[HN Gopher] Walter Isaacson: My So-Called Writing Life (2014)
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       Walter Isaacson: My So-Called Writing Life (2014)
        
       Author : nsoonhui
       Score  : 24 points
       Date   : 2024-12-31 08:42 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (lehnews.wordpress.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (lehnews.wordpress.com)
        
       | IncreasePosts wrote:
       | (2014), and Walter is on the left in the first picture, not the
       | right as credited!
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Ah good catch. Year added above. Thanks!
        
       | dostick wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
         | timewizard wrote:
         | > puff piece biography played into image of renaissance man and
         | helped to elect him as shadow cardinal.
         | 
         | I doubt that Isaacson was an important part of this strategy.
         | People with the kind of money Musk has will lionize themselves
         | and use whoever is convenient to achieve that. They're also
         | capable of buying themselves into politics without even having
         | to perform this step and you can be sure that Musk isn't the
         | only one, just the most public of them.
         | 
         | > Man without empathy who turned to be a personality disorder
         | level manipulator.
         | 
         | He clearly has empathy or he would not be particularly good at
         | manipulation.
         | 
         | > And how corrupted with power and money it may destroy the
         | planet and all of us and have no remorse doing that.
         | 
         | The typical Hacker News hyperbole may feel good to participate
         | in but it only obscures the actual truth. Our current set of
         | political challenges extend far beyond Musk and into much more
         | powerful and well armed people. This is all a bizarre tech bro
         | side show.
        
           | tredre3 wrote:
           | > He clearly has empathy or he would not be particularly good
           | at manipulation.
           | 
           | Understanding what empathy is, enough to use it against
           | others, doesn't prove that he can _feel_ it himself.
           | 
           | I think that, by default, we should assume that he's not a
           | sociopath because most people aren't. But your argument
           | against it is duly unconvincing.
        
             | aspenmayer wrote:
             | > Understanding what empathy is, enough to use it against
             | others, doesn't prove that he can feel it himself.
             | 
             | One could also experience empathy and simply not care, or
             | could even care but proceed in a self-interested manner all
             | the same, which could be described as psychopathic as
             | opposed to sociopathic.
        
             | timewizard wrote:
             | The definition of empathy is pretty narrow:
             | 
             | "Empathy is generally described as the ability to take on
             | another person's perspective, to understand, feel, and
             | possibly share and respond to their experience."
             | 
             | Understanding is required, sharing is not, and in
             | particular, simply sharing in someones emotional state does
             | not imply that your goal is to improve the outcome for the
             | other person. It may actually be to deepen it to take
             | advantage of it.
             | 
             | Empathy does not imply any system of values or
             | consciousness, although, I recognize it is often casually
             | meant that way, that was not the definition I was using.
        
         | ZeroGravitas wrote:
         | Ironic given his memo to CNN journalist selling them to not be
         | mouthpieces for the Taliban and ensure that any reporting of
         | death and destruction was "balanced".
         | 
         | > "I want to make sure we're not used as a propaganda
         | platform," Isaacson said in an interview yesterday.
         | 
         | > "We're entering a period in which there's a lot more
         | reporting and video from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan," he
         | said. "You want to make sure people understand that when they
         | see civilian suffering there, it's in the context of a
         | terrorist attack that caused enormous suffering in the United
         | States."
         | 
         | https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2001/10/31/...
        
         | comboy wrote:
         | Did you actually read the book? And his other biographies? If
         | yes then please explain what in your opinion makes it a puff
         | piece.
        
       | baxtr wrote:
       | I wish he was more like Robert Caro. But then he could have
       | probably just written 2 biographies.
        
       | gone35 wrote:
       | "How will writers (or anyone else who creates anything that can
       | be digitized, from movies to music to apps to journalism) make a
       | living in an era in which digital content can be freely
       | replicated?"
        
         | aspenmayer wrote:
         | Probably relevant:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Work_of_Art_in_the_Age_of_...
        
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