Why? Making that stuff public should be totally fine. (I get some flack because on my blog I write literally everything I think of, whether it's personal relationships, religious philosophy, web design, or what ever; I get emails regularly asking me to at least tag my various posts for easier consumption and I refuse, because for me that's not what my blog is.)

I find a fascination with people: why they build what they do. So while I love books, I tend to love the authors of said books just as much.

First of all, go to the root of the website and see the promotional weight-loss program therein (no comment.)

Secondly, go through the essay again and you will find someone who is attributing his life choices, good or bad, to someone else who he has never consulted, met in person or even corresponded with:

> "Alone in my room I rolled on the carpet and screamed “I love you, Paul Graham.” "

This is after reading "A Taste for Makers"

>"Over the next three years I must have read A Taste For Makers at least twenty times."

Biblical exegesis?

>" I felt bad because your writings had more influence on me than my own father."

Completely unwilling to accept/admit that his life choices, influenced by an external input (in this case PG's writings), are still his own.

> "Admittedly I am a nobody compared to you but a part of me was a tad jealous of your success. "

No comment.

>At this point I figured you had completely lost it. Your stature as a guru was toast!

See, he wants a guru.

Oh. I kind of thought he was being ridiculously over-the-top for the sake of it. Taking this at face value makes it really creepy.

I hope you aren't conflating "decent human being" with technical skill.

A decent human being is _modest_ whatever of his or her technical skills. Successful decent human beings encourage you to think for yourself and reach your own conclusions, even if they're emotional and subjective in their own analysis of themselves or their work.

This blind fanfare and celebrity-worship just makes PG look like any other self-promoting guru that you find filing the paperback shelves. Tim Berners Lee is a decent human being. Self-promoting commercial bloggers, faddists, and get-rich-quick types are not, even if they're competent enough to roll out a sophisticated web platform for their self-promotion campaigns.

You make a mistake to judge those other people so harshly. What makes a human being decent is much more complicated than we all like to think it, and many of those sorts of people really are good people. In fact, it might be safe to say the least decent sort of person is the one who judges decency so quickly.

I understand your point and your compassion towards others. Thank you. But this is "Hacker News", not "Self-promoters and gurus anonymous"; I'm sure allot of people enjoy and benefit from reading Dr Phil, Napoleon Hill, or the Rich Dad Poor Dad guy. Just not me.

PG will have to speak for himself, imo; does he want this place want to be a fan club, or does he want it to be a peer moderated discussion forum for entrepreneurial hackers?