Re:Viaweb's First Business Plan
by dreinhardt on Sunday February 13, 2022 @03:24AM
(#30320209)
In a world where 99% of people don’t reach that level of success and the ones that do owe much of their success to luck (right time, right place, right parents, right friends, right idea). Looking at someone like this can inspire envy.
Combine it with a personality that comes with high regard for itself (maybe justified, but easily perceived as arrogance).
And there you have it - a very hateable human (being a white male, etc. probably doesn’t help, either).
All that sounds like a pretty accurate explanation of why pg may inspire hate...
I think if you remove the perception of luck's responsibility, it would take away much of the hate maybe.
I'm not sure if you're saying the following exactly but: I think many of the people who may hate PG may think that much of his success is the responsibility not of his choices, but rather the responsibility of luck.
Is that your perception?
What are your thoughts on how much luck contributes to his success? Is it possible to assign a %?
I know sometimes he takes the odd controversial stance but, compared to some other internet commentators it really doesn't seem that controversial. Plus, he hasn't been canceled, the woke barbarian mobs haven't come for his head, and I'm honestly just asking like why do people seem to hate Paul graham? I don't get it.
Was it one thing in particular that he did that was heterodox or heretical? Or is it cuz he sort of pontificates in a self-important way in his blog posts which nevertheless you know make a lot of valid points and certainly have an audience that really appreciates them? And anyway how many other developers or people in tech are guilty of the same air quotes crime of pontificating in a self-important way. I mean that's a lot of what hn comments are as well...
Why does that seem to be so much pushback against pg?
I mean he's successful... Do people resent his success? But that doesn't make much sense to me because there's a lot of successful people in silicon valley who people admire.
Is he just an unlikable person? But that doesn't seem obvious to me, though I have no way of knowing, because I mean a lot of founders have quite a lot to do with him and they don't seem to be making complaints about him.
What is it?