
Tom Perkins has died - davidhariri
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/10/technology/tom-perkins-dies.html?_r=0
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flyinglizard
I warmly recommend the book on Tom Perkins' yachting life:
[https://www.amazon.com/Mines-Bigger-Extraordinary-
Greatest-S...](https://www.amazon.com/Mines-Bigger-Extraordinary-Greatest-
Sailboat/dp/0061374024?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0)

It was a fantastic read. Taught me much about the man, early SV life and, of
course, yachts.

~~~
akkartik
I enjoyed _Valley Boy_ : [https://www.amazon.com/Valley-Boy-Education-Tom-
Perkins/dp/1...](https://www.amazon.com/Valley-Boy-Education-Tom-
Perkins/dp/1592404030)

~~~
mathattack
I read this as well. It's great history. He wasn't perfect, and wasn't afraid
to share his imperfections.

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Jugurtha
There's a great 2011 documentary that features the old guard (Gordon Moore,
Tom Perkins, Arthur Rock, etc). It's called "Something Ventured".

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737747/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737747/)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq7JVThjHEA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq7JVThjHEA)

~~~
t1amat
I quite enjoyed this documentary. It was on Netflix for a time, might still
be.

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pcmaffey
Weird. Read the New Yorker article about HBO's Silicon Valley with this bit
about Tom Perkins. Then googled him to find out who he is and learned he'd
just died...

>In 2014, the Wall Street Journal published a letter by Tom Perkins, a
billionaire venture capitalist: “Writing from the epicenter of progressive
thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist
Nazi Germany to its war on its ‘one percent,’ namely its Jews, to the
progressive war on the American one percent, namely the ‘rich.’”

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mathattack
Very sad. He's an icon, who helped define VC as it's practiced today.

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ProfChronos
Just learned about Tom Perkins. Definitely was not perfect but Gosh those guys
had some guts to try what they tried at a time when everybody was so big on
traditional corporate finance and so fearful on new tech companies. RIP

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themartorana
Slightly OT, but I hate it when an article on someone's death shows a fairly
recent photo of them healthy and charismatic. It always brings the eventuality
of the end of life so close to home. That someone can go from healthy and
happy to dead in a few short years is unnerving.

RIP.

~~~
sbardle
Being aware of your own mortality on a regular basis can spur you on to take
more risks and do something positive with your life. In the midst of life we
are in death.

~~~
HerpDerpLerp
etc

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vermontdevil
Saw this video link on Twitter about Perkins and the early years

[https://vimeo.com/105745528](https://vimeo.com/105745528)

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peter303
He gave talks at Stanford now and then. He was very energetic and usually on
target about current business trends.

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jmspring
I can't recall the context, but super yachts, of which Tom Perkins is known
for, was a big thing in the 90s. James Clark (Netscape founder, alongside the
students) was big into his yachts at the time as well.

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michaelbuddy
wouldn't mind seeing "Tom Perkins (description of who he is) " as a headline
here. I have no idea who he is.

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augustt
Looks like this scene in Silicon Valley was based off of him:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC9D-paXcHU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC9D-paXcHU)

~~~
secfirstmd
SV never stops cracking me up!

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jomamaxx
Hero.

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gavanwoolery
First, I should say I am sorry to hear he has passed away. Without a doubt he
played a big role in growing SV.

I recall the incident below, and I'd like to reflect on it (in positive light,
I refuse to speak ill of the dead).

"...he compared the “progressive war on the 1 percent” to the persecution of
Jews in Nazi Germany."

There is without a doubt a problem with the growing divide. But still, the
wealthy are humans too, many who have struggled to obtain their position. Many
wealthy people are trying to fix the problem of the divide. A growing problem
I see is desire to persecute the wealthy, or lump them all into one "evil"
class. That is really throwing the baby out with the bathwater, because I
think the majority of wealthy people are honest and trying to do good, as
opposed to the few dishonest and corrupt individuals among them.

Edit: A lot of people will see the comparison to Jews as ridiculous, but IMO
it is not entirely far-fetched. The Jews were an easy target for persecution
because they were successful when most others were not (which many attribute
to the Jewish work ethic). See: [http://writing.uncc.edu/student-writing/nazi-
propaganda-effe...](http://writing.uncc.edu/student-writing/nazi-propaganda-
effective-two-ways)

Obviously, I don't think his comparison was referencing genocide, but instead
the growing attitude that hates success rather than celebrates it.

~~~
downandout
I agree with you. This was clearly an over-the-top comparison, and in our
politically correct universe that didn't go over well. The "rich" face nothing
remotely close to the persecution that Jews faced in Nazi Germany.

That said, as someone who has inadvertently made over-the-top comparisons
myself when something bothers me greatly, I don't think he deserved the
backlash he received. The problem with the PC movement is that _context_ is
completely lost. If you interpret everything you see and hear literally, as
the PC crowd does, you will find yourself outraged several times per day over
nothing.

He was trying to say that there is a mob mentality when it comes to the
richest people in the US. The public seems hate them but have no real
justification for it. In that sense, hatred of the rich is no different than
the hatred displayed by racists, anti-Semites, and other such closed-minded
groups. The results of that hatred aren't as extreme - at least not yet - but
the hatred itself is based in the same ignorance and flawed thinking.

~~~
the_af
I find the dismissal as "PC" of all valid criticism against the privileged
offensive.

In what context would his comparison of the rich 1% and the persecution of the
Jews in Nazi Germany make sense? The 1% rule. The Jews were historically
persecuted and derided and faced discrimination... real discrimination, not
mean words.

The "mob mentality against the rich" is inconsequential. The rich and
privileged by definition hold all the cards. You can say mean things against
them -- well, as much as the mass media in their power will allow you, anyway
-- and what does it matter? They are still rich and you're not. This is like
saying that it's mean the slaves are saying bad things about their masters; or
that it's mean that the peasants are insulting their king, who after all takes
care of them. It's ridiculous. Not only do the rich have everything, we also
have to be careful not to offend them? We also have to admire them as heroes?

The public has "no real justification"? Really? Besides this being a tiny
group of people who hold the vast majority of wealth and power?

~~~
downandout
_In what context would his comparison of the rich 1% and the persecution of
the Jews in Nazi Germany make sense?_

You're making my point for me. If you take that statement literally, it is
clearly over-the-top. There are other over-the-top statements in common use
today that when taken literally would evoke extremely emotional reactions.
Example: "I just went in there to talk to her and she bit my head off". If you
took that literally, you might respond with horror or outrage that someone had
bitten your friend's head off, and confusion over how they had their head
bitten off just moments ago and yet somehow had it sewed back on in time to
relay their horrific experience to you. When it came to light that your friend
was referring to being yelled at and did not actually have their head bitten
off, family members of individuals that have died from decapitation might
organize protests against your friend for comparing being yelled at to the
terrible deaths that their loved ones experienced. There would be calls for
him to be fired from whatever job he had. How far should we carry this?

Tom Perkins didn't literally mean that rich people are being rounded up and
killed. The PC crowd, however, apparently had nothing else to be outraged
about that week, and jumped all over it, saying that he somehow considered his
plight to be similar to that of Jews in Nazi Germany. His point was that the
general public has an irrational hatred of the rich, just as the Nazi hatred
of Jews was irrational.

~~~
the_af
I'm not making a point for anyone, I'm asking a question (and please, stop it
with "the PC crowd". It's simply a way of dismissing criticism).

I get he didn't mean the rich 1% are being rounded up and gassed, I'm not that
literal. This is not an emotional reaction. What I'm asking is _in which
context does the comparison make sense_? Forget about the holocaust... in what
sense is persecution of a powerless class comparable to being angry at the
rich and powerful? In what sense is criticism of the marginalized comparable
to criticism of the entitled?

If the only ground for comparison is "well, they were both about people being
angry at other people" I'd say the comparison is so weak as to be stupid.
People were right to find it offensive.

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hodwik
Does anyone have a link to his "progressive kristallnact coming"?

~~~
ci5er
I promise that this is not intended to be snide. But clicking the top result
will allow you to view the WSJ article even w/o a subscription:

    
    
      - https://www.google.com/search?q=progressive+kristallnact+coming&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

~~~
hodwik2
Strange, when I hit that link before there was a paywall. Must've hit it
indirectly or something.

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yanilkr
One of the popular self-help advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to read
obituaries and decide for yourself how your's should be. This guy deserves a
great one. Nytimes, don't F this up.

