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 -
So the big story is Jensen Huang had an affair with now a second woman
source: https://thehill.com/business/6214833-nvidia-ceo-jesen-huang-affair/
It’s like, what is wrong with this guy? I predict NVDA stock will recover, and this does not affect AI overall or the upcoming Anthropic listing. What began as a personal matter has now consumed the news cycle, but does not affect much outside of Nvidia, IMHO.
This ties in with the ambiguities of morality. I predict Mr. Huang will recover. He will remain in good standing with the public and the media despite this. Yet had he been revealed as using a sock puppet for posting "badthink" online, well, this would be much worse in the eyes of the public. Indeed, Patrick Stewart had 2 affairs and it amounted to a footnote in media coverage of his passing. All he has to do is just lay low and he will recover, unlike, say, Louis C.K., whose career was destroyed (obviously consent is an issue here, too, and an affair presumes consent, whereas for #MeToo this was a murkier area).
The second part is about the smuggling and espionage aspect, where the implications, if true, would be much worse, an actual criminal offense, than merely a consenting couple having sex (albeit involving the CEO of the largest publicly traded company in the world), yet the lax reaction by Washington is weird.
It's being treated with the same seriousness as smoking pot behind McDonald's--technically a crime in some jurisdictions, but whatever. Espionage and smuggling were always considered grave offenses (e.g. in the context of the Cold War or Prohibition) and now they are secondary, inconsequential to the affair. Morality is weird...what people take offense to, how mores change (like anti-racism being much more important than faithfulness). I think it's implicitly understood Nvidia is a huge success and central to the US tech boom. Actually doing something would have almost all downside.
Who is the board trying to protect here? Without comment on the honey trap allegations (which should be investigated by the U.S. government), it seems that the board is responding to the second affair. Are they worried about him having a relationship with one of his reports? If so, get that HR shit out of here. The board does not have the right to light $1 trillion of shareholder wealth on fire so they can moralfag.
In a way, this is Jensen's fault for not arranging the board in such a way that they can't fire him. Elon or Zuck would never have this problem.
I hope he doesn't go down without a fight.
Edit: Part of me wonders if this is China's Plan B when Plan A didn't work. "If we can't use him, we can at least get rid of him. In America, taking down a great man is so easy comrade." If so, well played, China. Well played.
Double edit: Elon already offering to hire him. Would be so hilarious if SpaceX just poached all their talent and took the whole business, kinda like Microsoft was going to do when OpenAI fired Sam for 5 minutes.
This is a remarkably bad take. First of all, nothing is being lit on fire. The company will truck along just fine without Huang if they fire him. Second, firing him is the completely normal response to someone banging a subordinate. The same would happen at most any other company in the country. You're acting like the board is invoking some unreasonable standard nobody else is held to, but the truth is that basically everyone is held to that standard and Huang would have known that damn well. The fact he chose to disregard it shows shockingly poor judgement as a leader.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link