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coef2 | on: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's letter to staff about affair
I felt the same way. I can see his remorse and genuine care for his family which makes me feel a bit sad.
dezsiszabi | parent | next
They're just words, brother. Don't get fooled by anything a CEO says. They say whatever people want to hear.
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ldite | parent | next
...you do realise that every word of this would have been written by a top-flight crisis management PR agency?

He would have presumably signed off on it, but refusing to do, or questioning their judgement, would look very bad to the board.

cynicalkane | root | parent | next
The PR agency writes what one of the world's most powerful CEOs tells them to write. They can strongly advise sounding sincere, but it's not their decision. I would venture that the reason so many corporate and celebrity apologies sound fake is simply because the client doesn't want to do a real one.

Sounding sincere doesn't mean they actually are, but it does mean they didn't let their ego get in the way of it, which is more than can be said about many who would be caught in a position like this, rich or not.

ethbr1 | root | parent
That doesn't explain why other similar letters, written with similar PR resources, always fail to meaningfully apologize.
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LightBug1 | parent | next
So said every adulterer ever, after the event ... fuck that bullshit.

I'm not saying crucify him. We all make mistakes. But he doesn't deserve your sadness. His family does.

He made a horrible mistake which should serve as a cautionary tale and reminder to us ... that's all.

And the spy angle, and how that's being defended? Nauseating ...

freeopinion | root | parent
I think it is proper to have compassion. It is ok to be sad for him as well as his family. That doesn't mean you absolve him of consequence.

If he was goofing around trying to juggle a bowling ball and it slipped and smashed the coffee table next to him, I could feel sorry for him. I'd still expect him to pay for the damage.

Doing stupid things with a bowling ball and cheating on your wife and family are not the same level error. I can still feel sorry for him in his mistake. And I can still expect him to pay for the damage. In this case, it isn't paying for a new coffee table. And it isn't just writing a public letter.

The levels of trust he has violated are deep. Not just for his wife and family. He has been smoozing the President of the U.S. to influence U.S. foreign policy towards China. Do we trust this was for the best interest of the U.S.? The world? So that his company could make more money? Or for his personal gratification?

I believe in second chances. I think he can work to rebuild trust. But rebuilding trust doesn't mean you start over with 100% trust. Put him back in the mail room and trust him with small things. Then trust him with increasingly important things as he earns that trust back. Maybe someday he might earn back enough trust to regain his current position. Ok, maybe don't restart him in the mail room. But don't restart him where he is.

--

All of the above is a mostly useless opinion. I am not on the board. I am not in any position to dictate anything about the situation. It is mostly none of my business. I just offer it as some food for thought for anyone trying to form their own philosophy. Consider compassion with consequences.

wildmXranat | parent | next
Uh, Do you feel sad for his family or sad for him, because I think he's a real POS. We men should lead by example. He's a leader, but behaves like a weak coward.

It's not hard to keep it zipped up in the pants.

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AdrianB1 | parent | next
He used a good prompt to generate the text. So good it impressed you.
q3k | parent
They played you like a fiddle. Your comment will end up on some PR agency's pitch deck.

It's so depressing to see people eat this up.

A_Venom_Roll | root | parent | next
Curious what you think would be the 'correct' course of action in such a scenario
program_whiz | root | parent | next
The GP isn't saying Jensen took the wrong action, he's saying that this is a carefully crafted message from a top PR firm, and that the posters saying how its "genuine and heartfelt, I can see he really cares" are just eating it up. Those lines will become advertising for the agency as they land the next big client, like book reviews, but for the "publicly vulnerable executive" PR package.

Its not that Jensen is wrong, its a good play, the GP is just saying how sad it is to watch people eating this up like they think Jensen cracked open his laptop and drafted a note, pushed it up to the public web site, then forwarded it to axios or something.

There were lots of people involved in a carefully crafted rollout, the wording of which has nothing to do with how Jensen or his family are handling this. We will never know how he personally feels or how any of this really played out behind closed doors. For all we know he and his wife are talking divorce and shouting it out and this piece is just crafted damage control.

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carlosjobim | root | parent
What do you genuinely believe that a person looses if they choose empathy? And what does a person win if they choose the opposite?

Let's say there was a false apology. And a person here on HN fell for it. What exactly have they lost by falling for it? Let's say a person here on HN didn't fall for it. What exactly did they win?

People get to caught up in being right and "not being a sucker" that they forget if it's worth their time and worry. It seems people are most competitive when stakes are the lowest and there's nothing to gain.

None of us here have any stake in this.