Hobbyist intellectual & consigliere to elite tech startups. Dad to 3 w/ Mrs. of 15+ yrs. @UTAustin (Philo/Econ)+ @Harvard_Law. Geopolitics is my sportsball.
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Joined November 2010
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Critical commentary about "tech bros" and "mediocre white men" has been circulating the news and mediasphere lately. This inspired me to write another (a third) essay in my years-long rumination on "diversity" in the startup and broader tech world.
siliconhillslawyer.com/2024/…
The future is life as a top decile "white collar" worker will be more lucrative than ever.
And a lot of the remaining white collar tier will need to get used to working more in meat space, in jobs they once considered beneath them, but that will now pay better.
If this approach starts entering the very top elite tiers of universities, you run into demand > seats.
The smartest policy intellectuals have proposed a lottery component, and I agree.
Life involves chance. If "bad luck," you figure it out. Add that into admissions.
Good data shows that, controlling for GPA/SAT, students do about the same career wise at "close enough" ranked universities, if they have bad luck in admissions for ivy.
GPA/SAT cut-offs + lottery = a de-escalated merit-based fair admissions system. nber.org/papers/w17159?utm_s…
Favoring the poor/disadvantaged w/o reference to race is better than reverse racism. Truly.
But there is a point where we have to ask - diplomatically - are you low status because you were unfairly "disadvantaged," or are you low status because you just lack skill?
Austin's city-hired lawyers said the city couldn't hand out music grants by race, so the city found a workaround.
A couple of years ago the city gave musicians more points for "limited access to services" than for boosting the local music economy.
You scored higher if you had:
- no health insurance
- spoke non-English language
- no access to bank financing
- lived in a low-income area
With race being off limits, the city's music manager told the city’s Music Commission that "It was just a different way to get there."
More than 1,000 people applied, and 137 got grants, most of them $30,000. Many who lost never saw their scores.
This is the problem with "nepo baby" logic going too far.
Some talent is genetic. Some is training.
Training costs money.
Combine good genes *and* money, you push frontiers of performance, for which humanity benefits.
Let scoreboards talk. Talent communism doesn't work.
If I go to the doctor for a surgery, I really do not care one iota about the doctor's "disadvantage" growing up. If he comes from a long line of doctors, grew up eating caviar from a platinum spoon, idgaf. I want the best doctor I can get.
Full stop.
Let's go one step further: genetics is unfair. People really are born with higher IQ potential, athletic potential, musical potential, etc.
That's a kind of disadvantage. So is being less attractive. Shorter.
"Life is unfair."
And yet, merit is merit. This isn't pre-school.
José Ancer retweeted
If I read this set of cot tokens from a large language model I am shutting down all the powerplants
Elizabeth Holmes' handwritten notes to herself from her Theranos days. These notes exude authenticity and warmth. This is not a person who treats herself as an instrument to be optimally calibrated for power, status, and influence: robkhenderson.com/p/a-guilty…
Everything great in life requires commitment, which by definition means giving up options and not looking back.
Needing everything to be safe and flexible is, when you remove all the modern rationalizations, just weakness. And life always sucks for the weak.
Seeing more universities/colleges giving guaranteed admission if you hit X GPA and SAT threshold.
Exactly the kind of thing we need to de-escalate the adolescent opportunity cost arms race. You did enough, you have requisite IQ, well done now please go, date, and be normal.
José Ancer retweeted
Anthropic $ANT quarterly revenue and operating income:
ALT Bar chart of Anthropic’s quarterly revenue and operating income from Q1 2025 to Q2 2026. Revenue rises from $0.4B to $11.6B. Operating income goes from losses of $0.9B, $1.2B, $3.1B, $2.8B and $1.7B to a $1.0B profit in Q2 2026.
And demanding that this "pay gap" be closed - even if it means under-paying men who work more hours - ends up artificially benefiting childless women and harming mothers who are depending on the incomes of their husbands.
So, stop it and be meritocratic?
“A growing body of research suggests that the primary cause of the gender pay gap is motherhood. Before people become parents, women earn as much as or even more than men do. Afterwards, on average, they earn less.”
stevestewartwilliams.com/p/d…
José Ancer retweeted
My most recurring thought over the last few years has been:
“goddam the founding fathers were geniuses to structure our system they way they have”
and
“thank god for the first and second amendments in equal measure”
You don’t appreciate what you have until you see others go without. There is no backup plan. Never blackpill.
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They're coming around to realizing the real problem isn't America, but their own childish petulance.
You're not going to get our military support while helping our rival build its military.
China raised the cost of security, so our protection fees have gone up. Pay up.
