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Re:Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth by cal85 on Monday September 30, 2024 @11:52AM (#41698587)
Just looked up the etymology of prestige and it’s interesting.

It comes from Latin praestigium ("delusion, illusion"), then 1500s French prestige meaning “deceit, imposture, illusion”. In the 1800s it started to mean “an illusion as to one's personal merit or importance, a flattering illusion”.

I would have wrongly guessed it originally meant “good reputation” (same as the article author meant it, I assume) and that the association with bullshit/fakery is just a modern twist from people using the word with cynical irony. But bullshit/fakery was in fact the core meaning.

Re:Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth by fuzzfactor on Monday September 30, 2024 @01:07PM (#41699512)
That is enlightening.

Without being aware of the etymology I've still had a lifetime feeling since childhood that it is very fragile for some reason that is hard to pinpoint or bring into focus very easily.

Really is about the same feeling as when you know something is hype or BS and for that reason more subject to collapse like a house of cards.

Re:Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth by satvikpendem on Tuesday October 01, 2024 @04:18AM (#41705864)
Hence the name of Nolan's movie.
Re:Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth by reyqn on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @11:53AM (#41721911)
And the word prestidigitation