TechTakes
Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
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Tuckers quest for a second facial expression continues. The help he got from Ben Stiller turned out to be not effective at all.
New thread from Ed Zitron, focusing on the general trashfire that is CoreWeave. Jumping straight to the money-shot, he noted how the company is losing money selling shovels in the gold rush:
You want my off-the-cuff prediction, CoreWeave will probably be treated as the Leyman Brothers of the 2020s, an unofficial mascot of everything wrong with Wall Street (if not the world) during the AI bubble.
Nvidia's current downturn is probably moreso due to the disastrous launch of it's 5000 series rather than AI.
If it was AI I'm guessing the drop would be larger.
Robert Evans on Ziz and Rationalism:
https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social/post/3ljmhpfdoic2h
https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social/post/3ljmkrpraxk2h
New piece from Techdirt: Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not)
Strongly recommended reading overall, and strongly recommended you check out Techdirt - they've been doing some pretty damn good reporting on the current shitshow we're living through.
I've read Masnick for over 20 years and he's never learnt to write coherently. At least this one isn't blaming Europe.
got a question (brought on by this). anyone here know if zitron's talked about his history of how he got to where he is atm wrt tech companies?
there's something that's often bothered me about some of his commentary. an example I could point to: some of the things that he comments on and "doesn't seem to get" (and has stated so) are .... not quite mysteries of the universe, just some specifics in dysfunction in the industry. but those things one could understand by, y'know, asking around a bit. (so in this example, I dunno if that's on him not engaging far/deeply enough in research, or just me being too-fucking-aware of broken industry bullshit. hard to get a read on it)
but things like what's highlighted in thread do leave open the possibility of other nonsense too
EZ is a PR person, and definitely has a PR person vibe. I don't know what that poster's deal is, and I would not accuse Ed of being an AI bro. That post kind of has "haters gonna hate" vibes
I didn't know a16z was so devoted to developing new hires! Don't you just love to see it.
This just hit my inbox (and spurred me to unsubscribe from future BuiltIn slop) and man, so tired of this sort of mindless drivel. Like companies still have trouble with basic application and management processes, but magic robot will fix? Fucking hell.
New piece from Brian Merchant: So the LA Times replaced me with an AI that defends the KKK
So many projects and small websites I’m aware of are being overtaxed by shitty LLM scrapers these days, it feels like an intentional attack. I guess the idea of ai can’t fail, it can only be failed; and so its profiteers must sabotage anything that indicates it’s not beneficial/necessary.
New piece from Brian Merchant, focusing on Musk's double-tapping of 18F. In lieu of going deep into the article, here's my personal sidenote:
I've touched on this before, but I fully expect that the coming years will deal a massive blow to tech's public image, expecting them to be viewed as "incompetent fools at best and unrepentant fascists at worst" - and with the wanton carnage DOGE is causing (and indirectly crediting to AI), I expect Musk's governmental antics will deal plenty of damage on its own.
18F's demise in particular will probably also deal a blow on its own - 18F was "a diverse team staffed by people of color and LGBTQ workers, and publicly pushed for humane and inclusive policies", as Merchant put it, and its demise will likely be seen as another sign of tech revealing its nature as a Nazi bar.