TEDx Talks
1 HN recommender · recommended in 15 months, 2014–2026
6:17 · 229K views · Jan 13, 2013
A surreal multimedia TEDxSarasota performance by Magic Leap founder Rony Abovitz, held on 12/12/12, mixing performance art with talk about imagination and creativity.
Mostly cited as damning evidence of Magic Leap's hype and marketing, with commenters calling it delusional or a fraud signal.
20 comments from Hacker News
For anybody curious about Magic Leap, I highly recommend this TED talk by the company's founder Rony Abovitz: this video It starts off kinda weird, you gotta give it a few minutes.
[LINK] DonHopkins 16 hours ago | prev [–] It's a good thing they're effectively dead, but they don't have any useful parts to carve out, because they were a fraud through and through from day one, infested with toxic sexist nepotistic bro culture, and were an embarrassment and warning to the industry. No surprise at all they unethically bricked their useless overpriced electronic waste. [LINK] DonHopkins on Dec 4, 2021 | parent | context | favorite | on: I bought those AR cycling glasses that were on HN ... Why not simply do what Magic Leap does, and blatantly fake the camera images and games that don't really and couldn't possibly exist? [LINK] And then rip off other people's work without giving them any credit in your patents. [LINK] And then sexually harass the very women you employed to solve the endemic "pink/blue problem" and fix the nepotistic sexist bro culture, and rebuff and ignore her advice, and pay her off to keep their mouth shut when she sues you for sexual harassment. [LINK] And then give the entire AR industry a bad name by not delivering on your outrageously hyped promises, while burning through BILLIONS of dollars and fucking over your foolishly gullible investors. [LINK] fredoralive 8 hours ago | root | parent | next [–] Don’t be so harsh, at least we got the Steam Deck out of all this. DonHopkins 5 minutes ago | root | parent | next | edit | delete [–] In the same sense that we also got [total surrealistic non sequitur] out of it -- no causal connection.
Hey, I though Magic Leap had it all figured out! Are you telling me those guys are totally full of shit??! SHOCKED I say SHOCKED! The synthesis of imagination: Rony Abovitz and Magic Leap at TEDxSarasota this video Hold my beer... [LINK] >Are you referring to the sex discrimination lawsuit and nepotistic sexist bro culture that tarnished Magic Leap's reputation? [...] [LINK] >Or are you referring to the ridiculous 12/12/2012 TEDX "talk" that Rony Abovitz performed at the Ringling College of Art, and all the FAKE and DECEPTIVE videos they posted and lied about on youtube, that tarnished Magic Leap's reputation? [...] [LINK] >That didn't stop them from making fraudulent concept video demos that they falsely claimed to be actual existing games that they were already playing around the office, and that they promised much much more than they could actually deliver. >So if you can't reproduce the experience on a 2D screen, then fake it and lie, you're saying? That IS the whole point. [LINK] >Or are you referring to the way Magic Leap picked up and ripped off so many other people's original designs and IP in their patent applications without giving the actual inventors credit, that tarnished Magic Leap's reputation? [...] [LINK] >The point is that the name Magic Leap IS extremely and deeply tarnished, in so many ways, and Magic Leap pretending it's not just makes them look more laughably delusional than they already are (which is extremely), just like Trump still believing that he won
Or are you referring to the ridiculous 12/12/2012 TEDX "talk" that Rony Abovitz performed at the Ringling College of Art, and all the FAKE and DECEPTIVE videos they posted and lied about on youtube, that tarnished Magic Leap's reputation? this video In my mind, they're not as reputable after having given Rony Abovitz a platform to perform that "fudge". Just watch the video, if you can stomach it, all the way through. And read the comments, like this one: >Nick Steele 2 years ago (edited) >This is a joke. Take it for what it is. They didn't want to say anything so they basically said "are you ready? READY? ... fuck you". >After a completely ridiculous intro which includes nano machines humping blood cells and two crack monkeys worshiping a massive block of "demented space fudge" which takes up 75% of the talk until 4:30, right after 30 seconds of literal silence, a spaceman says "greetings" and introduces today's "keyword" which is "fudge", then a guy plays terrible music out of tune and sings half-way into the mic. Then the lights suddenly go out and the crack moneys and space man simply walk away. >Keep in mind the audience thinks they are about to hear a billionaire explain his new "world changing" virtual/augmented reality technology, then they get this shit. >The best part is the audiences reaction at the end. :) Dented Reality: Magic Leap Sees Slow Sales, Steep Losses [LINK] >Magic Leap had high hopes for sales of its augmented reality headset. Instead, the richly valued st
The incompetence, and the rampant sexism, and of course the blatant dishonesty and deception in their faked demos. Not to mention the way they ripped off other people's ideas in their patents and didn't give them credit. I posted this earlier: [LINK] There was some overlap, and both had lots of "Magic" hype, but there were some really great people working at General Magic, and not nearly as high a level of narcissistic bullshit and self aggrandization and utterly dishonest marketing as from Magic Leap. I mean, come on: this video [LINK] The whole point of the lawsuit was all about how Magic Leap's company culture and product plans and demos and self image all revolved around adolescent male egos and sexist fantasies, and excluded women. Tannen Cambell, who filed the lawsuit, was actually hired for the express purpose of solving Magic Leap's recognized "pink/blue problem", but was rebuffed and ignored. They knew they had a problem, and even gave it a name, but they refused to solve it. Read the lawsuit: [LINK] >Campbell, one of whose responsibilities was to help Magic Leap with the “pink/blue problem,” had to endure hostile environment sex discrimination while proposing ways, not only to make Magic Leap’s product more woman friendly, but also to make the workplace more diverse and inclusive. Campbell was terminated after (and because) she, like the child in “The Emperor’s New Clothes” who blurted out that the Emperor was naked, challenged Magic Leap’s CEO, Rony Abovitz, to acknow