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this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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TechTakes
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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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saw a family member today for the first time in three years. they immediately told me "with your background bro you should just go work in AI and get super rich."
told them that the ai shit doesn't work and that everything involving LLMs is downright unethical. they respond
"i had a boss that gave me the best advice: you can either be right or you can be rich."
recently, i saw someone use the phrase "got my bag nihilism" and i feel it really captures the moment. i just don't understand how people can engage in this kind of behavior and even live with themselves, let alone ooze pride. it's repulsive.
(family member later outright admitted that his job is basically selling things to companies that they don't need.)
To be fair it is really, really mentally taxing to be a young person who cares. You're surrounded by a world that doesn't. Everything is constructed to reward you if you simply stop. The effort to care is immense and the rewards are meager. The impact you can have on the world is so, so limited by your wealth, and wealth comes so, so easy if you just stop caring.
But you can't. I mean, you can't. If you stopped you wouldn't be you anymore, it would destroy your soul. But it is gnawing. You could do the grift just for a bit. Save up $10k, maybe $20k. That's life-changing money. How much good would it do to your family? Maybe you can forget that there are other families, ones you can't see, that would be hurt. Well no. You can't. You are better than that. And for that you will suffer.
It’s the autopilot mode/nihilism that gets at one, but having a self-image as morally superior isn’t entirely honest either I think. No one can be perfect, even typing these words runs on energy partially generated by burning fossils that will lead to early deaths somewhere. These webs of interdependent existence & suffering are inescapable save for maybe a buddha. But at least have the awareness to acknowledge your own role and work to minimize your harm. Not even caring or coming up with fairytales about billions of future digital beings in sublime bliss are both just ways of turning away from looking at the tragedy of life. Maybe I’m getting overly existential, but it’s late here.
Strive for excellence, not unachievable perfection.
I’m not quite sure in matters of morality competition should serve as its basis. It’s too easy to game such things, e.g. the aforementioned optimized “hyper-ethics” of EA or buying indulgences etc. It’s too easy to see oneself as blameless based on some particular slice of life, to become a monster whilst thinking oneself morally as above all others (dictators care deeply about being seen as righteous, why do they all spend so much time on propaganda). Better to admit that everyone, including oneself, sins, and also that everyone is worthy of redemption, and to follow from that.
The motivating factor for doing right should never be that it bases oneself above someone else in any way; a better way, imo, is that moral behavior is more in accord with a sincere, unillusioned engagement with life that is aware of the interdependence of all things, the fluid boundaries of what constitutes the self and hence self-interest.
Excellence does not imply competition. I borrowed the "excellence, not perfectionism" line from https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info/one-right-way.html
i don't think of myself as a young person (i'm closer to 40 than 30), but i agree with the sentiment. i often worry that it's just don quixote energy and the windmills aren't going to thank me when i'm in the ground with work experience that employers look at and scoff. 🤷
I unfortunately do understand. I think there are severe tradeoffs between living a good life and living a virtuous life. Most people usually compromise to lesser or greater degree and find ways to cope with that. Nihilism is one way.
A worldview where one's worth is measured by the balance in their bank account makes it really easy to flatten out morality.
Do you want Tylers Durden? Because this is how you get Tylers Durden.