[HN Gopher] I DM'd a Korean presidential candidate and ended up ...
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I DM'd a Korean presidential candidate and ended up building his
core campaign
Author : wjsdj2009
Score : 165 points
Date : 2025-11-26 13:40 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (medium.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (medium.com)
| tt_dev wrote:
| Soon to be a Netflix series
| wjsdj2009 wrote:
| I'm deeply honored. Thank you.
| b3lvedere wrote:
| Thas was quite fun to read.
|
| Thank you for sharing this short time of your (development) life,
| including all the reasons and logic on why and how.
| wjsdj2009 wrote:
| Thank you so much for reading it. I'm really glad you enjoyed
| it.
| robertkoss wrote:
| That was a great read!
| wjsdj2009 wrote:
| Thanks a lot! Glad you enjoyed it!
| joncrane wrote:
| I thought this was a fascinating story. Also cool to see the
| technical details like AWS in there.
| wjsdj2009 wrote:
| Thanks a lot! Glad you enjoyed it :)
| devsda wrote:
| Its an interesting read for sure.
|
| With those little takeaways in between like talking to users
| first to understand their requirements, building an mvp and
| shipping it as early as possible I was half expecting the article
| ending with the kind of startup lessons/wisdom you typically see
| here on HN.
|
| But I'm really glad it wasnt. Not everything has to have a grand
| lesson or takeaway. I enjoyed reading your once in a lifetime
| experience.
| wjsdj2009 wrote:
| Thanks for reading! I wanted to tell the story as it happened,
| rather than turning it into a set of principles or advice.
|
| Happy to hear you enjoyed the ride :)
| jezzamon wrote:
| Enjoyed reading this! Nice job in throwing together something
| polished in such a short time
| wjsdj2009 wrote:
| Thank you! It was chaotic but fun to build something real under
| that time pressure.
|
| Glad you enjoyed the read!
| roetlich wrote:
| Interesting! The article talks mostly about how this all worked,
| but rarely about what was actually discussed. Which opinions of
| the party do you like or support?
| wjsdj2009 wrote:
| Thanks for the question!
|
| I'd prefer not to dive into policy positions here -- the main
| focus of my post was the product-building process and what it
| was like to work behind the scenes.
| rafram wrote:
| You write:
|
| > I want to see what it would look like if someone like this
| had more power and responsibility.
|
| You were attracted to his campaign because of his policy
| positions, which most people see as dangerous and offensive.
| Jotra7 wrote:
| He won't answer this because he knows it's abhorrent...
| rPlayer6554 wrote:
| Thanks for sharing! Really admire your bravery and trying new
| things.
| wjsdj2009 wrote:
| Thank you so much! I really appreciate it.
| cm2012 wrote:
| Neat. I have volunteered for political campaigns in the US
| before, but didnt find it rewarding.
| skybrian wrote:
| Here is the politician's Wikipedia page:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Jun-seok
| skybrian wrote:
| These parts jumped out:
|
| > He has been noted for his staunch antifeminism and support
| from South Korean idaenam (young men).
|
| ...
|
| > He became popular in the 20s and 30s due to his opposing
| stance against political correctness such as "faux feminism,"
| introducing reforms supporting meritocracy rather than outright
| equality of outcome.
|
| I know only a little about Korean politics, enough to know that
| it's very dramatic with wild stuff happening, but not really to
| understand it. From the outside, the politics around feminism
| there seems rather strange.
|
| > Lee was an early proponent of the finger pinching conspiracy
| theory, a claim alleging hidden radical feminist messaging in
| advertisements
|
| Speaking of strange.
|
| > Lee's advocacy of merit-based processes such as exam scores,
| credentials, and measurable qualifications has been viewed by
| supporters as aligning with younger voters' expectations of
| fair competition.
|
| I suppose all the political content was left out of the linked
| article, but it would be nice to have more context.
|
| Also, looks like he's at least somewhat technical:
|
| > After graduating from Harvard University in 2007, Lee
| returned to Korea to perform military duties working as a
| software developer (alternative military service as industrial
| technical personnel) at 'Innotive', an image browsing software
| startup, a subsidiary of Nexon.
|
| > After completing his national service, Lee prepared to start
| his own venture. He received funding from the venture startup
| program backed by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on 5 August
| 2011 and founded Classe Studio: an ed-tech startup that
| developed personalized tutoring software and workplace training
| applications.
| ricardobeat wrote:
| Whoa, that was an actual thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
| /Finger_pinching_conspiracy_the...
|
| Weird diseases of a chronically online generation.
| boodleboodle wrote:
| This politician is basically a Korean knockoff of Charlie Kirk.
|
| In his 40s, touring the country "debating" college kids.
| Selling middle-school level economic arguments that appeal to
| online community addicts.
|
| Basically a spokesman for the "I tell it like it is" crowd.
| Loughla wrote:
| When did it become cool for full grown adults to start
| dunking on college kids?
|
| What is that about? Why do they generally always target
| college kids for that kind of thing instead of, hell I don't
| know, nursing homes or construction sites?
| vkou wrote:
| The first rule of politics is that you don't want to get
| into fights with people who can beat you.
|
| The second rule of it is that the right questions (have you
| stopped beating your wife?) can always be spun to make your
| opponent look like a complete idiot. Always control the
| framing of a situation.
|
| The third rule of politics is that while intelligent people
| can see through charades #1 and #2, and if they aren't your
| target demographic, you don't need to give a shit about
| what they think.
| fragmede wrote:
| which comes to the fourth rule of politics under
| democracy, which is that dumb, wrong, ignorant people
| each have one vote as well.
| dmurray wrote:
| Colleges are full of debating societies, chapters of
| political parties, and budding social activists.
| Politicians just go where there's an audience.
| mothballed wrote:
| Colleges are [often] public property unlike all the rest
| of what they mentioned.
|
| If you go with your own microphone you can shout out and
| shut down the competition and game your own youtube
| clips, while the competition can't trespass you from the
| property.
|
| It's really the ultimate cheap shot.
|
| You basically have to be a moron to debate someone like
| Charlie Kirk in the first place because the game is
| rigged; he has the table, the microphone, the editing,
| the security and if you object to the rules there's
| nothing you can do but walk away. The moment you get the
| upper hand he can simply kill the mic, stop recording,
| and move on to the next guy and all the meanwhile
| claiming he's doing it on neutral terrain.
| amflare wrote:
| It's not like anyone is forcing the students to
| participate. If someone of voting age wants to engage
| someone on policy positions, then they accept the
| consequences. Likewise, if someone wants to engage with
| voters, then a college campus is a perfectly legitimate
| location.
| lacoolj wrote:
| > ... and to find out whether things like this happen in other
| countries as well.
|
| I didn't DM anyone, and I didn't run the campaign, but there
| happened to be the John Edwards campaign HQ near me so I walked
| inside and said I could help do their IT, next day I was a full-
| on volunteer.
|
| They took me to Charleston for a rally (which was cool cuz I
| never been) and even got me a jacket with my name and the
| campaign logo on it. Was pretty nifty at the time.
|
| Few months later they hired me and sent me to New Hampshire for
| the primary.
|
| Wasn't long after that that we were no longer in the running, but
| was great experience.
|
| Highly recommend more young people attempt cold walk-
| ins/calls/DMs like this article mentions.
| euroderf wrote:
| Seconded. Political campaigns are fun. And if you're not sure
| it's for you, start by volunteering for a local campaign.
| 0x1ch wrote:
| I can't wait to volunteer after my 8AM-5PM job at a non-paid
| position, IN POLITICS!
| euroderf wrote:
| That's just one of many good arguments for shortening the
| standard work week.
| 0x1ch wrote:
| Yeah, I can get behind that. I'm a young guy but in the
| blink of an eye, I'll be in my 50s if I keep working this
| schedule...
| overfeed wrote:
| If only there was a way to get legislation to change in a
| way that resonates with your beliefs.
| pegasus wrote:
| Then it's not for you. Doesn't mean only unemployed people
| find something like this not just desirable, but actually
| rewarding.
| robocat wrote:
| From what I could find, working in a presidential campaign
| is mostly volunteer-based and pretty much full-time.
| It sounded fun and like an incredible experience, but I was
| already working full-time and didn't have that kind of
| availability. So I politely declined.
|
| - JP Jeon (Jeon Jeong-pyo)
| spelk wrote:
| Political campaign staff often keep hours way past what a
| volunteer with a 9-5 job has. It's a terrible life,
| terrible profession but it still draws in people that are
| willing to find meaning in being a workaholic and seen as
| "politically savvy".
| wjsdj2009 wrote:
| Thanks for sharing -- that sounds like an amazing experience.
|
| It's interesting how similar opportunities can happen in
| totally different places.
|
| Glad it turned into something meaningful for you.
| jimbob45 wrote:
| For anyone out of the loop, Edwards was caught in an infidelity
| scandal and his candidacy collapsed. OP didn't do such a bad
| job with IT that the campaign failed lol
| devsda wrote:
| > OP didn't do such a bad job with IT that the campaign
| failed lol
|
| Some non-tech people tend to think of IT folks as jack of all
| trades with the ability to fix their faulty printer all the
| way to hacking email accounts for fun/profit.
|
| I'm sure few of them would have believed that their IT team
| could have prevented the scandal by some fast & serious
| typing on the keyboard a.k.a hacking for regular folks :)
| fsckboy wrote:
| infidelity, paternity, staffer scandal
| jimbob45 wrote:
| Yeah, I undersold it. Cheating on your wife is one thing.
| Worse if she has cancer. Worse if you deny it. Worse if you
| try to fake the DNA test and pretend the baby isn't yours.
| Worse if you used campaign funds to cover it up. His career
| is definitely over.
| varnaud wrote:
| I don't like that particular presidential candidate but this was
| an interesting read. Thanks for the insight into the details of a
| campaign like this. I like your writing style.
| wjsdj2009 wrote:
| I'm glad the story itself was enjoyable regardless of political
| alignment.
|
| Thank you.
| jon9544hn wrote:
| Man that's a dope experience for sure! Congrats!
| guizadillas wrote:
| Great technical work, horrible candidate
| agentifysh wrote:
| the technical part was interesting but im not sure this is a
| candidate I'd want to be associated with publicly....i guess
| most English speakers just see "oh cool a candidate in a
| country i have parasocial relationship with through consumer
| pop culture" and not the horrific ugly side of Korean politics
| and some of its candidates, Lee in particular.
| mellosouls wrote:
| Congrats OP, good story. Don't let any kneejerk negative
| responses from those who don't like his worldview get you down.
| creakingstairs wrote:
| People are knee-jerking at "anti-feminism" part of Lee which I
| admit would look pretty off-putting to anyone who is not familiar
| with what's going in South Korea.
|
| "Feminism" in Korea has taken on a different meaning sadly. I've
| commented in HN before at how abhorrent women's right has been in
| Korea, especially up to my mother's generation. It really has
| drastically improved last 20 years. However, many young men feel
| like the pendulum has swung too much to the other direction.
| Society still expects men to do "manly things" (mandatory army
| service, physical labour etc) but girls around their age get
| policy benefits instead. I'm not going to into whether this
| feeling is justified or not. But wanted to point out most don't
| want women's right to regress to their mom's generation. They
| just want to feel like they are treated equally in society.
| pstuart wrote:
| Reminds me of this gem: "when you're accustomed to privilege,
| equality feels like oppression"
| pessimizer wrote:
| It really reads as exactly the evil victim mentality of the
| people wildly overrepresented at the top that we get in the US.
| The military service thing is obviously a real issue, though,
| but I don't know why that wouldn't be solved by forcing women
| into mandatory public service in the same way a man with a
| disability would be. Is it just that Korea doesn't have the
| social services to absorb the manpower?
|
| Military service is also a _benefit_ that women don 't get,
| too. They don't get to make the connections in the military
| that would help them along in their careers.
|
| > They just want to feel like they are treated equally in
| society.
|
| Shouldn't you wait until your country is half run by women
| before claiming oppression? Until your boss and CEO are as
| likely to be women as men? I feel like this stuff it bought
| into by marginal men who are oppressed by other men of a higher
| class, and average women catch all the flack because they're
| simultaneously accessible and denying marginal men what they
| want on a daily basis. They don't see upper-class men as
| enemies because they don't ever see upper-class men; when they
| hear about upper-class cruelty, they fantasize about the
| revenge they would take if they were in power, especially on
| the women who say no.
|
| In Korea, the anger about conscription just gives them a semi-
| legitimate gripe that seems like it should be taken away by
| conscripting women.
| creakingstairs wrote:
| > Shouldn't you wait until your country is half run by women
| before claiming oppression? Until your boss and CEO are as
| likely to be women as men?
|
| Well boss and CEO's generation _were_ heavily discriminated
| and no one disputes that. For younger generation who are
| working, they go through 2 years of military service, then
| sees women in their generation go on a trip to find herself
| instead, then gets "preferential treatment" at work (e.g.
| woman police officer goes up 2 rank for giving a person in
| distress their jacket). Meanwhile, men are expected to
| financially contribute more for marriages. So now you get
| this explosive cocktail of resentment: it's hard to get well-
| paying jobs + have to go to the army + other societal
| expectation for manhood.
|
| Disclaimer: I don't think it's _that_ bad but I don't live in
| Korea, and I have lost friends for claiming this.
|
| > I feel like this stuff it bought into by marginal men who
| are oppressed by other men of a higher class
|
| Yes, there is some truth to this. Korean media is actively
| fuelling this outrage but I don't think you can't generalize
| it to everyone who supports it. Funnily enough, latest social
| discourse is around "Young Forties" (so older men with more
| social status), so now they are trying to stir up some
| discourse between generations.
|
| > In Korea, the anger about conscription just gives them a
| semi-legitimate gripe that seems like it should be taken away
| by conscripting women.
|
| I do think they should conscript women even for social
| services and that would quench most of the frustration from
| young men. But man suggesting this would get mocked for being
| so petty i.e. "not manly". Politicians also stay well away
| from this as it would be a political suicide. So where do
| these marginalised men go? To Lee and anyone who'd listen to
| them.
|
| Edit: Once you delve deeper into this topic, Korea's abysmal
| birthrate of 0.68 will really make sense :p
| samdoesnothing wrote:
| > It really reads as exactly the evil victim mentality of the
| people wildly overrepresented at the top
|
| The people at the top don't have a victim mentality because
| they're successful. However, there are a lot of people who
| aren't at the top, who aren't doing great, but on the basis
| of their gender are told that they deserve dispreferential
| treatment because there's more of their gender at the top of
| society. I don't see how that makes them evil. Perhaps I'm
| just totally misunderstanding your point though.
|
| > Military service is also a benefit that women don't get,
| too. They don't get to make the connections in the military
| that would help them along in their careers.
|
| They can volunteer if they wanted those supposed benefits.
| Seems weird to try to make conscription sound like it has
| positives when it's just purely negative.
|
| > Shouldn't you wait until your country is half run by women
| before claiming oppression? Until your boss and CEO are as
| likely to be women as men?
|
| This is an overly simplistic view of "oppression". Do you
| think that men as a whole somehow benefit from there being an
| over representation of their gender at the top of society?
| That despite struggling to survive, because we share the same
| gender that we aren't suffering or that we can't be
| oppressed?
|
| It's like people blame all men for the actions of our
| ancestors and want to take revenge or something. It's really
| weird.
| profstasiak wrote:
| OP, great work.
|
| Commentors here are not from Korea, so maybe we should refrain
| from commenting about policy of a given candidate?
|
| I really enjoyed your story, about how much tech can achieve.
| Technology really is a multiplier of effort. Amazing story.
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