I suppose I’d rather hire 250 bright kids with $1 million package each instead, but I suppose it gets pr.
atomicnumber3•7h ago
Just glancing through the article, it seems like this person is a doctor of philosophy (hardly a "kid") and their doctorate is literally in the exact thing that everyone is throwing gobs and gobs of cash at. And I guess Meta (et al) sense that literal empires are at stake here, so this is probably just how much money that's worth to them.
48terry•7h ago
> doctor of philosophy (hardly a "kid")
Media has this strange need for fully-grown responsible adults to be thought of as children. Not only for the amazing stories of "this (mid-30s career professional) kid did something", but also helpful to try and shirk responsibility.
Thinking about attempts to frame SBF as a wee smol bean kid in over his head while actively committing fraud.
saulpw•6h ago
Ph.D. dropout.
bsder•6h ago
Taking immediately available cash instead of finishing a PhD is almost always a good economic decision (we'll leave aside the fact that a PhD is almost always a disastrously bad economic decision).
You can always go back and finish your PhD later.
burnt-resistor•5h ago
For almost every Doctorate except for a few who really want to become postdocs or somehow win the tenure lottery, there is a generally an economic disincentive to completing it.
NHQ•6h ago
Thats only 25M in 2025 dollars.
burnt-resistor•5h ago
Still not enough to afford the house I grew up in in San Jose.
vivzkestrel•4h ago
and what exactly is this "whiz" kid capable of doing that you and I cant
warofwords•3h ago
I think Meta has a problem of none of their users wanting any more of their services and they have a very distinct brand taint
Paying 250m to a genius to more deeply entrap user time and attention is going to look diabolical unless there are measurable user life improvement outcome measurements... if metas more slop addiction that 250m is a diabolical contract
gedy•8h ago
atomicnumber3•7h ago
48terry•7h ago
Media has this strange need for fully-grown responsible adults to be thought of as children. Not only for the amazing stories of "this (mid-30s career professional) kid did something", but also helpful to try and shirk responsibility.
Thinking about attempts to frame SBF as a wee smol bean kid in over his head while actively committing fraud.
saulpw•6h ago
bsder•6h ago
You can always go back and finish your PhD later.
burnt-resistor•5h ago