Comment by cole-k
5 years ago
Well, if we want to supply character evidence, I know Radon.
And I believe that not only were his intentions good, but also his actions.
Although I would still like to hear Amjad’s side of the story.
5 years ago
Well, if we want to supply character evidence, I know Radon.
And I believe that not only were his intentions good, but also his actions.
Although I would still like to hear Amjad’s side of the story.
I just... Amjad has been excellent, and I’ve never gotten the sense he would do something like this. It doesn’t even make sense for him to worry at all, let alone to send legal threats. Replit is at “early google/Microsoft vibes,” as pg put it. It would be hard for anything to kill replit, unless they do it themselves.
I saw this pop up while I was out driving to the gas station, but I was so shocked that I wanted to urge caution. Now that I’m back, I too will look carefully at all sides. Thank you for vouching for Radon — it helps to know that this isn’t just someone with a chip on their shoulder making up stories.
Admittedly, if I have to reach for “maybe it’s a lie,” it’s not looking great. But the fair thing to do is to wait and hear from amjad.
What kind of stuff have you done together? I haven’t worked directly with Amjad, but some years ago I almost joined, and we’ve since thrown around ideas for how to use ML to build some great tooling at replit. He strikes me as extremely reasonable, and I’ve seen him change his mind from talking with him. (It wasn’t just a technical plan that he changed his mind about; it was a tricky social situation thing.) I didn’t get the sense he would stomp on someone.
I agree it’s possible I was off the mark, and if so, I’ll readjust. But I believe in him. So I won’t let myself be dragged to a certain judgement without listening to the other side of the story first, no matter how bad it looks.
But it’s fair if other people don’t feel that way. It’s just, the inside situation often looks much, much different, y’know? It’s good to wait and see.
I can understand now why you would doubt the blog post. Radon and I are friends from college, and in my approximately five years of knowing him I have no reason to believe him ever capable of faking a blog post so he can get back at his former employer. He certainly fights for what he believes in, though.
I suppose we can only wait to hear what Amjad has to say.
Oh boy.
I don't know you, but I really don't think you're making that up. And that means, as a scientist, I now have to contend with the new evidence of "a longtime personal friend of the author, who seems quite reasonable to me, is saying that the blog post should be taken at face value."
...I'll keep asking around. It's not looking good, but it's also unfair not to listen to the other side.
Welp. Time to dive in to the details of this post. Fwiw, if it's genuine, then I empathize greatly with Radon; I've been in a similar situation, where I wanted to build a business but decided against it due to vague threats. I can only imagine what it'd be like to have the threat of sic'ing YC's extremely well-paid lawyers on your ass to hunt for any small violation of your employment terms that they can leverage legally.
Ugh. It just sounds so frickin' cartoonishly evil that I'm having trouble even forcing myself to admit it's possible. But I do admit it's possible.
Can I ask, have you spoken with Radon about this? Did you get the impression that there might be some details omitted, or ... anything? Something other than the cartoonish evil story that I'm being asked to accept as true.
(I admit I'm reaching pretty far with this line of thinking, but, it's possible that there was some crucial context omitted from the post. If so, a five-year college friend should be able to sense whether something like that might've been the case. I'm hoping maybe you did, and maybe you'd be willing to say so if so.)
EDIT: I’m still a bit in shock, but it turns out that you’re completely correct. Thank you, very much, for vouching here for Radon.
He sounds cool.
> I saw this pop up while I was out driving to the gas station, ...
You're doing it wrong.
> But the fair thing to do is to wait and hear from amjad.
This.
I feel it's likely your GP comment will turn out to be the most constructive one on this whole thread. It seems like a clear case of bullying, but if Amjad is like you describe then one must postulate some additional factor(s) to account for his behaviour.
I'm reminded of a story I once heard about a sweet little old lady who suddenly became highly irascible and it turned out she had lead poisoning. These things happen. God forbid, it could be a brain tumor.