By their own admission he isn’t qualified for the job. He’s been hired because of who he is rather than the skills he brings.
…wait, I thought A16Z didn’t like that stuff! Is Penny a DEI hire?
(in case you were wondering, yes, this thread got flagged to death)
Were you calling Hunter Biden to account for his skills when it was revealed he made millions of dollars from Burisma in a role he ostensibly had no qualification?
https://nypost.com/2024/11/08/opinion/subway-rider-thanked-d... Subway rider thanked Daniel Penny for saving riders from Jordan Neely — possibly the most important gesture of his life
It makes total sense why he was hired. He's clearly not afraid to make a hard choice and he's more than willing to live with the potential consequences. This indicates an appetite for risk that most people are simply unwilling to tolerate.
Penny's goal wasn't to kill Neely, it was to subdue him, but like most people who aren't used to being made to obey law and order, he fought and ended up killing himself because of it.
Yeah, the boy has a tragic story. No doubt about that. But like a lot of homeless mentally ill people, the help is there if you want it. And that's the problem. Before Republicans gutted mental health funding in this country, you were getting help whether you wanted it or not. Now you can "choose" to be a drag on society - with few consequences. We need to go back to saying, "You can choose to take your medicine(s) and be a functioning member of society or you can go hang out with Nurse Ratched all day. Your choice."
And despite what people think, that isn't the function of police. Police were created to protect the merchant class and their businesses.
In times long past, when everyone went heeled, you acted politely or you got yourself shot to death for being a jackass. This is why so-called "civilized" people have such bad manners... because they don't run the risk of someone cracking their skull wide open when they mouth off, much less actually threaten innocent people just trying to ride home on the subway.
When venture capital spends their (precious) money courting unqualified nobodies, they remind us all that they are less mature than the people they sponsor and reward exactly the wrong actors. These are mistakes that don't get made by legacy employers in FAANG and Fortune 500, because they have a basic understanding of self preservation.
It reaffirms to me that the right way to spend my career is on meaningless but benign work that doesn't go to benefit madmen with a hole burnt through their pocket. A16Z is absolutely reprehensible in this respect, with YC as a close second in many ways. I'm lucky that much of the work I've seen under their patronage will never come to light and ruin my CV.
I think this is a non-story. I don't like A16Z but this specific hire has nothing to do with it, and I see no causal trend here or reason to say anything about Andreessen from this hire.
I had an uncle who was a lower court Judge in the UK, who would hire ex-cons to work on his pigfarm. Cynics would say he wanted a cheap source of labour but the truth is (I am convinced) he saw the need for post-Jail employment, and that condemning prisoners to a life without work income was stupid and hurtful. I think also working with animals has been shown to be net beneficial to incarcerated people.
This guy did a stupid thing. I get that. It had lethal consequence. I get that too. I don't think this hire is evidence of any nefarious quality. If anything, it will cost them money.
(I would never for for Trump, and I think A16Z has bad effect on ICT investment)
You've called this one out as bad. Well, it probably is bad. if I invested through this company I'd be upset. But the thing is, its "hunt for keys under lampost, not because I lost them there, but because it's lit up" bad: You know this hire does not make much sense. The other hires, you are letting through because (I believe) you implicitly assume they can learn to do the job, all other bad reasons for hire not withstanding. Why can't he learn them too?
He can take instructions and work, and is physically robust. He survived in a harsh environment (or two). There are admirable qualities which imply he is educable and strong emotionally and phyisically. I wouldn't have hired him or the nepo baby. I wouldn't have put my money into this mobs hands. I didn't. If my superannuation fund did, I hope it returns at least at market norms.
