Facebook Made This 29-Year-Old Rich; War Made Him a Billionaire | Hacker News Reader

Facebook Made This 29-Year-Old Rich; War Made Him a Billionaire

forbes.com

44 pointsmwattsun17 comments

I’m curious if he will befall the same fate as Gregory Sancoff, who built a steath boat called Ghost before there was a request from the Navy, who decided they didn’t want it but forbid him from selling it to anyone else - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-19/the-feds-...

Maybe but it is probably a good bet that after the drone attacks in Saudi Arabia there will be a lot of growth in drone defense.

Even just the single image of the Mercedes F1 car in front of the plume of smoke from the attack is too great for them to not ramp up defense.

Crappy paywall link.

Alternative non paywall article https://www.businessinsider.com/juliet-marine-systems-ghost-...

“ After losing friends who criticized him as a warmonger, Luckey is suddenly feeling vindicated. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where Anduril has systems on the ground (he won’t say what precisely), some people are reaching out to apologize. They now realize “it is actually really important for the U.S. to have better weapons,” he says.”

Sounds like fair weather friends to me. Or they could have had consistent arguments against weapons development that they still maintain but in lesser priority and this could be editorializing by Forbes. Hard to tell.

Sounds made up, by either Luckey or Forbes.

What motives do you think would lead Luckey to make it up?

Obviously, to try and give an "I told you so" to all the people haranguing him for war profiteering.

Wouldn't that make those folks harangue him even harder for successfully convincing some to join the 'dark side' or something?

Though that would be assuming these folks have consistent goals regardless of temporary advantages.

Maybe some are so wishy washy that they would degenerate weapons manufacturers one day and praise them the next if it's for a cause they perceive to be beneficial. (And then switch back to degenerating asap)

I wouldn't be able to bring myself to respect such craven losers. If enduring that is what it takes to succeed in the defense sector or the peace movement then kudos to anyone who tries in either.

Nah I believe it. I’m thinking of the people who switched their entire identity from Social Justice to Ukraine for about 5 minutes.

Was he really pushed out of Facebook for being a Trump supporter?

Yeah I thought they were all about Trump supporters there, or at least their old ad team.

I think FB was more politically even than people like to imagine it. Seems like Democrats think FB was practically, moustache twirlingly, 'in on' Jan 6. Meanwhile, all the conservatives seem to believe FB is out to get them, banning them from platforms and hypnotizing people to be trans.

As someone who has minimized Facebook use for years and cultivated some political distance (neither party represents my views much at all), I think FB was mostly "keep your hands off except to feed people more of the things they click"

Why he was pushed out was never confirmed. For "being a Trump supporter" makes for a nice counter-culture story, but doesn't make much sense given how openly Peter Theil campaigned for Trump.

yeah it seems like a spun narrative, curious what actually happened

He was funding a Pro-Trump, Anti-Hillary Clinton troll campaign [1], which drew a lot of controversy, as the early Oculus VR audience (developers and technologists) were demographically opposed to that type of ideology.

I think he was fired because he was generating a lot of negative press/attention for what was at that time a burgeoning VR project dependent on adoption by a crowd that largely wasn't a fan of his political leanings...basically office politics.

But...he was fired with a $100 million severance [2], so it's not much of a pity situation.

1 - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/reven...

2- https://www.fastcompany.com/90266150/zuck-pressured-facebook...

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