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by marginalia_nu13 hours ago |
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upvoteby tomhow12 hours ago|
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Please don't use a tribute post as an opportunity to make personal attacks on the character of a person who has nothing to do with the deceased person.

The guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here, particularly these sections:

Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously... Edit out swipes.

Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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upvoteby Avicebron13 hours ago|
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That works great in a utopian ideal where money isn't an issue. The Andy Yen's of the world become because being a petty tyrant in pursuit of profit is celebrated in some circles.
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upvoteby marginalia_nu13 hours ago|
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Proton had up until two days ago ostensibly cornered a niche of the market where they could basically collect taxes off security conscious nerds and other people wanting out of big tech. This wasn't a start-up with 3 months runway. Proton was by all accounts very financially stable.

The literally only way they could imaginably fuck up what they had was if they squandered the goodwill and trust of their users.

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upvoteby Avicebron13 hours ago|
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As a long time paid Proton user I'm looking for alternatives. Nothing I've seen from Andy Yen these past few days has given me a shred of confidence in the leadership there..
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upvoteby malfist13 hours ago|
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Andy Yen wants us to live in a dystopia where we all pray at the alter of maximum profit and sacrifice everything to it.

I refuse to believe we live in that world. While we're a long way from a star trek utopia, there's no reason to believe standing for morals and principles is impossible in this day and age. A lot of social media and the news are here to tell you thats a hopeless dream, but it's not. Get out an meet people especially the up and coming generation. People have been raised to be kind, and it shows.

The long arm of history bends towards progress not because of inevitability but because _we bend it_. Get out there, do the right thing and leave the world a little bit better than you found it. There's still plenty of profit in that. Enough to share even

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upvoteby Teever12 hours ago|
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Fred Rogers tells a story about his mother saying that any time there's a catastrophe that someone should look for the helpers.[0]

So if we look at this from that perspective, granting that the world is far from a utopia, who in our society is the closest to the kind person that the fictional character Jean-Luc Picard represents?

It sure ain't the usual suspects that we talk about here all the time, or whatever the dweeb villian of the week that just so happens to be Andy Yen this week, so maybe let's not talk about them for a bit.

Who is this[1] in our society?

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LGHtc_D328

[1] https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if---

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upvoteby Der_Einzige13 hours ago|
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Often Picard is compared to Kirk, but I find comparing Picard to sisko to be the much more interesting one.

Picard and Sisko are both excellent, thoughtful, nearly everything you say - and sisko still is quite not happy with Picard given th circumstances of the battle against the borg they fought in together!

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upvoteby m_fayer10 hours ago|
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Great thought. I think Sisko is Picard in a much more difficult, fallen, and true to life world. The utopia is receding, the man of principal faces trauma and angry traumatized people, terrible decisions to make under pressure. He’s a sadder character in a piece of culture with less room for optimism. I quite like him, and think he was a harbinger.
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upvoteby Barrin9212 hours ago|
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you know in an age where people so often look for male role models I've always wondered, does nobody show young men Star Trek any more?

Picard was deeply affectionate and learned when it came to history and culture but free from nostalgia or chauvinism, anti-authoritarian in leadership, tactical and intelligent rather than brash and violent, effectively everything you see less of among the ever more brutish and philistine people in charge around the world.

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upvoteby FranzFerdiNaN12 hours ago|
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Well you can watch 178 episodes of Star Trek and have to actually deal with episodes that force you to think and take the perspective of others, or you can doomscroll TikTok where alt-right influencers tell you all your problems are caused by women having bank accounts or whatever the manosphere is raging about this week.
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upvoteby amelius12 hours ago|
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Would love to read "the tao of Picard" (if it existed)
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upvoteby SenHeng3 hours ago|
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There’s always Picard Management Tips

https://mas.to/@PicardTips

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upvoteby leptons12 hours ago|
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I liked Patrick Stewart in the role, but it seems like people confusing the writing for the person doing the acting? Sure, he was great in that role, but Jean-Luc Picard was more about the writers than the man doing the acting. I mean, let's be real here. He was an actor playing a role, he didn't write the words he said, they were written for the show.
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upvoteby marginalia_nu12 hours ago|
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Picard is both the writing and Patrick Stewart. Picard would not be the same character if they'd cast Kevin Sorbo to play him[1]. Picard without Stewart's presence and gravitas would be something else entirely.

[1] Sorbo's portrayal of Dylan Hunt is basically just taking his Hercules role and putting him on a space ship and I have no doubt it would look the same on the bridge of the enterprise.

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upvoteby SenHeng3 hours ago|
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Tom Hardy’s portrayal of a younger Picard clone disproves the notion that anyone else could’ve been Picard.
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upvoteby leptons11 hours ago|
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I'm not disagreeing with you, of course a different actor is going to give a different delivery, but Patrick Stewart has no writing credits on TNG. Everyone's quoting lines he said from the show, but he didn't write them, he delivered them. While he had a great delivery, people are attributing the lines to him, but they aren't actually his. I don't really want to bring down the vibe, but it's worth pointing out that good writing is what made the show what it was more than only the actors. If the writers wrote vapid lines, and he recited them, would we be having this conversation at all?
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upvoteby hungryhobbit12 hours ago|
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Plus, in long-running series like these writers (implicitly and explicitly) write for the actor. It's a bit chicken and egg-y, but you absolutely cannot (honestly) pretend that another actor would have the same lines written for them.

I mean, in season one sure, but by the time you get to "there are four lights" Stewart and Picard really are inseparable.

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upvoteby nly3 hours ago|
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You're forgetting that later the writers would have been writing with Patrick in mind.

It's entirely conceivable Patrick's performance inspired the writers to reach new heights

Writers and actors feed off one another

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upvoteby elmer213 hours ago|
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[flagged]
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upvoteby marginalia_nu13 hours ago|
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Proton is a for-profit owned by a non-profit foundation, and Yen is the majority shareholder of the company and board member of the Proton foundation. They were ostensibly also very financially stable. He had every opportunity to be a Picard. He chose to be a Ferengi instead.
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