed at the Hamasaki guy.
| shuckles wrote:
| Hamasaki takes sides and works with prolific accounts
| over any salient prog vs. mod local political issue. The
| fact that the topic in the screenshot had to do with the
| BOE recall specifically is pretty irrelevant. He had
| probably been harassing Garry for any local political
| position for months. Unfortunately, Hamasaki also
| recently deleted months of tweets to clean up his image
| for a local election run, so it's hard to find citations.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| Garry pushed a political agenda specifically for a tough
| on crime via punishment approach (in terms of policing
| streets, not so much tough on wage theft or other more
| leading crimes). You make it sound like it was some
| specific tactics that were the issue, rather than that
| the issue he's taking is with an ideologically
| diametrically opposed approach to addressing crime
| shuckles wrote:
| My comment was about Hamasaki being a liar and online
| harasser and doesn't have anything to do with policy
| positions.
| Dma54rhs wrote:
| Because it reads like an extreme left wing talking point
| everyone is tired of. So many commens with the same wording
| makes people wondering if it's not a Russian
| disinformation/division campaign.
| smcl wrote:
| So as an outsider who is literally just trying to piece
| this together, it doesn't seem extreme or left-wing at
| all. Can you explain why this is an extreme left wing
| talking point?
| smcl wrote:
| HOLY SHIT no way this is ridiculous, I just wanted to
| check something that sounded "crazy" and it's true. I
| liked about 5 anti @garrytan replies as a test and I am
| unable to tweet or retweet! What the fuck!!!
|
| Are you serious! Garry I pay for one of your fucking
| services I just wanted to check that these people were
| WRONG not that they were correct. What the hell.
| smcl wrote:
| I can't do shit on Twitter:
|
| https://imgur.com/a/OBnVpUI
|
| Cool! Ok so, confirmed. Garry Tan is a sinister guy. Glad
| I asked here!
|
| Edit: Sorry but how is this downvoted to zero? I have
| done nothing except add five "likes" to Twitter and my
| account is now banned there. This is insane. I was pro-
| or-neutral-Garry at the start of this convo, he was just
| the Posterous guy. Now my Twitter is gone. What the hell?
|
| Edit 2: uhh so how do you get an account back?
| dang wrote:
| (Edit: the GP comment was edited after I wrote this - more
| about that below:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32642696.)
|
| Hardened political rhetoric and seasoned talking points
| aren't on topic here (regardless of which way the political
| vector is pointing). If you check out the site guidelines,
| it should be clear why:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
|
| You don't have to agree with anyone's views but this style
| of argument is deathly to the _curious_ conversation we
| want here. Curious conversation requires, among other
| things, respect across differences--wanting to learn more
| about how someone thinks, and why they think that way, and
| trusting that they have good reasons for all that even if,
| in the end, they 're wrong. And, of course, you and your
| views deserve the same consideration.
|
| If you want to argue against someone's views here (Garry's
| or anyone else's), you'll get much further by making your
| substantive points thoughtfully. We're trying to avoid the
| online callout/shaming culture here, at least to the extent
| possible on the open internet.
|
| The culture of political attack goes very much the other
| way, of course--people save screenshots of the worst things
| they can find, bring them up at every opportunity, and so
| on. Guilt by association is another common tactic. None of
| this helps us really understand each other--any human being
| can be made to look bad that way, so it really doesn't have
| much persuasive power. It does get one's own side riled up
| (in a yay way) and the opposing side riled up (in a boo
| way), but riler-uppers are what we're trying to avoid on
| HN, because they destroy the curious conversation I was
| just talking about.
|
| (I hope it's clear that all of the above should and does
| apply equally to opposing political sides.)
| caslon wrote:
| Out of curiosity, why don't you make "YC churn"
| announcements read-only, like job ads are?
|
| There's not really much curious conversation when they
| happen, and not really a huge chance of it, either. As an
| example, the announcement of sama taking over was a
| hundred and fifty comments of almost exclusively
| "Congratulations!"
|
| They're posts that are almost exclusively doomed, either
| to incurious compliments, insults, or needless pessimism;
| what questions that are asked _usually_ don 't get
| answered, so there wouldn't really be a loss in it
| anyway.
| dang wrote:
| I wouldn't call this a "churn announcement" - it's the
| biggest YC news in years. I guess I can think of a few
| different answers to your question. One is that since
| it's significant new information, it's on topic (job ads
| are the opposite of that). Another is that there's a
| special relationship between YC and the HN community, and
| it's good for the community to have space to discuss
| that. A third is that there is definitely no way that the
| community would support us trying to close such a topic
| to comments.
|
| Also, job ads get placed on the front page by software.
| This submission got on the front page by upvotes like any
| other.
| FerociousTimes wrote:
| It's definitely newsworthy and relevant to the community.
| I support the status quo of non interference (laissez-
| faire) by the mods into publishing status of this news
| story and your reasoning stated in this comment.
| 12_throw_away wrote:
| What is the difference between "shaming" and "referencing
| facts", exactly? I genuinely don't understand the
| distinction. Also, I'm commenting on YC's choice, not
| Garry's views. I understand if YC doesn't want to host
| criticism of its decisions, but you should be upfront
| about it.
|
| I explicit reject this idea that it's unfair to point to
| things people have said, even if they're screenshots.
| Sorry, that's just deciding that you can pick and choose
| data to ignore.
| dang wrote:
| Callout/shaming culture is a stock phrase I use to
| describe the sort of internet culture we don't want here
| [1]. Maybe the word 'shaming' isn't so applicable in this
| case, though I do think shaming is part of why online
| warriors like to preserve the worst internet traces left
| by those they dislike, and copy them into each fresh
| discussion.
|
| Re 'facts': this is a red herring. There are infinitely
| many facts. They don't select themselves; humans do that,
| and they do so for non-factual reasons [2]. As a matter
| of fact, "but it's a fact" is the most beloved defense of
| trolls--not that you mean it that way. (Edit:
| incidentally, I have no idea whether your claims about
| Garry, including the ones you deleted, were facts or not
| - but I'm assuming they are for present purposes because
| it makes the moderation point stronger.)
|
| The problem with your post is that it was obvious online
| agitprop--in fact one couldn't find a more classic case
| (edit: before you edited it--it's less that way now).
| That's off topic on HN, but not because of trying to
| protect YC from criticism (we don't moderate HN that way
| [3] - plenty of people criticize YC here), nor because of
| political disagreement (there's room for a wide range of
| views, as long as people are using the site as
| intended)--but rather because it makes threads more
| predictable and nastier, and therefore more boring. We're
| trying to optimize for something else on HN [4].
|
| Edit: I just noticed that you edited your GP comment to
| take out a couple of extreme guilt-by-association
| references and to add a relevant tweet by sama. Those are
| two steps towards an on-topic sort of political argument
| (good), but if you're going to edit comments after
| they've gotten replies, it's only fair to do so in a way
| that doesn't deprive other posts of their original
| meaning. My description ("hardened political rhetoric and
| seasoned talking points") was accurate about your
| original post and is less so now. In other words, you
| subtly changed the thread to make the moderation look
| less neutral and fair than it originally was. I hope that
| was just an accidental side effect, and that your motive
| for making those edits was a sincere desire to use HN as
| intended.
|
| [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&type=comment&date
| Range=a...
|
| [2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=f
| alse&qu...
|
| [3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=f
| alse&qu...
|
| [4] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=t
| rue&sor...
| [deleted]
| smcl wrote:
| What's the story here, did this happen a lot or something?
| password4321 wrote:
| Many who get into it start blocking lists they get from their
| bubble.
| hellomyguys wrote:
| From my understanding he autoblocks anyone who likes a tweet
| that pushes back on his political takes.
| daniel-cussen wrote:
| Messages just like it are evenly diffused with death
| threats. That's why.
|
| I've gotten death threats, no joke. Hitman showed up at my
| house one time. No joke.
|
| No joke.
| smcl wrote:
| OK so I was waiting for a reply like this that explained
| the accusation. I read this, liked a few @garrytan replies
| that weren't positive and ... it appears I'm now blocked!?
| What the hell!!??
| milkers wrote:
| Congrats Garry, I am happy to see you with that title and I am
| very curious about what is ahead of the YC following your lead.
| Best wishes!
| Rauchg wrote:
| Congrats! Exciting news for YC
| TimCTRL wrote:
| On the light end here, Aproova Mehta once said; "I learn't two
| important lessons, First and foremost, Gary Tan loves his
| beers..haha"
|
| We probably wouldn't have instacart where it is if it weren't for
| Gary. Thanks Gary.
|
| https://youtu.be/wkmR7TYUt_c?t=653
| replwoacause wrote:
| I could be wrong but I think he spells his name Garry, not
| Gary.
| bluelightning2k wrote:
| I've always liked Garry.
| jtemplestein wrote:
| What a great appointment!
|
| I've had one brief interaction with Gary a long time ago, and
| he's been a role model ever since
|
| I had a difference in opinion with my cofounder and wanted to
| leave the startup we'd founded, even if it meant leaving the YC
| program (which I adored), and would likely lose my visa to stay
| in the US. Seeing how distressed I was, Gary took me aside
| somehow simultaneously made me feel heard, but also told me that
| it's up to me to come back stronger from this moment.
|
| It made all the difference to me, and I've thought back to that
| moment many times in the years to come.
| chidog12 wrote:
| Garry, I only have one ask (maybe two)!... Force them all to keep
| making those YC Office Hour videos lol! Even better, whoever your
| editing team is for your channel... add them to the team as well.
|
| All the best!
| extent-connifer wrote:
| (Throwaway because it's a small world)
|
| This is disappointing.
|
| YC needs a fresh perspective. Recycling older members is not a
| positive sign for continued innovation. I wouldn't point to "HODL
| diamond hands" crypto hype (suddenly disappeared..) and personal
| brand-building content creation as the type of leadership YC
| needs at this stage.
|
| Specifically in this, someone who has been running a large VC
| fund for the past half-decade with considerable inside deal
| access through YC. The conflicts of interest are sizable, and we
| can't really pretend that they won't compound now that Garry's at
| the head of YC.
|
| Lastly, to balance flood of positive reviews, there have been
| consistent (if quiet, again, small world) reports of pettiness
| and using power/influence against personal grudges. I have not
| worked with Garry directly, founder friends have and back
| channels are..not same as the public comments here. Everyone has
| weaknesses. This isn't a good one for the position.
| goldenchrome wrote:
| That's pretty funny. A sizable chunk of leaders I've
| encountered left a wake of discontent behind them. And it's
| always in the form of pettiness and grudges. Some people just
| have weak morals. I imagine that's why they chase power for so
| long--to prove that they don't.
| baxtr wrote:
| _> (Throwaway because it's a small world)_
|
| So you don't think they can check your email? Sincere question.
| dang wrote:
| We don't require an email
| oefnak wrote:
| And even if you did, I can't imagine anyone on this site
| having only one email address.
| anotherfounder wrote:
| I didn't realize Garry was so crypto-y. Now as the President
| and CEO of YC where everyone constantly says "Make something
| people want", "Solve a real problem", I'm curious for him to
| chime in to the 'What's a real use-case for crypto?' debate.
| [deleted]
| senttoschool wrote:
| >I wouldn't point to "HODL diamond hands" crypto hype (suddenly
| disappeared..)
|
| This is my biggest worry. I'd have preferred a non-crypto-
| junkie.
|
| This is Gary saying that ETH will go up to $10k soon:
| https://twitter.com/garrytan/status/1402648829732614146
|
| It went to $1k instead.
|
| At times, following Gary on Twitter felt like following a dumb
| crypto bro.
|
| Everyone looks like a genius during a bull market and 0%
| interest rate environment.
| SamReidHughes wrote:
| > This is Gary saying that ETH will go up to $10k soon:
|
| Well actually,
|
| 1. He didn't say it will go up to $10k "soon." That video is
| talking about long-term performance.
|
| 2. ETH is down just 27% since that video, and has moved
| farther up than down.
|
| 3. It's only been a year since the video, which is talking
| about The Merge as one of the factors behind this belief, and
| The Merge hasn't happened yet.
|
| 4. Quote from the video: "It's not really gonna be that
| smooth a ride to $10000."
| senttoschool wrote:
| >1. He didn't say it will go up to $10k "soon." That video
| is talking about long-term performance.
|
| I remember reading his LinkedIn post on this $10k topic. In
| it, I think he said something along the lines of "soon".
|
| But it really doesn't matter. Saying $10k ETH is the same
| as a random crypto bro saying $100k BTC soon. There are no
| fundamentals. Just shilling. Marketing. Ponzi-like
| behavior.
|
| I don't doubt that ETH might go up to $10k eventually,
| given enough time. After all, crypto is basically trading
| with Nasdaq nowadays.
|
| >2. ETH is down just 27% since that video, and has moved
| farther up than down.
|
| Down 40.97%
|
| >3. It's only been a year since the video, which is talking
| about The Merge as one of the factors behind this belief,
| and The Merge hasn't happened yet.
|
| He said the biggest factor is that ETH is deflationary:
| https://youtu.be/jo58qEoThSs?t=381
|
| He suggests that this makes ETH "ultra sound money".
|
| I'm not going to argue for or against this idea.
|
| >4. Quote from the video: "It's not really gonna be that
| smooth a ride to $10000."
|
| Sure. Anyone who's been in crypto long enough knows crypto
| isn't a smooth ride. It doesn't say anything.
| senttoschool wrote:
| Also, if you're reading this Gary, just know that it's ok to
| say you won by investing in Coinbase early but let's not act
| like Coinbase isn't powered by scams.
|
| You don't have to keep shilling crypto just because you
| invested in Coinbase early. You can take the win and not be a
| crypto bro.
|
| You can shill crypto if our lives are improved by it and that
| if crypto disappeared one day, our lives would be worse. But
| not now. It kills your reputation hurts people. Right now, I
| see you as a Matt Damon who knows how to code.
|
| PS. I'm forever grateful for you pushing Boudin out in SF.
| ignoramous wrote:
| > _YC needs a fresh perspective. Recycling older members is not
| a positive sign for continued innovation._
|
| That they _may_ need [0], but I wouldn 't be as dismissive
| about their current crop of partners either, given their
| ridiculous and sustained success.
|
| > _Lastly, to balance flood of positive reviews, there have
| been consistent (if quiet, again, small world) reports of
| pettiness and using power /influence against personal grudges._
|
| I wouldn't know for sure, but there's two sides to every coin:
| _With great power comes great responsibility " / "With great
| power comes the absolute certainity that you will turn into a
| right c*"
|
| [0] In the lieu of other firms doing things differently,
| including ex-YC Daniel Gross' Pioneer.App, BeOnDeck,
| Enterpreneur First, Sequoia Arc, a16z Start, and others._
| cammikebrown wrote:
| I know Garry as "the fellow who I've never interacted with who
| has me blocked on Twitter". Seems I'm not alone!
| Rafuino wrote:
| I almost feel bad he hasn't blocked me on Twitter
| breck wrote:
| I've used a lot of great products from Garry over the years.
|
| My favorite is the software he built that YC alums get to use.
|
| From 2008-2012 we had an email list.
|
| Garry wrote a Rails site (IIRC) in 2012 and that was a clear
| inflection point for YC alums. Total game changer for many of us
| and has provided lots of value over the years. I think it was
| also the starting point for online SUS.
|
| Congrats Garry/YC!
| cinntaile wrote:
| Your profile is outdated now! ;)
| gnicholas wrote:
| Garry took the time to meet with me almost a decade ago, when my
| startup was just a side project and I was still a full-time
| corporate lawyer. I wish I'd been more ready to take his
| excellent advice, which I still remember!
|
| I also remember being surprised that he drove a humble old car,
| perhaps a late-90s Camry? Respect.
| podviaznikov wrote:
| Garry is incredible. I've met him 10 years ago during YC. He
| helped company I worked for a lot. Probably one of the most
| available people from the whole YC - at least it seemed that way
| to me.
|
| Also, I did attend Garry's 30th birthday party. Great memory how
| casual and down to Earth everything was.
|
| Good luck with new/old adventure.
| caslon wrote:
| Now that there's been some regime change, and now that it's been
| a while, can we finally get a report on why YC killed YCR, or at
| least (and most importantly) HARC & VPRI (which had become
| dependent on YCR funding)? And, in these times of VC prosperity,
| could there be another attempt at it, this time with longer-term
| dedications than "Whenever we get bored of the PR from funding
| computational research or there's a momentary lapse in market
| conditions?"
|
| Long-term computing research is one of the _best_ ways to ensure
| YCombinator 's continued growth and avoid dominance from
| companies that are increasingly avoiding the publication of their
| own research (and, divorced from either of those two things, it
| would do a substantial amount of _good_ , which is more important
| to some people but less an immediately-swaying argument to
| capital); it seems absurd how it was sort of thrown to the
| wayside on what seemed to be a whim (judging by when VPRI
| shuttered and the other two stopped seeing activity, possibly by
| the 2017 crypto crash causing YC to momentarily get more
| conservative in its funding).
| bluelightning2k wrote:
| Small thing, but I asked Garry in the comments of his YC videos
| what his production setup was. He took the time to answer and I
| remember & appreciate that.
| s5300 wrote:
| replwoacause wrote:
| Can you elaborate? I'm seeing a lot of positive things said
| about him here so contrarian viewpoints make me genuinely
| curious.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| working to advance surveillance state, pro-cop activism and
| political action, shilling crypto pump and dumps, gig
| economy, etc
|
| good returns for investors on a lot of the above hence the
| interest and respect from business community. simple as that,
| accumulated dollars talk. someone can be a ghoul and a
| charlatan and still be pleasant, friendly, helpful on a
| personal level to many.
| replwoacause wrote:
| Thanks for the info, I'll go read up on him some more to
| see what I can find. If any of this is true, he sounds like
| an odd choice for the CEO of YC.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| He'll fit right in
| s5300 wrote:
| Yes, you're on HN. You're going to be seeing mostly positive
| things said about him from this user base.
|
| As for elaboration - I can only implore you to go look at the
| history of his actions.
| replwoacause wrote:
| I'm aware of the website I'm using. You're also here but
| are saying negative things and declining to provide more
| detail to back your position. I don't have a dog in this
| fight and haven't even heard of Garry until today, but
| since you had such a strong negative opinion of him I
| thought you might be able to tell us why.
| spacesarebetter wrote:
| Are you going to continue with your youtube channel? I hope you
| do, learned so many things from that channel
| garry wrote:
| YES! I absolutely will! youtube.com/garrytan
| swyx wrote:
| love how you plug the URL like a regular up and coming person
| would. congrats garry!
| cheerioty wrote:
| Wow, love it, go Garry!
| fblp wrote:
| This is an impressively casual press release!
| fourstar wrote:
| Congrats, Garry. You told me when I interviewed to have a co-
| founder. I'm happy to report I still can't find a co-founder but
| you were right.
| felixchan wrote:
| Garry Tan has been the most influential figure that I have ever
| had a chance to come across. He appeared right at my critical
| moments of life and death, at the turning points of the tide. I
| am certain to say that without Garry and his helping hand, my
| life would not be what it is today. I consider myself very lucky
| to have met him.
|
| Congratulations, Garry!
| [deleted]
| gitfan86 wrote:
| Congrats! What is going to happen of the next few years with AI
| is going to be mind blowing. The more people you can stear away
| from crypto and towards democratizing AI, the better, IMO.
| rvz wrote:
| > What is going to happen of the next few years with AI is
| going to be mind blowing.
|
| Or where it is headed it more dystopia.
|
| AI has already been democratized to death by the same gate
| keepers creating dystopian deep fakes and training on tons of
| your data on lots of data centers to incinerate and burn up the
| planet with zero efficient alternatives.
|
| The AI game has run its course, with nothing left other than
| the same Tech giants and one hypocritical Open 'faux' AI
| company.
| gitfan86 wrote:
| Crypto bag holder I presume?
| rvz wrote:
| Not quite. But the direct opposite after playing the market
| for fun, but that is totally irrelevant here and for
| another time. Let's not deflect and make this about me.
|
| We need to concern ourselves with AI running its course and
| with wasteful deep learning models constantly training,
| retraining with that burning up the planet via the data
| centers especially with zero efficient alternatives, which
| that is the main concern here and using our data to fuel
| this dystopia.
| dang wrote:
| Please don't cross into personal attack. You can make your
| substantive points without that.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| [deleted]
| EddySchauHai wrote:
| You say to the guy who wrote the first seed check of Coinbase
| gitfan86 wrote:
| Crypto has run it's course, I don't think Gary did anything
| wrong by helping the crypto experiment happen. But YC is
| about the future, not the past.
| EddySchauHai wrote:
| Realistically YC is about maximizing ROI and I would
| happily bet a crypto-related startup will be in Summer '23s
| cohort - they have crazy valuations and liquidity out of
| the gates. Personally I want those startups to showcase
| problems crypto is useful at solving rather than selling
| pickaxes to the gold rush but I'm less sure that that'll
| happen. Certainly the idea that Crypto has ran its course
| is, IMO, premature - people have said that during every
| bear market since the beginning yet overall usage appears
| to be increasing and institutional buy-in again appears to
| be increasing.
| gitfan86 wrote:
| Is it premature to say beanie babies or tulips have run
| their course?
|
| There will continue to be many hardcore fans of tulips
| and crypto regardless of the price, but marketcap
| adjusted for inflation has passed the max
| bluelightning2k wrote:
| As a crypto sceptic I'd still love to have been the person
| who wrote that check
| ignoramous wrote:
| Or worse, Web3 ends up intertwining AI/AGI with it.
| anotherfounder wrote:
| Congrats, Garry! Seems appropriate to start to unblock founders
| on Twitter?
| upupandup wrote:
| thenerdhead wrote:
| Congrats Garry! Huge fan of your work and demeanor.
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