Comment by sudosteph | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sudosteph | Hacker News Reader

Shkreli Story time.

Not all that long ago, Shkreli was doing a stream on periscope where he asked people to call his personal number and tell him why they hated him. Most people were calling him and making up stories about the drug price killing their grandma or complaining about the wu-tang album, and his response was to be friendly, down-to-earth, and even charming in a way while re-framing the complaints into stuff that worked towards his favor (ie: "I gave the drug for free to people who couldn't pay, nobody died" and "Wu-Tang needed money, I like them, and they liked the offer I made"). For the most part it worked. He was trying to make the point that he wasn't an evil, awful guy, and that any "hate" people held for him was more of a trend of directing general anger towards him, rather than genuine, personal, hatred.

On a whim though, a friend of mine and I called in, and by chance, we got through. The friend told him we hated him, but not for any of that stuff in the news. We hated him for squandering his wealth, time, and talents on ridiculous social media trolling (like the periscope thing). This actually seemed to get to him a bit, the conversation lasted at least 10 minutes. He justified it by saying stuff like "Some people relax by drinking and doing drugs, some people play sports, I like trolling people. What's the difference?". Ultimately, he tried to convince us that he was still trying to do meaningful stuff and that he wasn't obsessed with his social media presence (he even held up some book about AngularJS he said he was reading for a new startup to prove it, which we sorta laughed at). But he seemed a little unsettled by how the whole thing ended (us hanging up on him after he kept trying to maneuver out of the conversation in a way that made him look good).

I got the feeling that he truly thought anyone who spent more than a few minutes with him would like him, and see through what he saw as an unfair media assault on him. Maybe he had this same attitude going into court too. Only reason I can think for him to behave so brashly throughout.

I remember that one. He said he was learning to program (maybe it was angular JS, but are you sure it wasn't a book on mongodb?).

I know that if someone were to question how I spend my time, it would strike a chord. Anyone who prides themselves on their work ethic would take the question personally.

What was the end goal of asking the question?

It was a book about the "MEAN stack" (Mongo, Express, Angular Node), so we're probably remembering the same thing.

Not sure what you mean by end goal of the question. You mean end goal of calling in?

Partly, I wanted a good story to tell. But I suppose I did entertain the idea that "maybe just this once, I can influence one person who has more power than me and everyone I know. maybe this can go somewhere". But nope, to him social media trolling is the same as having a beer. Fast forward some months later and he gets his bail revoked for trolling on Facebook.

It really is disappointing. I do think he's intelligent. Likewise, I do think he should have done better things with his time and hate to see him act out like a toddler wanting attention. He's wealthy, educated, has experience leading companies. He doesn't need to learn some particular web stack to prove he's a hard worker or troll social media to prove he's fun. Why does a person with so much opportunity at their disposal care so deeply about what the internet thinks?

Now he's going to prison and his potential is going to be squandered for a while longer. Hopefully it will be a learning experience for him as a person at least. He's got issues to work out.

First, “Minor” correction: his bail was not revoked for trolling on Facebook; he asked for sample of Clinton hair to reserch her DNA and some people rightfully felt its a threat and reported him.

OP was asking why he is wasting time, like Shkrelli supposed to work 24/7. Like he said - better to chat with people online than go and draink/smoke until you puke. The mere fact OP wanted to call and talked with him indicates Shkrelli did something more than average Joe with whom I presume OP wouldnt want to talk, unless OP daily picks anrandom number and call to chat.

Second, I dont blame Shkrelli for playing harsh about the drug price because he still played same game as everyone else, called capitalism. I witnessed bigger scumbags in my life; worked for company who hired HR manager for $250k/annul only to come back with pink report after one year and getting rid of 10% work force and therefore saving $500k by pushing their work on current employers that already were making 10 hours a day. Then they gave him $150k bonus and everyone consider him being “a great and successful guy”.

Finally I dont worry about Shkrelli. He has money ergo after less than two years he will be at home confinment for another year so three years from now we gonna hear from him, healthy free and ready for another startup.

Yeah your call is on Youtube.

If he devotes 2 or 3 hours to trolling or taking calls while doing other stuff what's the matter?

You are doing the same thing you complain he's doing. Why do you want to get the final word that all that he's doing is squandering his wealth and talent?

Also you laughed at the fact that he was reading an AngularJS book for his new startup? Really funny. And then he seemed unsettled that you hanged up on him. Makes sense.

The problem is he put himself in harms way by trolling. That's why his bail got revoked. It's probably a part of the reason his sentence was harsh and they didn't believe he showed any remorse. I may waste my time, but it's not to harass people online and get attention for myself.

I don't have the final word at all, but he asked to call if you hated him, and I did feel some hate towards him. He had world of opportunity at his hands, plenty of wealth and connections, and he largely earned it himself, he wasn't given it. I respect that. But he squandered it all because he loved the attention he got from showing off how clever he was on social media.

The Angular thing was just funny because we couldn't figure why a guy who is a C-level exec by all measures would think learning a random web stack would give him some special insight into the world of software startups. That's what you hire people for. If he really wanted to be useful there are plenty of management or computer science-y topics that would make sense. He was obviously just reading it to show off to people who don't know any better. He cares far too deeply about what people think of him than is healthy.

I do hope he works himself out some in prison at least. Might actually be healthy for him to be offline for a while.

> I may waste my time, but it's not to harass people online and get attention for myself.

Agreed. He did harass some people who insulted him or called him retarded. Mostly children or man childs.

> He was obviously just reading it to show off to people who don't know any better. He cares far too deeply about what people think of him than is healthy.

Disagree. He knows a lot about chemistry and investing too. Is that to show off or to know what he and his companies are working on? aka become a better executive if you will.

By the way he didn't squander it all. He got 7 years and when he gets back he'll hopefully continue working on helping humanity through better medicine. Hopefully.

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