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Comment by sama | Hacker News Reader

I said later in the article I thought Trump was a bad outcome of the effects of technology.

I think that our side should be ashamed we got beat with out own playbook and not let it happen again.

I also think if we don't realize what happened, we will not win future elections. So I hope we learn this very painful lesson soon.

I could just refuse to comment for these articles, but I'm more interested in us winning elections in the future than not facing criticism. It's important to me to engage and point out what I think is important.

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We did not get "beat with our own playbook". The Trump that won in November was the same product launched on that golden escalator the previous year, so much so that political pundits faulted him for it in the run-up to the election. He didn't iterate. He didn't test his message carefully. He barely even won --- he lost the popular vote by a greater margin than any candidate in US history.

But nobody who reads that article will realize that. They'll imagine instead a dynamo who "seized the playbook" of Silicon Valley and used it to cruise to an Silicon Valley-style 10-bagger victory.

You should refuse to comment on articles like these. You have no special insight into why or how Trump won. You chose to be the CEO of Y Combinator. You can't ask for our sympathy when your words, freely given to the newspaper of record, have an impact you didn't intend.

> You can't ask for our sympathy when your words, freely given to the newspaper of record, have an impact you didn't intend.

I don't see sama asking for your sympathy here. He explicitly said he's not particularly interested in avoiding criticism.

> He barely even won --- he lost the popular vote by a greater margin than any candidate in US history.

This point unfortunately plays into the messaging that you're criticizing sama for. The electoral college was the winner take all victory. They actually call it a genius masterstroke that he "focused" on winning in the most strategic and economical way.

Besides, it's not enough dismiss him or the strategy as having "barely" won. If things had gone the other way in those determining districts then he would have "barely" lost. He lost the popular vote by millions but it was still within ~2%. With a candidate like Trump you need to do better than that by far. He should have been defeated unambiguously, and yet he managed the astonishing feat of just barely eeking out a win.

You are so wrong here. Trump beat the entirety of the Republican and Democratic machine with a totally new playbook in American politics.

He didn't have a traditional ground game in states. He didn't spend money on the traditional unit of persuasion, the 30 second ad spot.

He ran a very lean, very virtual campaign. He used guerrilla tactics to get free media, quite masterfully in my opinion.

Compare Trump to Bernie Sanders. Sanders outraised Hillary and spent more on 30 second TV ads. He ran a traditional, better funded campaign and lost.

Trump took on every incumbent and broke every rule and won.

Sam is right here and his comment was insightful.

You sir, are engaging in very reactionary politics, and have no right to tell Sam Altman what he should or should not do.

Have you ever noticed how nothing written using a non-ironic "You, sir" device is productive to engage with?

"I am far more disturbed by someone who claims to be in the opposition but rather than publicly opposing continues to give every sign of being in fact a quiet supporter of the administration. Why should I have to worry that that's true?"

- tptacek, 2017

Sam Altman single handedly started the tech industry's opposition to Trump with one blog post. And here you are accusing him of being a quiet supporter.

"Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness… Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

Joseph Welch, 1954

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