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Cory Doctorow

"There's nothing special about Musk, Altman, or Zuckerberg. Accepting that requires you to also accept that the world itself is not one that rewards the remarkable, or the brilliant, or the truly incredible, but those who are able to take advantage of opportunities, which in turn leads to the horrible truth that those who often have the most opportunities are some of the most boring and privileged people alive."

-Ed Zitron, You Can't Make Friends With The Rockstars
wheresyoured.at/rockstars/

14 October at 19:54 | Open on mamot.fr
16 comments
CJ Paloma ...again

@pluralistic

Those who have the most opportunities do get tons more opportunities….

agree wholeheartedly, AND while I enjoyed the post, imo, it's even worse than only being privileged.

Taking advantage of many opportunities requires people to take advantage -of other people- and ruthlessly get their own needs met -at the expense- of other human beings or the environment.

Ruthlessness is (to me) a defining characteristic of these billionaires. Not something I aspire to.

14 October at 20:23 | Open on mas.to
Daniel Marks

@pluralistic I think it should be realized that due to ambition, social status, and luck, there will always be people who reach the level of Musk, Altman, Zuckerberg, etc. These people are not extremes on the bell curve in ability; they exist because the distribution has outliers, and the outliers happened to be these men. It would have been someone else if circumstances were different, but once wealth reaches a certain level, it becomes self-sustaining almost despite one's actions.

14 October at 20:24 | Open on mastodon.social
Strange Culprits

@profdc9 @pluralistic ... And that's where the marginal windfall tax rates should kick in, including on retained capital gains

14 October at 20:43 | Open on c.im
Joe

@profdc9 @pluralistic , as always that's not really the problem.
It's what you do with it.
Ie, can anyone name at least three outstanding things these people did that benefited greater society more than themselves?

14 October at 21:01 | Open on mastodon.nz
CassandraVert
CassandraVert

@pluralistic
Also taking advantage of other people is high on their list. They'll enshrine it in law if they can.

14 October at 20:24 | Open on indieweb.social
billy joe bowers - Harris2024

@pluralistic

This is what people hate to admit. I've had so many people that claim to hate them, and claim to be on the left, argue and get upset that when you say Musk or Trump or some techbro are stupid. It really upsets them.

14 October at 20:51 | Open on mastodon.online
Joe

@billyjoebowers @pluralistic , stupid is of course not the main problem. We're all stupid at some time the question really is: are they ethical, do they have morals, compassion, etc...

14 October at 21:04 | Open on mastodon.nz
Colin from Edinburgh, Oklahoma

@pluralistic
The US and some other countries have discarded Democracy in favour of Oligarchy.
The people you mentioned are some of the Oligarchs.
Of course, you still get to vote.

14 October at 21:22 | Open on mastodon.social
William Gunn

@pluralistic I think I understand what that essay is trying to do - point at the role of privilege - but it's vastly overstating its case. A quick glance at the list of Nobel Prize winners reveals many from relatively humble backgrounds. The statement also requires people to deny the evidence of their eyes and ears. A lot of people have met someone who really is truly impressive, ambitious, and effective, who has gone on to do great things. Privilege obviously exists, and so does talent.

14 October at 21:34 | Open on mastodon.social
William Gunn

@pluralistic Also, there are many stories from people who have met Altman personally over the years and they all tell a similar story: the guy has a superpower at attaining power. Whether that's going to be net positive for humanity is yet to be seen, and the ongoing departures of executives concerned about safety from OpenAI is concerning, but it's hard to claim there's literally nothing special about the guy.

14 October at 21:38 | Open on mastodon.social
James M.

@pluralistic yeah, there's little if any correlation between wealth and merit, i.e. how much someone has benefitted the world. (Though in some cases, there's a strong negative correlation.)

14 October at 21:36 | Open on sfba.social
Medea Vanamonde🏳️‍⚧️ ♀

@pluralistic Ding!
Musk, Zuckerberg et al are all Chancers
An aspect of the world just snapped into hyper clarity .
And core to being Chancers they leave behind of wake of Stochastic Chaos in their moving thru the world .
Each of them is also like a Black Hole of Wealth money flows down hill to them .
And all our worlds of interaction are trapped in the accretion disks around those Collapsars of Capital.
About all that can take out a black hole is a localized vacuum decay event .
Which is basically changing the laws of physics right down in the metric .
Hmmm…the only way to take our billionaires is to change the laws of society and and the economy

@pluralistic Ding!
Musk, Zuckerberg et al are all Chancers
An aspect of the world just snapped into hyper clarity .
And core to being Chancers they leave behind of wake of Stochastic Chaos in their moving thru the world .
Each of them is also like a Black Hole of Wealth money flows down hill to them .
And all our worlds of interaction are trapped in the accretion disks around those Collapsars of Capital.
About all that can take out a black hole is a localized vacuum decay event .
Which is basically...

14 October at 21:48 | Open on sfba.social
Fourshizzle

@pluralistic i just finished reading this substack and am speaking happy to see Ed circulating. I'm a huge fan of both writers, Cory and Ed

14 October at 21:49 | Open on mastodon.social
Gary Houston

@pluralistic capitalism rewards those who own the right thing at the right time, whether due to luck, or knowledge. Generally it would be luck, because somebody has to own it but nobody can see the future.

14 October at 22:29 | Open on mamot.fr
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