Yeah, but the order is still

1. create value, then

2. capture some of that created value.

Some people want to skip step 1.

Some bigco jobs have felt that way to me: I don't know if I'm actually creating anything valuable, but I'm getting paid. I think the people who are most anxious right now are the ones who suspect they're not really creating anything of real-world value, and they're terrified that they're about to stop getting paid as well.

It's a glib framing but people often simplify rent-seeking to maximizing returns far beyond value.

Geohot seems to be telling people to do the opposite. Maximise value and don't consider returns.

Is it hyperbolic yes? Is it perfectly acceptable opinion to have and post on your own blog? Yes.

I think sometimes we all get caught in the I don't agree with them entirely. get him!! Online.

Maybe in the first 10 years of your career, after that you totally have the skills needed to create value from nothing - something no value extracting actor will ever be able to learn.

Might take a while but the milk surely becomes butter. His point is valid, maybe your pov is a bit clouded because his baseline is quite high (fame, money) but its not that different at a lower baseline. You bring 1.x to the world that fights over a deemed finite set with 0.x tools.

> If you don't worry about the returns, you won't get any.

He was focusing on value, not returns.

That being said, his take is still a dumb take - if you focus on creating value you may not capture any of that value for yourself. If you don't capture that value, someone else certainly will.

The age of creating value for the public good is well and truly over - any value you create for the public good in the form of intellectual output is immediately captured by profit-maximising companies for training your replacement.

It's not just a case of having your value captured by someone else, the AI corps are actually taking your captured value and then using it against you.

So you think that engineers that maintain and write the FOSS that runs most of the world IT infrastructure ( Linux, Curl, GIT etc. ) do it for the returns ?

I just do my job to the best of my ability. If I can help a colleague I do. I don't expect to get explicitly credited for everything I do.

If my employer can't see or don't care about the value I bring, I simply go to one who values me higher. I refuse to participate in office politics and that kind of BS.