This take is ill-informed. He's just saying you can't get hung up on your previous investments, decisions, etc. Keep moving forward. A16Z folks are very human, terrific at what they do and good people.
Frankly, if I had to compare that manifesto with the Unabombers', I think the Unabomber's makes a lot more sense. Everything I've ever heard out of Andreesen's mouth is "whatever advancements that have made me a mega billionaire are great, and anybody who says otherwise wants to murder children." The absolute cluelessness over even willing to contemplate that technological advancements have some real downsides is so self serving it's gross.
You say "A16Z folks are very human, terrific at what they do and good people." I accept they're very human and terrific at what they do, but no, I don't think they are good people. Hardly anybody ever really thinks "maybe we're the baddies?", and people can tell themselves all sorts of stories about why they're good people as they're raking in millions of dollars. But I'm sick of pretending that people at that level don't have a choice, and what they're choosing to do is cash in while investing in a shitload of things that have negative societal impact. I mean, someone at a16z greenlit the Doublespeed (aka "AI bot farm") investment, and I'm sure they think of themselves as a good person.
It's fine to debate and critique people's actions. But these repeated sneering, belittling snarls about someone's knowledge level and even physical characteristics are off limits here, no matter who they're about.
This is a site for people who have higher standards of themselves than this. Please read the guidelines carefully and have a think about if this is really the right place for your style of discourse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Sorry, but I have no compunction when it comes to dunking on the appearance or tics of ultra wealthy white men who proudly proclaim their own free speech absolutism as cover for their support of rising authoritarianism.
I wouldn't say such things about a normal person, but punching up on powerful people who are actively harming society is always morally correct.
And what he said about the history of introspection was just absolute nonsense.
> punching up
You're not punching anyone. People like that aren't reading your garbage. The only people reading it are other HN readers who are almost all just employees and indie developers trying to make a living. If you want to make a difference to the world, come up with interesting new ideas that can actually change things. Otherwise, stop wasting everyone's time, your own most of all.