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Comment by hnnewguy | Hacker News Reader

>The world needs more CEOs like him. It makes me fall in love with Apple more.

Did you read the article, or just the headline? There are more CEOs "like him".

"More than a hundred" have signed up to give away their wealth to charities, including Bill Gates, who started the pledge along with Warren Buffet. Of course, around here Bill Gates eats vitriol, because of some business practices in his history and despite his generosity and charity work. Meanwhile, Apple openly conspired to keep industry wages low and gets "#Respect"?

This is not to take away from what Mr. Cook has decided. It's great for the world. But let's not put him on a pedestal without at least acknowledging there are a slew of wealthy individuals doing this, some of them real pioneers of the idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Pledge

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I have to come to HN's defense here. This is an entirely unfair statement:

"Of course, around here Bill Gates eats vitriol, because of some business practices in his history and despite his generosity and charity work. Meanwhile, Apple openly conspired to keep industry wages low and gets '#Respect'?"

There are absolutely some individuals who engage in this hypocrisy, but I would not paint all of HN with that brush. Quite the opposite. I regularly see posts downvoted in to oblivion for failing to compartmentalize opinions about Bill Gates, Microsoft CEO and Bill Gates, Philanthropist.

>regularly see posts downvoted in to oblivion for failing to compartmentalize opinions about Bill Gates, Microsoft CEO and Bill Gates, Philanthropist.

This is probably true, but I can't recall seeing it in many threads I read. On the other hand, I've seen comments (albeit, downvoted), on these very forums, calling for Mr. Gates' death. I'm serious. That's unbelievable in what is otherwise a highly intelligent tech community.

My post probably comes off as "Who cares?", and that was not my intention. This is amazing of Mr. Cook. But let's not attach it to "Apple is so great!"

To be a further pendant the "#" in his comment bothers me to no end. Can we not communicate effectively/eloquently without relying on social trends?

Why is it bothering you? You are missing the big picture of my comment. it doesn't matter what way I communicate with # tags or swear words!

You should look past the silly things and understand the message / purpose of the comment

The comment bothers me beyond just the use of hashtag. You are mixing the ideologies of a person along with a company which to me is not very intelligent. While he may be the face of a company and direct their strategy he is ultimately answering to the shareholders. What he does in his personal life is mostly irrelevant as long as Apple is profitable.

Adding the hashtag at the end of what you are trying to communicate puts salt on the wound as lyke w tottally cud write like whateves and you'd understand but lyke its not cool, ya know? #whatisdecorum

> Why is it bothering you?

I'm not the OP, but it bothered me too. It goes against HN's general discussion style.

It's also quoted, which seems okay to me.

I was referencing vayarajesh's comment, not hnnewguy's.

> It goes against HN's general discussion style

What? The use of terminology specific to social media?

1 - HN is social media.

2 - 'OP' is a term as associated with social media of a certain nature as the use of '#'

To be fair, hash-tags are used to categorize and group content on social media. HN does not implement this functionality. Essentially, the '#' serves no purpose on HN. Therefore, it is easy to see why people get bothered by it.

It was in quotes. It was clearly meant to characterise a certain type of commenter, rather than serve a categorical function.

Are you serious? Look at vayarajesh's original comment.

It 'clearly' states this: It makes me fall in love with Apple more. #Respect

No quotes. He/She was using it seriously.

Actually, it was first used without any support from twitter, then transformed into a tag-like functionality

Same with retweets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashtag#Origin_and_Use

OP is a term that's been used thousands of times in discussions posted on HN, the same can't be said of hashtags.

#998moretogo

Not to be pedantic but he did say he was a pedant

A "pendant", actually. Which amuses me to no end.

What Gates did as the head of Microsoft had plenty of effects on industry wages, startup fortunes, and innovation in general--much of it negative. That's why he eats vitriol around here, where people care about those things.

What Gates is doing now as a philanthropist is great, and he gets plenty of credit for it here on HN, but it doesn't erase the past.

Yes I have read the whole article.. by the "The world needs more CEOs" I mean is that hundreds is not enough to change the world, There are more then 2 Billion people in the world who are below the poverty line and more and more CEOs like Tim Cook and Bill Gates etc. can contribute much more collectively.

And how is a CEO title required to contribute?

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