Post #3374174
2026-06-22 15:07 UTC
Replies (2)
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@rook@awful.systems 2026-06-22 21:26
Anyone who names a security company “sauron” has critically failed their reading comprehension. Mercifully, there’s no company naming itself saruman, because that character was breathtakingly dumb in so many ways that perhaps even the y-combinator set are dimly aware of them.
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@TheLazyHase@awful.systems 2026-06-23 07:00
I would expand on what rook said that Thiel very much is not a big fan of the book. He is a big fan of an imaginary version he dreamed up. A common problem in fiction, especially visible in the first Star Wars trilogy, is to make the villain look cool and efficient to amp up their threat, and then see people root for them. But it’s super not the case for Lord of the Ring. Saruman is shown to be a pathetic fool at every corner. You can’t be a fan and have not noticed that. Sauron fare little better ; he is shown to be baseline competent at some things, but he is the living embodiment of “the thing in the way of your project is who you are”. The conclusion is that it’s most likely Thiel did not actually read the book. Maybe he skimmed them, maybe he only read the summary. But anything important in it flew past him, despite Tolkien not being exactly subtle !