Having known a couple founders turned millionaires (no one in the many millions or billions tho), they will use small as a percentage of their wealth but large in nominal terms donations to bolster their reputation in exactly the same way one might spend too much in a video game for a fancy cosmetic.

As a general rule, if ever someone is presented to you as a 2-dimensional character or cartoonish hero or villain, there is usually quite a bit more to discover. This probably goes in my list of 100 things to tell any young person about life.

Some of the people who have caused the most pain, suffering and death in the world were still kind to their dogs. They are often pleasant socially. Stalin, by was apparently delightful over a glass of whiskey and some cigars.

The older I get, the more I judge people by what they work for in the world, and what changes they try to bring about. I am less interested in the face that they present socially.

> The older I get, the more I judge people by what they work for in the world, and what changes they try to bring about. I am less interested in the face that they present socially.

This is a thought I'm having lot as I get older. I've taken to judging people on how much what they say they work for in the world aligns with the profile of who they choose to work for. Not so much for unskilled in minimum wage work, but massively so for anyone who works in tech.

It pains me to see so many engineers younger than me convinced that they're bringing around positive changes with their career whilst working for companies and people who are demonstrably against everything they claim they're working for.

I feel sorry for all the psychology majors, that went to school, to learn to help people, and are now designing dark patterns.

They are likely making a lot more than they would, otherwise, though.

It speaks to motivation generally, I think. Most people just want to be able to take care of themselves and the people closest to them; they (and this includes me most of the time) don't have the bandwidth to think beyond paying next month's rent.

Can't remember the source of this quote regarding software developers: "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads."

We're all in the same boat.

Counterpoint though, they’re sometimes exactly what they’re described as.

Elon Musk, Larry Ellison and Jeff Bezos are examples of this

Except those examples are specifically and obviously not true, except maybe Larry Ellison.

Indeed - once he took the mask off, Musk turned out to be much worse than what he initially seemed.