Re: [2014-03-26] Marc Andreessen Calls Warren Buffett Old White Man at Coinsummit
I disagree - strongly. Calling people names is never a good way to advance your argument.
True.
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The facts that Buffett is old and is white are completely irrelevant to the merits of his position on BTC.
Hmm, I don't fully agree.
The fact that he's white is irrelevant. Apparently, that's just become the "cool" way to slam overly-conservative mindsets. Slam them as "white." The hypocrisy in casually tossing around the remark should be obvious.
But unfortunately, his age is relevant. Of course not all old people hate, or don't know enough about bitcoin, or other modern technology. But it's pretty well established for most people that older folks, in general, don't understand technology, and tend to disparage it accordingly.
I tend to believe that older people could learn technology just as well as younger people, but rather that most choose not to consider it important or to spend time familiarizing themselves with it. The *why* isn't that important; if it's true that that's the tendency of older generations, then it makes sense to suspect and scrutinize (not outright dismiss) their opinions when they disparage new tech. Probably not the best way for Marc to have made his point, but I do feel Buffett's age is relevant in this particular case.
His age is not relevant as a causal variable. His mindset is. He has a huge vested interest in the status quo. Not every old person does - Buffetts are relatively rare in any generation, but their mindset is found in every generation (think Zuckerberg). Young people tend not to have vested interests (yet), although some do (think BTC foundation, for example). The "vested interest" argument is a more useful predictor of behaviour than the generational argument. Making assumptions about all people in a particular demographic based on averages is an unwise strategy. Consider the apocryphal statistician who drowned in a river that had an average depth of one foot. Turning BTC progress into a generational conflict is unwise. You will discover in time that each generation has its share of Luddites. I learned all this the hard way - my generation was going to change the world back in the '60s - it turned out that our generation had the same mix of pro/anti change people as any other generation - we just didn't realize it until much later.
At another level - name-calling is what BTC's opponents do when they have no valid arguments. Our side needn't and shouldn't do it. It squanders credibility for no significant gain.