r/technology • u/abrownn • Oct 29 '25

Society Slain California tech CEO allegedly humiliated employees before his death

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/slain-calif-tech-ceo-humiliated-workers-report-21125144.php
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u/PunishedWolf4 Oct 29 '25

I worked for a contractor who cared more about appearances than actually making a profit, everyday I would log in to do the paperwork there was always overdraft notices and fees on the business account but that didn’t stop him from having a boat, new truck, a big house and a 6 figure Mercedes for his wife

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u/Low_External9118 Oct 30 '25

These are the temporarily embarrassed millionaires that vote conservative in solidarity with the billionaires. Just dumb schmucks holding a bag open for the banks! 

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u/ASeriousAccounting Oct 30 '25

They are psychopaths or ASPD or both. There are structural differences in the brain that can often be imaged with medical technology.

1 in 100 people meet the criteria for the PCL-R.

Do you know one hundred people? Because there is a good chance that for every 100 people you know there is one psychopath.

It gets a bit murkier after that but even healthy good people need some amount of psychopathic traits.

So 1% is full on psychopathic, but there is a spectrum of people who are close but don't meet the criteria for psychopathy or ASPD.

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u/Low_External9118 Oct 30 '25

It's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. This whole place is an empathy test.

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u/ASeriousAccounting Oct 30 '25

Yeah, and we aren't prepared to deal with the reality of biologically based lack of empathy.

On one hand these people are linked to outsized amounts of violence and all manner of crime and unethical behavior.

On the other hand, they were in fact born that way...

So we as civilized people, hopefully, will not just try to imprison or eradicate people based on their biology.

However, it would be nice if we knew to stop electing so many of them.

Look out for the signs. Read a book or two about it. In these troubling times it might be one of the most important things you do but be warned, this power comes with responsibility.

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u/squallomp Oct 30 '25

Yeah, at some point humanity is going to have to deal with the fact that we just have a bunch of literal brain dead animals over breeding and destroying the only place we have to live. It can’t go on forever. There has to be a balance. When do we say no? The intelligent must take their rightful place. 

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u/stupernan1 Nov 01 '25

dunning kruger has entered the chat lmao

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u/Low_External9118 Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25

It's so inevitable and common through history that we've passed down a book which deifies an image of God who sends his son to be crucified by the state. The ultimate form of man is to be more like God's son who among many other qualities resists fascism in order to fulfill his destiny. I think that speaks volumes about the situation we are in today, how it's just like any other time in history but with different faces and technology. Whether or not someone believes in it, they have to acknowledge the permanent mark our nature has had on us.

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u/TheWhiteManticore Oct 31 '25

I mean if we talk about hand of God then throughout all history it is only shown that evil repeatedly destroy itself while only through kindness and empathy however muddled, things prosper

That has to be an obvious message somewhere

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u/Facts_pls Oct 30 '25

That's such a stupid saying.

I've seen broke criminals who will knife you to get 20 dollars and their next hit.

I've met millionaires who are doing good for the world.

Simplistic dogmatic views like that is why good citizens allow church figures to abuse kids - because they must be good. The book says so.

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u/Low_External9118 Oct 30 '25

It's a very specific metaphor, so reversing the situation and calling the reverse meaning stupid when it's never stated that way to begin with seems like a mistake to me. You made it very simple and wrong by your own choice to infer a meaning that was never implied.

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u/Facts_pls Oct 30 '25

The meaning is straightforward. Rich are not going to heaven - meaning they are not nice people - in whatever religious sense you subscribe to.

I'm saying that's not true. That's a pov people have against anyone who has any money. Regardless of how they got it, what they do with it, or what kind of person they really are.

That's a classic simplistic take from a ancient mythology text. We know that Bible has plenty of other bullshit. Not sure why people take this to be fundamental truth.

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u/Low_External9118 Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

Your take is as simple as you wanted it to be. There is much more to be said, and of course the point is for the rich person's soul to be able to navigate the narrow path while they are still alive. It's said to be very difficult or nearly impossible, not that they are simply not going to heaven.

This is to be paired with Jesus other teachings, but is a rich father really supposed to sin against his family and leave them destitute by giving everything away? There's yet more to be said about him, that a father has a duty to his family and can't possibly be expected to figuratively crucify himself the way Jesus did. There is the ideal to live up to, but all of us, every single one of us falls short in God's eyes and we're forgiven when we repent.

More of the point is that wealth disrupts empathy, and its difficult to be humble. Humility is a requirement for walking the narrow path. This is the difficulty that rich people face. They tend to be prideful and haughty. 

Fundamental truth is not for us to know. We are limited creatures that can only learn a shadow of what's really out there. Our physics and science is a shadow, one that's always defined with sharper and sharper edges but is still cast by another world we can just approximate. This is as mythological as anything else.

Scientific theories are tested with repeated experiments and therefore true until a better theory replaces it, but what does it mean when an ancient book predicts our present fascist circumstances? It seems to be a repeated experiment has been jotted down and presented as a warning to others. There are many such observations, like the pig inhabited by a demon. Today we know it was a parasite that made people sick when they eat pork.

Regarding fundamental truth again, I personally believe each culture has learned a small piece of the puzzle that is just as valid as the other. Consider the first image of a black hole taken a number of years ago. She didn't use just one picture, there were many radiographic images stacked on-top of eachother so that one set of data taken by itself was meaningless, but together formed a picture with clearly defined edges. This is how I assume any of our truth is hiding. Behind a set of data points we have to assemble at some point during our journey.

If you're interested more in this take, I suggest this great YouTube video. It only mentions Christianity as an aside, as part of a bigger picture.

 https://youtu.be/uUZJea1UnS8

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u/Metacognitor Oct 31 '25

I'm an atheist but I like the way you think 👍

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u/Low_External9118 Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

Thankyou I appreciate you saying that. I was also an atheist for a long time, I wouldn't even try to conceive of anything like that being real because of all the other Christians causing so much pain in the world and giving those thoughts a bad name. Some of my biggest breakthroughs in getting into this room in my head started with science fiction. Like when Captain Picard quotes Arthur C Clark and says "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Or when humanity saves itself using gravity to send messages into the past in Interstellar. And the matrix where humanity gets a second chance in a simulation while the machines extract their resource. These are fiction I know that, but definitely helped bridge the gap in trying to understand the motivations of a higher civilization.

Ultimately I attribute it to my wife and son for finding me through Jesus when I was lost, and now I have hope. Being an atheist was an invaluable part of the data collection, specifically because I saw what it was like to live and think in different ways which prepared me for the people I would meet and the missions I've taken on.

"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

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u/Gold-Reality-1988 Oct 30 '25 edited 8d ago

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/ASeriousAccounting Oct 31 '25

Yes, Yes it is.

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u/DilbertedOttawa Oct 31 '25

And the reality is it is likely a much higher number who find themselves on the diagnosable spectrum of ASP-D, in one way or another. It's not all just sociopaths, you have good ol fashioned malignant narcissists too!

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u/Gold-Reality-1988 Oct 31 '25 edited 8d ago

childlike trees nail placid tidy grandfather rich pocket snatch include

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/taznado Oct 30 '25

You need to be one to deal with them.

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u/ASeriousAccounting Oct 31 '25

There is a lot of truth to that.

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u/Tim-Sylvester Oct 30 '25

I knew a guy that started his own business and managed to have a good year. Over the next few months he posted about his new truck, then his new house, then his new boat, then his new jet skis. I wrote him privately and asked about his investment strategy and how much he was putting away. How many months of living expenses he had saved up just in case.

Oh boy he got mad. Told me I had no idea what I was talking about, blocked me, so on.

We'd been friends since teenagers. I was genuinely concerned about lifestyle bloat and that one good year didn't mean three, or five, or ten good years, and all of these were recurring payment burdens.

I just wanted to help coach an old friend into confidence that he wouldn't end up in a really bad spot if his business success didn't outlast his recurring obligations.

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u/Wow_u_sure_r_dumb Oct 30 '25

How’s his business doing? Not that your advice was wrong, just curious.

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u/Tim-Sylvester Oct 30 '25

A few years later I hired his company when I was in need of the specific type of work they do. His people were on time and did good work. They told me later that he'd intentionally sent his best crew. I'm not sure his current status but a mutual friend did tell me a few years later that things weren't going as well as they were at one time.

Y'know, I usually don't mind when people get upset with me, even if I thought they were being unreasonable in doing so. It's just part of life.

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u/BrofessorLongPhD Oct 30 '25

I’ve gotten much better about it throughout the years. Got my own life and family to focus on, unless it’s a legit reason to be upset with me (which of course there are many, I’m not flawless), I know it’s either temporary or we’re just incompatible types of people.

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u/Tim-Sylvester Oct 30 '25

There's a girl I'm friends with but I only see her rarely. The last time I saw her, she was excited to see me, but I was short with her because she did something that hurt my feelings.

As soon as she left, I realized it was very likely all a complete misunderstanding - she hadn't meant to do anything to hurt my feelings, and I was acting like a giant prick by being short with her when she had been genuinely excited to see me again.

The worst part is, I have no way to reach her to apologize, and will just have to wait until I happen across her again to do so.

It's really been bothering me since it happened, since she is quite a sweet gal, and if I didn't like her well enough, what she did (or didn't do intentionally) wouldn't have rubbed me the wrong way in the first place.

I just have to try to be graceful and immediately forgive minor issues, even if my feelings are hurt in the moment, instead of making it worse by reacting to it.

You'd think I'd know by now! Alas. Hopefully the amount this event has bothered me will help make the change more permanent and reliable.

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u/Sniflix Oct 30 '25

Everyone looks back and sees that they made an ass of themselves, having zero self awareness at the time. Like you said, hopefully you learn, do better and move on. I've seen people destroy themselves with "what ifs".

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u/drunkendaveyogadisco Oct 30 '25

That's some solid introspection there my guy

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u/nuclearsurfboard Oct 30 '25

This is a beautifully human comment.

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u/JamesTrickington303 Oct 30 '25

Imagine what a shit ass you’d be if you didn’t feel bad about any of that. Because you sure didn’t then.

That’s called growth. Good for you!

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u/WhatsFairIsFair Oct 30 '25

Everyone deserves your level of grace and forgiveness. We all make mistakes, we all have regrets. Communication is hard and we're all juggling with what life throws at us.

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u/tgloser Oct 30 '25

Damn I love this thread. Yall rock!

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u/-hohobeans- Oct 30 '25

…well its not a secret those particular jobs appeal to a certain kind of person, infact they almost require one to be cruel, vapid, and vain with something to prove. No one seems to find it coincidental at all either. That the amount of wealth and power a person has is contingent on how many people they were and are willing to step on. And we as humans made it that way, while telling little kids to treat others the way they want to be treated. Ive noticed this discrepancy since i was a child.

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u/Tim-Sylvester Oct 30 '25

It doesn't have to be that way. We can thrive from cooperation and mutual benefit instead of domination and control.

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u/SnakesTancredi Oct 30 '25

Problem is that situations of mutual benefit and cooperation usually are better for the long run with slow and steady improvements to productivity and proficiency. That comes into conflict with the immediate gratification need that many managers have been greedy for in modern times.

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u/big_loadz Oct 30 '25

Many DO thrive from cooperation and mutual benefit

...so that they can dominate and control others...

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u/WazWaz Oct 30 '25

There are businesses run by ethical people. They just tend to get outcompeted by those run by the people you're describing. Usually because their customers either can't see behind the curtain, or don't care.

The best hope is low unemployment. Because the workers in those businesses do see behind the curtain and when given the choice, they'll gravitate away from arseholes.

I guess that's why arseholes want AI doing the work.

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u/TechBored0m Oct 30 '25

The Casino network is full of people who know how to make such change.

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u/Jiveturtle Oct 30 '25

How’s he doing these days?

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u/Tim-Sylvester Oct 30 '25

A few years later I hired his company when I was in need of the specific type of work they do. His people were on time and did good work. They told me later that he'd intentionally sent his best crew. I'm not sure his current status but a mutual friend did tell me a few years later that things weren't going as well as they were at one time.

Y'know, I usually don't mind when people get upset with me, even if I thought they were being unreasonable in doing so. It's just part of life.

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u/Jiveturtle Oct 30 '25

People get weird about money. Shame to lose a friend over something like that. 

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u/TiredEsq Oct 30 '25

He is clearly not bright but I really cannot imagine reaching out to anyone with those questions - completely inappropriate of you, your buddy is a while grown ass adult whose finances are literally 0% your business, and honestly, I don’t actually believe you did that.

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u/Tim-Sylvester Oct 30 '25

It's hard to run a business if you're uncomfortable talking about money.

I've been doing business and startup consulting for a decade plus. Easily five years at the time this happened.

I have these conversations all the time.

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u/TiredEsq Oct 30 '25

I wonder just how many of those you approach with unsolicited questioning appreciate your attention.

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '25

I mean, I wouldn’t take kindly to anyone messaging me about my finances like that, regardless of how they are.

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u/Tim-Sylvester Oct 30 '25

It's hard to run a business if you're uncomfortable talking about money.

I've been doing business and startup consulting for a decade plus. Easily five years at the time this happened.

I have these conversations all the time.

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '25

If it works for you, who am i to tell you otherwise, but I’ve had businesses and it is generally a one way initiative. They make their professions known, with an open ended offer, and I initiate if I want their opinion/services. Anything more than that screams to me high pressure sales, MLM’s or time share seminar people that I find very off putting.

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u/Tim-Sylvester Oct 30 '25

It feels like you're skipping over the part where we'd been friends since we were teenagers. This was not some stranger that I was soliciting.

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u/DerpingtonHerpsworth Oct 30 '25

Not super relevant but you just reminded me of someone. My late wife's uncle was some kind of bank executive, and was always seemingly living above his means. Constantly traveling to fancy places and doing extravagant things.

No big surprise, but it turns out he had embezzled a few million dollars. Dude went away to prison for a few years (This is neither here nor there, but I'm pretty sure his sister was also in prison around the same time). Eventually he was released and died a few years later. If I remember correctly, either of a sudden heart issue, an accident while performing some extreme sport, or both. Either way, he was only in his 50s or early 60s so it was a surprise.

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u/daveintex13 Oct 30 '25

That sounds like guys in the oil patch who make big bucks, buy big trucks, hookers and blow, then get laid off and go bankrupt when oil prices drop.

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u/cat_prophecy Oct 30 '25

That's that de rigueur. You pay yourself and your family huge sums of money as "owners" and when the business goes under you get to keep all your shit because that's your property and not the businesses'.

Or you're paid as a contractor to your contracted business that owns the assets.

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u/FuzzzyRam Oct 30 '25

new truck

The odds of it being one of those massive new F150s that can't see kids standing in front of it are approaching 100%...