‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

Carnegie Mellon University Announces Historic $3B Gift from Ken Griffin

47 points · 48 comments · Guyadou

  1. wrs · · focus · HN ↗
    I’m a CMU SCS alum (actually I predate SCS being a full school). Please, someone make me feel better about this. They’re renaming the school after this person.
    1. Maken · · focus · HN ↗
      Who cares? The entire university was named after the first guy who handed them money. It's their oldest tradition.
      1. t0mpr1c3 · · focus · HN ↗
        IIRC Carnegie was the original archetype of the rapacious union-busting wage-suppressing monopolistic billionaire robber baron, and Mellon was all that plus a corrupt self-dealing all-but-impeached laissez-faire Treasury-secretary-cum-megabanker whose deflationary and protectionist response to the Wall Street Crash caused unemployment and destitution on a historic scale.

        But yeah this Griffin guy could give the place a bad name. (Full disclosure, I did a postdoc at the SCS.)

        1. MengerSponge · · focus · HN ↗
          At least those guys had the horse sense to understand the importance of giving something back to the public. The Carnegie libraries are a marvel.

          Their contemporary equivalents seem to be interested in speedrunning a revolution that ends badly for everyone.

          1. t0mpr1c3 · · focus · HN ↗
            The Jeff Bezos no-dick yacht club is a competitive space. Who is the most repellent -- Ellison? Zuck?

            Musk's narcissism is unsurpassed in that he forsees a legacy that excludes the entire human race, except for those aboard his space expedition.

            But Bill Gates has something of the Carnegie trajectory about him. I think there is actually a Gates building at CMU.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.