[HN Gopher] Humane (Or Red Flags to Spot for Next Time)
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Humane (Or Red Flags to Spot for Next Time)
Author : mantia
Score : 20 points
Date : 2025-02-20 12:24 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (lmnt.me)
(TXT) w3m dump (lmnt.me)
| mantia wrote:
| I'm a little surprised along this entire journey, no one reported
| that Imran Chaudhri paid to have a Wikipedia article written
| about him and his many patents to bolster his reputation years
| before Humane became relevant.
| handfuloflight wrote:
| What level of corruption do you think is involved in "paying"
| for a Wikipedia article?
| pedalpete wrote:
| Is it corruption? Or just narcissism?
| mantia wrote:
| Right. It's not "corrupt" to have done it.
|
| Is there a difference between an article you paid someone
| to write about you and one that was written without your
| involvement? Yes. There is.
|
| Would this article have existed at all had he not paid for
| it? Possible, but doubtful.
|
| Wikipedia is not editorial journalism, it is an
| encyclopedia. His inclusion in said encyclopedia was paid
| sponsorship. An ad. Wikipedia's policies don't require it
| to be said on the page itself, which is a shame, because
| knowing whether the subject of an article paid for it to
| exist does change the reader's perception of the article.
| It absolutely does.
| samr71 wrote:
| I still don't understand - what was HP paying $110M for??
| ziml77 wrote:
| Probably just to say they have this AI thing that everyone is
| talking about now.
| tdeck wrote:
| In case anyone hasn't seen the Onion video:
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9ntPxdWAWq8
|
| HP Offers 'That Cloud Thing Everyone Is Talking About'
| readthenotes1 wrote:
| I am wondering who has the patent on "don't add a space after
| auto correcting" and why they are being so stingy about not
| letting people implement it
| pedalpete wrote:
| I disagree with the premise that these are the "red flags" that
| should be avoided.
|
| -Claiming credibility through patents -Manufacturing hype before
| manufacturing products -Pitching products via a TED talk -Having
| no plan for inevitable electronic waste
|
| These are definitely red flags, but how often do we see this sort
| of thing. -Paying editors to create Wikipedia articles about you
| -Pivoting the product to AI, even before shipping
|
| What the author misses is that you need to sell a product, and
| pre-product, you need to sell that YOU are the person to do it.
|
| That is why Imran promotes his patents, or people talk about
| their PhD, etc. Nobody would have believed what he was saying
| without those patents. Ok, maybe if he was a Stanford drop-out,
| but if neither of those things..... ;)
|
| How do we differentiate "manufacturing hype" vs "promoting a
| vision"? Though, when it came down to it, the vision was a vision
| of smoke, but we can't suggest to founders that we don't "promote
| a vision". Otherwise, what are employees, investors, and future
| customers buying into?
|
| TED is becoming such a cliche, but I think this comment is
| suggesting not marketing, which is what TED is. A marketing
| channel, which (used to) provide a level of credibility.
|
| Who says Humane didn't have a plan for electronic waste? They
| didn't talk about it, and maybe they should have. We're building
| hardware, and though we probably won't promote how we deal with
| electronic waste, we may talk about how we've focused on making
| our product easily refurbishable and environmentally friendly,
| but I doubt many people are going to even care. Do you see how
| many people use take away coffee cups EVERYDAY!!!
|
| In the end, I don't think Humane really matters at all. The only
| people who got hurt where the VCs, and by the look of the buy-
| out, just barely. I'm assuming they were paying top dollar for
| talent in the Bay Area, and those people won't get any return on
| their equity, but that could have happened at any start-up where
| they may not have been paid as well.
|
| The public doesn't care about Humane. The only reason it is being
| mentioned at all is because they were able to build some
| publicity.
| mantia wrote:
| "Nobody would have believed what he was saying without those
| patents."
|
| Exactly. He used his patents from Apple to convince people of
| his supposed credibility or notability in order to get people
| to believe he was good at this. But that's not what patents
| are. They're so companies can use their employees'
| contributions as legal arsenal. They do not signal competency
| or skill.
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(page generated 2025-02-20 23:02 UTC)