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Comment by iamben | Hacker News Reader

Appreciate this is to a pretty ridiculous degree, but isn't this pretty much the story across the board?

Anecdotally I heard about some of the conversations with the government and adult industry regarding the UK porn filter. It was something along the lines of: Industry: "OK, we get you want to put a block in front of adult sites. But what about all the porn Twitter?" Govt: "There's porn on Twitter?"

When we're all getting angry about encryption and privacy and backdoors (and whatever else), it's probably prudent to remember these are the kind of people we're dealing with.

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I know and work with a lot of millionaires and a couple billionaires, once you get to that level of eliteness they view using a computer as a boring chore for a technician, like fixing the plumbing or paying the bills, something they are far too important for and delegate to staff.

Surprisingly, this seems to be true regardless of age

Had an opportunity to labour for 1 year for a "start up" ran by a 40 years old guy with rich papa when I was back in Canada. The dude opened the company with 7 mln cash out of his pocket, hired lots of big name consultants as directors, and never been seen since, until the company flopped.

The man was said to employ a personal typist.

Since then, saw the very same thing everywhere you can expect it; rich and powerful men I knew personally rarely even had a cellphone, and they didn't read news.

With regard of that, I think stories of officials from 3rd world countries claiming to be learning more about their own countries from words of foreign diplomats, or when they flee to the West themselves, don't sound so unbelievable anymore.

>>personally rarely even have a cellphone, and they don't read news.

I built my company from nothing - and still clean the toilet as part of the team.

I however don't give out my cell phone number as 99% of the time the resulting conversation would not be the best use of my time.

There is a lot of "don't read the news" comments in typical self-help books/speeches. I am divided. I have "not read the news" before, and I was totally out of the loop in a lot of conversations. On the other hand, 99% of what I read in the news isn't helpful in any way that is directly evident.

Most "rich" people I know are religious, "family", sort-of-upper-class-rednecks. They usually run small businesses worth several million, donate to the Church, and focus on their family life. It's hilarious how poorly I fit in here. Anyway, they do all get intricately involved with the technical details, even if they don't understand all of it.

These people aren't really "rich" though, just very well-off.

Don't know any really "rich" or "wealthy" people. Have never even talked to one.

rich and powerful men I knew personally rarely even had a cellphone, and they didn't read news.

Why do you use your cellphone or read the news? Probably for entertainment or gain knowledge about current events. Rich and powerful men can do stuff way more entertaining than what a cellphone can provide and honestly, don't need to be up on current events.

If I had the option of never having to check another email in my life, I’d go without internet for sure. I imagine there is a great deal of calm and focus when you unplug.

> I know and work with a lot of millionaires and a couple billionaires

Yeah.. ok. [citation needed]

Not that exotic. I've met a couple of billionaires myself (although I haven't worked for them). Just live somewhere that billionaires are (ie Silicon Valley) and do work they find valuable.

I wouldn't give up being able to use a computer for a billion dollars!

Is it because you expect to make more than a billion dollars using your computer, or because you value lifetime computer usage at over a billion dollars.

I love computers and I absolutely would. Do you really think computers are improving your life that much? Think of all the skiing you could do instead.

I don't think you can separate it from age, because having a lot of money and having an elite position are both highly correlated with being near retirement age.

There was an earlier generation that had secretaries to type things for them, and computer operators were essentially the same thing to them, before or after PCs were invented.

My mother was a computer programmer in the 50s through the 70s, and she started out as an engineering assistant. It was considered a low level position compared to an actual engineer.

> "Since I was 25 years old and independent I have instructed my staff and secretaries. I have never used a computer in my life"

I think that Yoshitaka Sakurada lie: he used PC in school before he was 25 years old!

/thread

>> he used PC in school before he was 25 years old

At the age of 15, in 1965

So he can buy a current phone and have more computing power than the world had in all its computers combined in the 60’s. He is in for a treat if he uses one now. https://www.quora.com/When-was-the-last-time-all-the-computi...

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