Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by ChildOfChaos | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

ChildOfChaos

Jack Ma is an absolute moron anyway, they built him up and gave him his 'power' so they can take it away.

View on HN

"I think it is a huge blessing that we can work 996."

- Jack Ma on 996 working hour system (9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week = 72 hours per week).

I think it's a huge blessing that he does not have a platform to make stupid comments like that anymore.

Doesn't the startup world fetishize that kind of schedule?

Startups fetishize selectively "maximizing the work not done", e.g.: low quality except on the surfaces the customer can see.

IDK what fetishes currently run in the startup community, but simplyfing design is a good thing. A component that has been left out of the system cannot introduce bugs and vulnerabilities into the system.

Of course, it only holds up to a point, but "the best part is no part, the best process is no process".

Leaders in startup world fetishize that kind of schedule. Workers want a normal life.

BTW, Alibaba is not a startup.

https://github.com/996icu/996.ICU

This comment is either neither a constructive criticism of him, nor does contribute anything substantive to the discussion. Please review the site guidelines against name calling: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26687330

Polite rewrite:

“The events that have transpired demonstrate that Jack Ma experienced a disconnect between the power, freedom, and relevance he believed himself to have had and the reality exerted by the Chinese government. This could be viewed as a lack of foresight, exceptional hubris, and inability to interpret ground truth on Ma’s part.”

I must add that OP asserts the Chinese authorities iniquitously and deliberately allowed Jack Ma to acquire power through the success of his enterprise which was struck down swiftly as we are witnessing today. Thus, OP's insight is that the CCP employed an insidous tactic of bait-and-switch, exemplified by the unfolding situation, in order to further their authoritarian interests. Jack Ma's inability to excogitate his own demise is why OP thinks that his mental state is abnormal.

Personally I believe it just took CCP some time to figure out how to deal with these uppity billionaires. They couldn't use their normal playbook on how they deal with political opposition, because he wasn't opposing the politics of CCP, or how they deal with the powerless, because he wasn't powerless.

Now that they do, heads will roll quickly. The smarter ones will come voluntarily hat in hand and offer tributes. The dumber ones will disappear for a month, and then offer tributes.

For the most part, the world is run by billionaires. They’ll look to China with even more caution.

Didn't Jack Ma go missing for like 3 months while this was playing out? I think right after he made a few comments critical of the Chinese gov.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com