17 ms·

"Altman doesn’t appear to be a beacon of corporate ethics." Do those exist? I'm usually happy to see a mild candle flicker in the ethics window.

by groby_b 2mo ago

_doctor_love 2mo ago
They exist but their defining characteristic seems to be that they are not well-known and generally much less wealthy than celebrity CEOs. Similar to the music world, the better you are, usually the more obscure you are as well. (e.g., Allan Holdsworth is a name known to most pros but the average Jack or Jill have no idea who he is or why he's considered important.)
Zigurd 2mo ago
When Intel was on top of the world I was fortunate enough to work at one of the partner companies on a project that was a pet project of Andy Grove. I would nominate him and his whole C suite as a beacon of ethics and fair dealing.
- PunchyHamster 2mo ago
  When Intel was on top of the world they tried every trick to destroy the competition so that definitely didn't stemmed from the top...
  - LarsDu88 2mo ago
    Andry Grove was great, but Intel really was the epitome of "competition is for losers" In the early days all their products were explicitly designed to only work with each other to create a hardware walled garden.
    - narism 2mo ago
      Compared to Apple/DEC/Sun/SGI, the Intel ecosystem was remarkably open.
      - Danox 2mo ago
        Open to Microsoft…
        narism 2mo ago
        That’s an argument against Microsoft, not Intel. Intel’s main anti-competitive sin was against rival CPU/chipset/graphics manufacturers.
        LarsDu88 2mo ago
        They commoditized their compliment, but made sure their chips only worked with their accessory products, particularly in the 70s
    - fvwqcecvq 2mo ago
      I think it's fair to say absorbing functions onto the CPU die, reducing the part count of motherboards, was a natural evolution of the PC and made sense. So I don't really fault Intel for that. But they definitely had other tricks up their sleeve... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Micro_Devices,_Inc._v._Intel_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Micro_Devices,_Inc._v....
Y-bar 2mo ago
I would say Patagonia would be considered such a flicker.
- nativeit 2mo ago
  Maybe? https://transformativeprivatelaw.com/the-transfer-of-ownership-in-the-patagonia-case-tax-avoidance-or-a-step-toward-a-non-extractive-economy/ https://transformativeprivatelaw.com/the-transfer-of-ownersh...
wbl 2mo ago
Every Wall Street bank is run by guys who get that there are rules to this game and you don't squeeze the unsophisticated the same way. The same can't be said for Silicon Valleys contribution to the brokerage world.
- milkshakes 2mo ago
  is this a joke?
  - nullsanity 2mo ago
    [dead]
  - wbl 2mo ago
    The average private banking or wealth management client gets sold things far less destructive than the Robin Hood client who is far less able to withstand it.
tedggh 2mo ago
Yes, all corporations have their obscure interests and don’t profit from being ethical. But we can also agree there’s a distinction between companies like Enron, Purdue Pharma, Meta, Lehman Brothers, Flock and Apple, Walmart, Verizon and Ford. They are all unethical to some degree, but the first group actually conspired to commit terrible crimes or are borderline criminal. We don’t know yet where OpenAI belongs to but it’s looking more and more like they want to join the first group.
- blincoln 2mo ago
  > Walmart I'm a little surprised to see the company that locked employees into their buildings during night shifts[1] in your "more ethical" list. [1] https://archive.is/Fx9S https://archive.is/Fx9S

"Altman doesn’t appear to be a beacon of corporate ethics." Do those exist? I'm usually happy to see a mild candle flicker in the ethics window.

by groby_b 2mo ago

"Altman doesn’t appear to be a beacon of corporate ethics." Do those exist? I'm usually happy to see a mild candle flicker in the ethics window.

_doctor_love 2mo ago

They exist but their defining characteristic seems to be that they are not well-known and generally much less wealthy than celebrity CEOs. Similar to the music world, the better you are, usually the more obscure you are as well. (e.g., Allan Holdsworth is a name known to most pros but the average Jack or Jill have no idea who he is or why he's considered important.)

Zigurd 2mo ago

When Intel was on top of the world I was fortunate enough to work at one of the partner companies on a project that was a pet project of Andy Grove. I would nominate him and his whole C suite as a beacon of ethics and fair dealing.

PunchyHamster 2mo ago
When Intel was on top of the world they tried every trick to destroy the competition so that definitely didn't stemmed from the top...
- LarsDu88 2mo ago
  Andry Grove was great, but Intel really was the epitome of "competition is for losers" In the early days all their products were explicitly designed to only work with each other to create a hardware walled garden.
  - narism 2mo ago
    Compared to Apple/DEC/Sun/SGI, the Intel ecosystem was remarkably open.
    - Danox 2mo ago
      Open to Microsoft…
      - narism 2mo ago
        That’s an argument against Microsoft, not Intel. Intel’s main anti-competitive sin was against rival CPU/chipset/graphics manufacturers.
        LarsDu88 2mo ago
        They commoditized their compliment, but made sure their chips only worked with their accessory products, particularly in the 70s
  - fvwqcecvq 2mo ago
    I think it's fair to say absorbing functions onto the CPU die, reducing the part count of motherboards, was a natural evolution of the PC and made sense. So I don't really fault Intel for that. But they definitely had other tricks up their sleeve... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Micro_Devices,_Inc._v._Intel_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Micro_Devices,_Inc._v....

Y-bar 2mo ago

I would say Patagonia would be considered such a flicker.

nativeit 2mo ago
Maybe? https://transformativeprivatelaw.com/the-transfer-of-ownership-in-the-patagonia-case-tax-avoidance-or-a-step-toward-a-non-extractive-economy/ https://transformativeprivatelaw.com/the-transfer-of-ownersh...

wbl 2mo ago

Every Wall Street bank is run by guys who get that there are rules to this game and you don't squeeze the unsophisticated the same way. The same can't be said for Silicon Valleys contribution to the brokerage world.

milkshakes 2mo ago
is this a joke?
- nullsanity 2mo ago
  [dead]
- wbl 2mo ago
  The average private banking or wealth management client gets sold things far less destructive than the Robin Hood client who is far less able to withstand it.

tedggh 2mo ago

Yes, all corporations have their obscure interests and don’t profit from being ethical. But we can also agree there’s a distinction between companies like Enron, Purdue Pharma, Meta, Lehman Brothers, Flock and Apple, Walmart, Verizon and Ford. They are all unethical to some degree, but the first group actually conspired to commit terrible crimes or are borderline criminal. We don’t know yet where OpenAI belongs to but it’s looking more and more like they want to join the first group.

blincoln 2mo ago
> Walmart I'm a little surprised to see the company that locked employees into their buildings during night shifts[1] in your "more ethical" list. [1] https://archive.is/Fx9S https://archive.is/Fx9S