This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Is it a super power? Mira Murat actually does research and appears to be hot enough to be rich by just being a SAHM. Surely there’s something in between 40+ year old college drop out and Mira Murati quality.
This strikes me as Amdoei and a few other tech guys having a weak mate search function and just going for whatever is readily available. Right time right place. He’s not even bad looking.
Does she? Her first job was PM at Tesla, followed by some startup roles (from memory) before becoming an executive and then CTO. Now she runs her own AI company. That trajectory screams manager/business not AI researcher. Just the kind of area where being a 7+ and able to talk nerdy is super useful. I remember looking at her career path years ago and realizing I could never nepo-baby that hard.
You may be right that she’s more of a manager than pure engineering.
I have no idea though on the nepo-baby comment. No one from Albania comes from much money. But being attractive, social, and a tier 2 mind seems possible. A Dartmouth Engineering degree isn’t easy. Schools like Dartmouth do sometimes push kids to more engineering management than pure engineering.
It's probably not nepotism in the strict definitional sense. But I've almost never heard of someone coming out of undergrad straight into project management at a prestigious company. Let alone from a non top 10 engineering school. Call it connections, familial or platonic. But she got into her positions based on some amount of capability and likely a large amount of "who you know" and was at least capable enough to build on that. But my realization was that technical knowledge and skill and actually attempting to do the work will not get as far as knowing the right people, being able to schmooze, and social climb your way into a prestigious position. Probably a bit of sour grapes.
Zuckerberg, SBF, Chamath. Seems like a lot have done it. In Musks orbit it seems like he does it a lot even with non-attractive people. His Doge choices were young. Nikita Bier at Twitter.
PM roles aren’t pure engineering. Dartmouth outside of HYPS is as prestigious as anywhere and coming from Albania getting into a top school is hard (white and had fewer resources). Albania to Dartmouth Engineering is a strong indicator of ability and agency. Only MIT, Stanford, and Caltech are more prestigious of the engineering schools. If my goal coming from Albania was to get into US tech I would probably rank Dartmouth as my 9th choice after Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Caltech, MIT, University of Chicago, and Colombia. Maybe CMU is better but Dartmouth opens up better trad finance jobs too. And probably about half a dozen schools at the same level. A poor white you would basically choose whichever lets you in and/or consider their aid. Seems a little weird to me to not consider Dartmouth engineering as prestigious enough not to get a foot in the door to perform.
Though she did backdoor Dartmouth thru a guaranteed transfer program, but again she’s essentially poor unconnected white so getting Ivy isn’t easy.
More options
Context Copy link
Know in the Biblical sense, maybe.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link