I… still don’t understand why the board didn’t say anything? I really feel like a lot of things would have flipped if they had just talked openly to anyone, or taken advice from anyone. Like, I don’t think it would have made them global heroes, and a lot of people would have been angry with them, but every time any plausible story about what happened came out, there was IMO a visible shift in public opinion, including on HN, and the board confirming any story or giving any more detail would have been huge. Instead they apparently “cited legal reasons” for not talking, which seems crazy to me.
I can imagine it being the case that their ability to reveal this information is their main source of leverage (over e.g. who replaces them on the board).
My favorite low-probability theory is that he had blackmail material on one of the board members[1], who initially decided after much deliberation to go forwards despite the blackmail, and then when they realized they got outplayed by Sam not using the blackmail material, backpeddled and refused to dox themselves. And the other 2-3 didn’t know what to do afterwards, because their entire strategy was predicated on optics management around said blackmail + blackmail material.
I… still don’t understand why the board didn’t say anything? I really feel like a lot of things would have flipped if they had just talked openly to anyone, or taken advice from anyone. Like, I don’t think it would have made them global heroes, and a lot of people would have been angry with them, but every time any plausible story about what happened came out, there was IMO a visible shift in public opinion, including on HN, and the board confirming any story or giving any more detail would have been huge. Instead they apparently “cited legal reasons” for not talking, which seems crazy to me.
I can imagine it being the case that their ability to reveal this information is their main source of leverage (over e.g. who replaces them on the board).
My favorite low-probability theory is that he had blackmail material on one of the board members[1], who initially decided after much deliberation to go forwards despite the blackmail, and then when they realized they got outplayed by Sam not using the blackmail material, backpeddled and refused to dox themselves. And the other 2-3 didn’t know what to do afterwards, because their entire strategy was predicated on optics management around said blackmail + blackmail material.
Like something actually really bad.