<story><title>Reddit CEO doubles down on attack on Apollo developer in drama-filled AMA</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/09/reddit-ceo-doubles-down-on-attack-on-apollo-developer-in-drama-filled-ama/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>maybelsyrup</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This is a digression, but this saying has always frustrated me. It makes sense for a second, but then I wonder if whoever came up with it had any idea how much malice exists in the world. Many cases of &amp;quot;malice is at least as adequate an explanation as incompetence, given the facts or lack of them&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>mustacheemperor</author><text>At this point my theories are&lt;p&gt;1) Ego and emotion are driving decisions at reddit&lt;p&gt;or&lt;p&gt;2) Reddit&amp;#x27;s leadership has run the numbers and genuinely thinks it will benefit their profitability plans if the users reacting negatively to these changes all leave. This is well past the point of just killing 3rd party apps because the API changes alone would have accomplished that.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.&amp;quot; What do you do when incompetence  would be unbelievable in scope and malice would be unbelievably incompetent.</text></item><item><author>slg</author><text>Why did Reddit even have an AMA for this? Everyone knew it would turn out exactly like it did. The most difficult questions went unanswered.  The answers they did give were either just bland corporate speak or actively detrimental, giving their critics more ammunition including opening Reddit up to accusations of libel.  The whole ordeal seems to leave them in a worse position than if they just never did the AMA.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>r00fus</author><text>I prefer the less epistemological version of this (gray&amp;#x27;s law)&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Does it matter if it&amp;#x27;s incompetence or malice?  If you care, are now forced into action, best just make a move and justify it after the fact.</text></comment>
<story><title>Reddit CEO doubles down on attack on Apollo developer in drama-filled AMA</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/09/reddit-ceo-doubles-down-on-attack-on-apollo-developer-in-drama-filled-ama/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>maybelsyrup</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This is a digression, but this saying has always frustrated me. It makes sense for a second, but then I wonder if whoever came up with it had any idea how much malice exists in the world. Many cases of &amp;quot;malice is at least as adequate an explanation as incompetence, given the facts or lack of them&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>mustacheemperor</author><text>At this point my theories are&lt;p&gt;1) Ego and emotion are driving decisions at reddit&lt;p&gt;or&lt;p&gt;2) Reddit&amp;#x27;s leadership has run the numbers and genuinely thinks it will benefit their profitability plans if the users reacting negatively to these changes all leave. This is well past the point of just killing 3rd party apps because the API changes alone would have accomplished that.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.&amp;quot; What do you do when incompetence  would be unbelievable in scope and malice would be unbelievably incompetent.</text></item><item><author>slg</author><text>Why did Reddit even have an AMA for this? Everyone knew it would turn out exactly like it did. The most difficult questions went unanswered.  The answers they did give were either just bland corporate speak or actively detrimental, giving their critics more ammunition including opening Reddit up to accusations of libel.  The whole ordeal seems to leave them in a worse position than if they just never did the AMA.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rnd0</author><text>It is an attitude that has given a lot of cover to very malicious people over the years. Bush is a great example of that. Many people thought he was a moron and during his administration a lot of the things that happened on his watch (no-bid contracts to Halliburton and Abu Ghraib spring to mind) were often brushed off by people citing Hanlon&amp;#x27;s Razor.</text></comment>