5 ms·

My guess would be - there is way more primitive explanation than setting an example etc (which is also a good reason, from their point of view). It is just plai

by akudha 3mo ago

My guess would be - there is way more primitive explanation than setting an example etc (which is also a good reason, from their point of view). It is just plain ego and pettiness - we see it everywhere, even from a manager who has 3 people reporting to him. Why else would Zuck cheat on a board game, of all things? That too in private? It might just be as primitive as "I have more money than God, therefore I am better than everyone else, nobody dare to challenge/disrespect me even in the slightest". Blind rage can make people do things that they themselves can't understand

SpicyLemonZest 3mo ago
Or perhaps Zuck didn't cheat on the board game, and the claim that he did is one of the purported falsehoods Meta says the book contains. That would also explain it.
- rwmj 3mo ago
  If he really doesn't cheat at board games, the power move would be to completely ignore the accuser.
  - SpicyLemonZest 3mo ago
    I agree, but she also made other accusations that can't be so easily ignored. Meta can't really have no comment on someone who's going around saying that Sheryl Sandberg and Joel Kaplan both sexually harassed her on the job.
kylecazar 3mo ago
This applies to Elon's incredibly strange video game cheating scandal too. It's pathetic and weird.
- altairprime 3mo ago
  This all makes a lot more sense when you consider that Elon Musk is trying to dethrone/succeed Richard Branson, but can only manage a knockoff-grade impersonation at best. Cheating is about the feeling of defeating other people without the moral restrictions against cheating that obviously limit them, but cheaters aren’t attractive to non-cheaters; thus the sockpuppet account, to get that prized feeling of defeat without damaging the main caricature.
- rustystump 3mo ago
  That was i think the most revealing thing about his character bar none because of how mundane it all was. Anyone with a tiny bit of video game background called that out from miles away. It was so pathetic. Richest dude in world with spaceship company. Has nothing to prove. Cheats, lies, and gaslights when caught. Has to be “number one” at a video game that has virtually zero skill where rank is almost entirely who grinds more. Eg time. What a weird and sad thing to do. So unimaginably insecure. Any billionaire you know the name of, is probably not too far off from this. There are alot of rich people who are secure with themselves. Zuck aint one if em.
  - gsk22 3mo ago
    Did he cheat at other games too? I knew of the Path of Exile 2 incident, but I'd hardly call that a zero-skill game.
    - rustystump 3mo ago
      It was d4 first and then poe2.
  - N_Lens 3mo ago
    Agree with everything else but POE does have a high skill ceiling, it’s just more of a strategic game than tactical.
    - rustystump 3mo ago
      It was d4 first then poe he lied about. These games are more about minmaxing and gear grind. It is why it was even more weird to brag about it. It wasnt like he was moggin the ladder in LoL where it is pure skill no grind up to end game.
  - pirates 3mo ago
    The mask was off way way before this imo but I think you’re right that inanity of it is telling in a lot of ways.
dahart 3mo ago
> It is just plain ago and pettiness […] Why else would Zuck cheat on a board game Recently I felt somewhat enlightened on this point, specifically in regards to Trump cheating at golf and some of his bald-faced lies, but I’d speculate it applies here too. Others pointed out to me that while it might look petty and ridiculous to normal people, it’s a social power move to get away with things, and serves the purpose of testing what can be gotten away with, and practicing or exercising the push dynamic. It may have little to do with winning a board game, and a lot to do with seeing what people will tolerate and what the thresholds are for being called out; it’s a test of one’s intimidation factor. It may be somewhat important that the cheating is visible. It can also be social signaling to see who comes to their defense when called out, which is an effect that has been playing out on the national stage with obvious lies being repeated, defended, or excused. It’s not about what’s true, but about people showing the rule breaker who’s on their side, and giving them the power to break rules. This, BTW, to me is a depressing and pessimistic view of power and politics and humanity, and I don’t think these kinds of power moves are something to aspire to, nor do they always work. But as a framework I have to admit it has a lot of explanatory power.
- martythemaniak 3mo ago
  This is a good observation, because this tactic is a hallmark of Putin and authoritarianism in general. What he does just lie about something where he knows it's a lie and the audience knows it's a lie, and he knows that the audience knows that he's lying, but the audience is powerless to correct him, so it is his way of demonstrating his power over the audience. He is saying to them that he is so powerful and dominating that he is in charge of their reality. Masha Gessen has written a fair bit about this.
- jordanb 3mo ago
  This is called "Fuckery:" I tell you a lie. You know it's a lie. I know you know it's a lie. But you have to pretend that you believe it because of the power I have over you. The Fuckery is a demonstration of that power.
  - raincom 3mo ago
uxhacker 3mo ago
For a bit more context the Belarusian activist built on the anti communist Polish Activist Waldemar "Major" Fydrych who in the 1980’s was arrested by the communist authorities in Poland for handing out female sanitary products. As he said “The Western World will find out much more about the situation in Poland from hearing that I was put to jail for giving tampons to a woman, than from reading the books and articles written by other people from the opposition.”
SoftTalker 3mo ago
Hallmarks of a sociopath. Trying to rationalize what he does in terms of normal ethics and motivations is a fool's errand.
- voakbasda 3mo ago
  This sums it up. I can’t understand how people think these people are anything but the world’s worst sociopaths. I cannot understand how so many people idolize and buy into them.
leoc 3mo ago
The story about cheating at Scrabble bears a fairly close resemblance to the episode in the Tintin comic Flight 714 https://tintin.fandom.com/wiki/Flight_714 https://tintin.fandom.com/wiki/Flight_714 in which megarich industrialist Laszlo Carreidas cheats at Battleship while flying on his private jet https://www.reddit.com/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke/comments/1i6cvn9/i_never_though_i_would_need_peter_to_explain_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke/comments/1i6cv... . If the Scrabble incident really did happen then it's uncomfortable how close it comes to a fictional detail deliberately written to make Carreidas look unscrupulous and a bit ridiculous.
bconsta 3mo ago
Too similar to Goldfinger cheating at cards and golf to not make me chuckle.
hsvsy65 3mo ago
Some times its just underling opportunists (which is basically zucks inner circle at this point) defending the empire. Keeping that stupid child emperor on the throne is in their interest.
IncreasePosts 3mo ago
Maybe it's the same thing with we see with many (but not all) sports stars. Getting fame and fortune at a young age ossifies any kind of personal development that happens in people after that point.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
hsuduebc2 3mo ago
I agree. Most people go mad when they receive that kind of power. Aristocracy was trained to rule at some point because you really easily become just a tyrand instead of a ruler. Zuckerberg was just a nerd when it started, then within a few years he turned into an icon and basically later turned mad. The only things this man and his companies produce are subpar software products, which I personally do not understand. How is that even possible for a company with that much money? Their best app is the one he bought, then filled with a TikTok copy. For me, the surprising part is not just that he is obviously an evil piece of shit. It is that he is an evil, rather incompetent piece of shit. The amount of money he has thrown out the window just to promote cringe, nonsensical ideas like the Metaverse or their botched AI only confirms how surrounded he is by chronic yes men who keep approving his ridiculous ideas. In some time he began to be caricature of it selves and make it all more even more bizzare.
- alex1138 2mo ago
  Well... uh 'When it started' was 2003. The same year as his 'dumb fucks' quote or hacking reporters who were investigating him That's not 'being a nerd [nice person] when it started'
  - kmeisthax 2mo ago
    My favorite (paraphrased) Cory Doctorow quote pays dividends here: "Facebook started as a way to nonconsensually rate the fuckability of Harvard graduates, and it only got worse from there." There was a brief period where Facebook was cool enough to give it public credibility, buoyed by the fact that nobody knew who Mark Zuckerberg really was yet. After that point Facebook was big enough to just buy more credibility by buying more successful competition.
nerdyadventurer 3mo ago
Actually this is not specific to rich or US, this is behavior in most of western countries. This started with colonialism, where one consider superior than others in every aspect, so they can do whatever they please. Many are still blinded by this ego, which is the reason for current geopolitical stability. We should understand that sometimes we are the problem. Simon Sinek have great talk with historical example on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWEI9FDf-0g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWEI9FDf-0g
glaslong 3mo ago
Whether or not the emperor is aware of his New Clothes, the effect on his courtiers is the same
leonidasrup 3mo ago
In general you don't become and stay a bilionare just by pure luck, you have to be very inteligent and ruthless, no moral qualms. " Zuckerberg: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard Zuckerberg: Just ask Zuckerberg: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS [Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one? Zuckerberg: People just submitted it. Zuckerberg: I don't know why. Zuckerberg: They "trust me" Zuckerberg: Dumb fucks " https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg
- arcbyte 3mo ago
  Lol. I would have said exactly the same thing at 20 years old and be just as disgusted by it at 30. People grow up.
  - shakes_mcjunkie 3mo ago
    Yea but you're not a billionaire running a giant social manipulation tool.
  - cauch 3mo ago
    People may grow up or may not grow up. If at 20, you don't act like that, then there is no question (and it is possible. In my 20's I was briefly a webmaster for a small org, and I noticed I had access of private info, and unlike Zuckerberg and you, I reported it to get it fixed. It does not mean you are a bad person, but it does mean that you should not consider that everyone would act like you did and that your way of acting was "normal"). If at 20, you act like that, there is a probability that you will grow up, and an even bigger probability that you will not grow up. It does not mean you should never be forgiven, but you have to own what you have done as a dumb kid, not just pretend it does not count, and provide elements to demonstrate that indeed you have changed. In the case of Zuckerberg, his current actions demonstrate clearly he did not grow up.
chistev 3mo ago
I missed the board game story! Was it discussed here on Hacker News?

by akudha 3mo ago

SpicyLemonZest 3mo ago

Or perhaps Zuck didn't cheat on the board game, and the claim that he did is one of the purported falsehoods Meta says the book contains. That would also explain it.

rwmj 3mo ago
If he really doesn't cheat at board games, the power move would be to completely ignore the accuser.
- SpicyLemonZest 3mo ago
  I agree, but she also made other accusations that can't be so easily ignored. Meta can't really have no comment on someone who's going around saying that Sheryl Sandberg and Joel Kaplan both sexually harassed her on the job.

kylecazar 3mo ago

This applies to Elon's incredibly strange video game cheating scandal too. It's pathetic and weird.

altairprime 3mo ago
This all makes a lot more sense when you consider that Elon Musk is trying to dethrone/succeed Richard Branson, but can only manage a knockoff-grade impersonation at best. Cheating is about the feeling of defeating other people without the moral restrictions against cheating that obviously limit them, but cheaters aren’t attractive to non-cheaters; thus the sockpuppet account, to get that prized feeling of defeat without damaging the main caricature.
rustystump 3mo ago
That was i think the most revealing thing about his character bar none because of how mundane it all was. Anyone with a tiny bit of video game background called that out from miles away. It was so pathetic. Richest dude in world with spaceship company. Has nothing to prove. Cheats, lies, and gaslights when caught. Has to be “number one” at a video game that has virtually zero skill where rank is almost entirely who grinds more. Eg time. What a weird and sad thing to do. So unimaginably insecure. Any billionaire you know the name of, is probably not too far off from this. There are alot of rich people who are secure with themselves. Zuck aint one if em.
- gsk22 3mo ago
  Did he cheat at other games too? I knew of the Path of Exile 2 incident, but I'd hardly call that a zero-skill game.
  - rustystump 3mo ago
    It was d4 first and then poe2.
- N_Lens 3mo ago
  Agree with everything else but POE does have a high skill ceiling, it’s just more of a strategic game than tactical.
  - rustystump 3mo ago
    It was d4 first then poe he lied about. These games are more about minmaxing and gear grind. It is why it was even more weird to brag about it. It wasnt like he was moggin the ladder in LoL where it is pure skill no grind up to end game.
- pirates 3mo ago
  The mask was off way way before this imo but I think you’re right that inanity of it is telling in a lot of ways.

dahart 3mo ago

> It is just plain ago and pettiness […] Why else would Zuck cheat on a board game Recently I felt somewhat enlightened on this point, specifically in regards to Trump cheating at golf and some of his bald-faced lies, but I’d speculate it applies here too. Others pointed out to me that while it might look petty and ridiculous to normal people, it’s a social power move to get away with things, and serves the purpose of testing what can be gotten away with, and practicing or exercising the push dynamic. It may have little to do with winning a board game, and a lot to do with seeing what people will tolerate and what the thresholds are for being called out; it’s a test of one’s intimidation factor. It may be somewhat important that the cheating is visible. It can also be social signaling to see who comes to their defense when called out, which is an effect that has been playing out on the national stage with obvious lies being repeated, defended, or excused. It’s not about what’s true, but about people showing the rule breaker who’s on their side, and giving them the power to break rules. This, BTW, to me is a depressing and pessimistic view of power and politics and humanity, and I don’t think these kinds of power moves are something to aspire to, nor do they always work. But as a framework I have to admit it has a lot of explanatory power.

martythemaniak 3mo ago
This is a good observation, because this tactic is a hallmark of Putin and authoritarianism in general. What he does just lie about something where he knows it's a lie and the audience knows it's a lie, and he knows that the audience knows that he's lying, but the audience is powerless to correct him, so it is his way of demonstrating his power over the audience. He is saying to them that he is so powerful and dominating that he is in charge of their reality. Masha Gessen has written a fair bit about this.
jordanb 3mo ago
This is called "Fuckery:" I tell you a lie. You know it's a lie. I know you know it's a lie. But you have to pretend that you believe it because of the power I have over you. The Fuckery is a demonstration of that power.
- raincom 3mo ago

uxhacker 3mo ago

For a bit more context the Belarusian activist built on the anti communist Polish Activist Waldemar "Major" Fydrych who in the 1980’s was arrested by the communist authorities in Poland for handing out female sanitary products. As he said “The Western World will find out much more about the situation in Poland from hearing that I was put to jail for giving tampons to a woman, than from reading the books and articles written by other people from the opposition.”

SoftTalker 3mo ago

Hallmarks of a sociopath. Trying to rationalize what he does in terms of normal ethics and motivations is a fool's errand.

voakbasda 3mo ago
This sums it up. I can’t understand how people think these people are anything but the world’s worst sociopaths. I cannot understand how so many people idolize and buy into them.

leoc 3mo ago

The story about cheating at Scrabble bears a fairly close resemblance to the episode in the Tintin comic Flight 714 https://tintin.fandom.com/wiki/Flight_714 https://tintin.fandom.com/wiki/Flight_714 in which megarich industrialist Laszlo Carreidas cheats at Battleship while flying on his private jet https://www.reddit.com/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke/comments/1i6cvn9/i_never_though_i_would_need_peter_to_explain_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke/comments/1i6cv... . If the Scrabble incident really did happen then it's uncomfortable how close it comes to a fictional detail deliberately written to make Carreidas look unscrupulous and a bit ridiculous.

bconsta 3mo ago

Too similar to Goldfinger cheating at cards and golf to not make me chuckle.

hsvsy65 3mo ago

Some times its just underling opportunists (which is basically zucks inner circle at this point) defending the empire. Keeping that stupid child emperor on the throne is in their interest.

IncreasePosts 3mo ago

Maybe it's the same thing with we see with many (but not all) sports stars. Getting fame and fortune at a young age ossifies any kind of personal development that happens in people after that point.

deleted 3mo ago

[deleted]

hsuduebc2 3mo ago

I agree. Most people go mad when they receive that kind of power. Aristocracy was trained to rule at some point because you really easily become just a tyrand instead of a ruler. Zuckerberg was just a nerd when it started, then within a few years he turned into an icon and basically later turned mad. The only things this man and his companies produce are subpar software products, which I personally do not understand. How is that even possible for a company with that much money? Their best app is the one he bought, then filled with a TikTok copy. For me, the surprising part is not just that he is obviously an evil piece of shit. It is that he is an evil, rather incompetent piece of shit. The amount of money he has thrown out the window just to promote cringe, nonsensical ideas like the Metaverse or their botched AI only confirms how surrounded he is by chronic yes men who keep approving his ridiculous ideas. In some time he began to be caricature of it selves and make it all more even more bizzare.

alex1138 2mo ago
Well... uh 'When it started' was 2003. The same year as his 'dumb fucks' quote or hacking reporters who were investigating him That's not 'being a nerd [nice person] when it started'
- kmeisthax 2mo ago
  My favorite (paraphrased) Cory Doctorow quote pays dividends here: "Facebook started as a way to nonconsensually rate the fuckability of Harvard graduates, and it only got worse from there." There was a brief period where Facebook was cool enough to give it public credibility, buoyed by the fact that nobody knew who Mark Zuckerberg really was yet. After that point Facebook was big enough to just buy more credibility by buying more successful competition.

nerdyadventurer 3mo ago

Actually this is not specific to rich or US, this is behavior in most of western countries. This started with colonialism, where one consider superior than others in every aspect, so they can do whatever they please. Many are still blinded by this ego, which is the reason for current geopolitical stability. We should understand that sometimes we are the problem. Simon Sinek have great talk with historical example on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWEI9FDf-0g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWEI9FDf-0g

glaslong 3mo ago

Whether or not the emperor is aware of his New Clothes, the effect on his courtiers is the same

leonidasrup 3mo ago

In general you don't become and stay a bilionare just by pure luck, you have to be very inteligent and ruthless, no moral qualms. " Zuckerberg: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard Zuckerberg: Just ask Zuckerberg: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS [Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one? Zuckerberg: People just submitted it. Zuckerberg: I don't know why. Zuckerberg: They "trust me" Zuckerberg: Dumb fucks " https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg

arcbyte 3mo ago
Lol. I would have said exactly the same thing at 20 years old and be just as disgusted by it at 30. People grow up.
- shakes_mcjunkie 3mo ago
  Yea but you're not a billionaire running a giant social manipulation tool.
- cauch 3mo ago
  People may grow up or may not grow up. If at 20, you don't act like that, then there is no question (and it is possible. In my 20's I was briefly a webmaster for a small org, and I noticed I had access of private info, and unlike Zuckerberg and you, I reported it to get it fixed. It does not mean you are a bad person, but it does mean that you should not consider that everyone would act like you did and that your way of acting was "normal"). If at 20, you act like that, there is a probability that you will grow up, and an even bigger probability that you will not grow up. It does not mean you should never be forgiven, but you have to own what you have done as a dumb kid, not just pretend it does not count, and provide elements to demonstrate that indeed you have changed. In the case of Zuckerberg, his current actions demonstrate clearly he did not grow up.

chistev 3mo ago

I missed the board game story! Was it discussed here on Hacker News?