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readthenotes1 | on: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's letter to staff about affair
I don't know if this is Jensen himself or his advisors, but if you're going to make an apology, this is the way to do it.

There was, no deflection "this is not who I am", No blaming the spy.

He owned up to his mistakes

adriand | parent | next
For sure he has excellent PR and comms advisors. He gets credit, I guess, for taking their advice, but none for betraying his wife and family. It speaks volumes that so much of the leadership class in American tech and business is so morally compromised.
reverend_gonzo | root | parent
For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure many, if not most, humans in their position could be compromised in this way.

It is one person, and your enemies have all the resources at your disposal.

It is very easy to say, “I would never do X” but when you literally have a nation trying to get you do X, I presume it’s a lot harder.

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yodon | parent | next
Crisis communications is a real field. Most companies aren't prepared for it in advance and do it poorly as a result, but there are specialist consultants who are good at getting it right (source: close friend who did this kind of work for many years - it is not a pretty business, and often involves significant human failings).

I don't mean to belittle the letter, but Jensen's PR firm undoubtedly helped with the letter and undoubtedly had advisors who specialize in this.

charlieyu1 | root | parent | next
Owning a mistake is especially hard in the East Asian culture. It’s been a long time I have seen a public figure admitting his wrongdoings.
TheOtherHobbes | root | parent | next
Indeed.

Anyone who believes he personally agonised over this alone in a darkened room is being rather naive.

shermantanktop | root | parent
Or, you know, you could be a stand up person and be genuinely contrite.

He's a big time CEO and his company is impacted by how well he handles it. So of course there are PR/crisis people around. They specialize in making psychopaths look human.

But leaders are where they are because they make good decisions - their character does matter. Calling in the image-fixer types to clean up your mistakes is easy mode.

TheOtherHobbes | root | parent
Being seduced by a foreign agent was neither a good decision, nor evidence of good character, nor proof of situational awareness.

Can we assume this was a one-off because she was uniquely persistent and persuasive?

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benzible | parent | next
As apologies go it’s skillfully done. But it’s almost entirely about his personal failings (the affair), and it leaves plenty of room for a slow-walked board investigation that will end with a report designed to look thorough while concluding nothing.

Even if he didn’t know she was an intelligence asset, it’s hard to believe he didn’t at least suspect Megaspeed was a conduit to China. If you read the press reports, there were a ton of red flags.

Nvidia has also said he’ll stay on as CEO while the investigation runs. I can’t think of many CEOs who would survive this, let alone without taking any time off.

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greenchair | parent
Its all calculated down to the pretend patriot lines near the end even though he's constantly looking for ways to bypass export restrictions to sell to china.