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Are we the baddies?

(geohot.github.io)
692 points AndrewSwift | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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sureglymop ◴[] No.44479071[source]
How could it take a smart person until July 5 2025 to realize this? I think that's the most concerning part. Long overdue realization.
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octo888 ◴[] No.44479550[source]
Is that a slight against the author? If so, how does publishing an article imply they only just realised something?
replies(1): >>44479749 #
1. coldpie ◴[] No.44479749[source]
George Hotz has spent his career[1] being a "useful idiot" for a series of hypercapitalist techbros, including Zuckerberg in the 2010s and Musk as recently as 2022, so it's somewhat notable that the scales may be falling from his eyes.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hotz

replies(1): >>44480049 #
2. octo888 ◴[] No.44480049[source]
Ah I'd never heard of him before
replies(1): >>44480831 #
3. coldpie ◴[] No.44480831[source]
Yeah, he got his fame in the mid-2000s when he found a vulnerability in the Playstation 3 OS and some idiot lawyers at Sony sued him for it. He parlayed that into a cool, anti-corporate hacker persona, and then got hired by the most powerful corporations and people on the planet to try to give their tech companies some cool hacker cred. It's honestly a pretty funny career arc. I don't dislike the guy, he found a way to get his bag, good for him. But he definitely got played by the pros.
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4. georgehotz ◴[] No.44481418{3}[source]
Nice try. I worked at Facebook for 9 months and left (before vesting any shares) because I didn't agree with the mission, even back in 2012. I worked at Twitter for 5 weeks and left because I realized nothing was going to change (and the good food went away). I don't regret trying at either, but in revealed preferences, I've spent most of my life writing open source software, even if that's not what attracts most media about me.

I know you think everyone is just trying to "get their bag" and that's the framework you see this in. But I already had more money at 21 than I've spent to date, and not cause I had a lot of money, but cause I don't buy much stuff. I'm sorry you feel played, but don't project that on me.

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5. coldpie ◴[] No.44484212{4}[source]
Haha, no worries, you're good. But come on, you have to admit it's at least a little funny that the famous Sony/iOS/Android hacker geohotz ended up... working for Facebook and then Elon Musk's X, lol.