I fully agree with the general HN guidelines, and believe they've been incredibly effective at making this a smart and civil discussion forum, but I respectfully disagree with this interpretation of my comment.
The original article is very thinly argued, and I do believe it's perpetuating negative dynamics that don't reflect well on the general VC/startup community and the author in particular.
The author of the article is essentially arguing that the only thing that matters is proximity to power, status, and wealth, and one should pursue it at the cost of one's own dignity for almost no renumeration.
Given that the author themselves is in fact powerful, wealthy, and holds high status, his statement should properly be parsed as self-serving propaganda. He's basically saying "find people like me and be their handservant" in as many words. My response contains no more dismissive scorn than his original post.
> My response contains no more dismissive scorn than his original post.
Sorry, but that's not true at all.
The thing is, it doesn't matter whether the article is thinly argued or what have you—comments here still need to be much better than that one. Maybe the article doesn't deserve better, but the community here deserves better. It's about ourselves.
Suppose someone writes a shitty, arrogant article. What good does it do to react by degrading HN? It only makes it harder for this place to survive.
The original article is very thinly argued, and I do believe it's perpetuating negative dynamics that don't reflect well on the general VC/startup community and the author in particular.
The author of the article is essentially arguing that the only thing that matters is proximity to power, status, and wealth, and one should pursue it at the cost of one's own dignity for almost no renumeration.
Given that the author themselves is in fact powerful, wealthy, and holds high status, his statement should properly be parsed as self-serving propaganda. He's basically saying "find people like me and be their handservant" in as many words. My response contains no more dismissive scorn than his original post.
In my humble opinion, of course.