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And you wonder why people hate you. "I could have been one of the best ever if I weren't cursed with having to make millions of dollars." It sounds so cocky.

And you wonder why people hate you. "I could have been one of the best ever if I weren't cursed with having to make millions of dollars." It sounds so cocky. I actually don't hate you (When I first heard of you, I asked a friend of mine "Is this guy a dick, totally awesome, or both?" and I still think "both" is a pretty good way to describe you, so you could say I'm split.), but I hope you see why people do.

jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
Why would I care if people hate me because I'm honest? I can tell you I would have been one of the worst NBA players of all time and one of the best business journalists of all time with a straight face... because both statements are true. rock on
- jackowayed 17y ago
  Simply saying that would have been ok--a little cocky, but excusable in my book--were it not immediately followed by your statement that you were "cursed with being a CEO/founder." If you really wanted to realize your potential as a tech journalist, you could have. No one forced you to start companies. Saying that you're "cursed" by achieving one of the top goals of half of the people here (having a wildly successful startup)--and becoming orders of magnitude richer than the average person because of it--isn't going to help with all of those "haters" who downvote half of your comments to -4.
  - wooster 17y ago
    I'm pretty sure that was meant to be humorous.
petercooper 17y ago
but I hope you see why people do. And like Jobs, Gates, Ellison, Branson, or whoever, I hope he doesn't care if random people on the Internet think he's arrogant or is a "dick." You don't get to even Jason's level by dwelling on this (or, at least, showing it in public). That aside, if Jason had a ton of time to dump into being a "top tech journalist", would he be up against really serious competition? Cringely? Mossberg? Scoble? Arrington? All awesome in their own ways but the gamut of skill in that game is pretty thin.
- _delirium 17y ago
  He seems to care enough to post in nearly every HN thread that mentions him, often pretty defensively, unlike those other people you mentioned...
  - petercooper 17y ago
    Good point. I guess he's not far enough up the totem pole yet to stop hanging out with us serfs ;-) Actually, I wish he would try and become a top 10 tech journalist. His writing is good and certainly more entertaining than the constant Mahalo SEO-runaround forced down our throats here at HN..
    - jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
      I like to talk with folks.... it's the journalist in me. I don't consider you guys/gals serfs--far from it. I consider you guys the real people who actually do sh#$%t. Most of the folks I get to hang out with are CEOs and VCs who talk about the sh2@#$t their people do. I'm all about the doing.... ... thus the reason I'm here with the doers. I'm from the bottom, so I still feel it for the bottom.
      - deleted 17y ago
        [deleted]
      - poutine 17y ago
        Well don't let the downvote brigade discourage you from posting here. I'm sure many of us like hearing from an entrepreneur that's made it, even if you do ruffle feathers. Personally I like hearing from people who tell it as they think it is, even if they're wrong sometimes.
      - petercooper 17y ago
        I'm from the bottom, so I still feel it for the bottom. Don't be fooled by the blogs that I rocked; I'm still, I'm still Jason from the block Used to have a little, AOL gave me a lot Mahalo isn't spam and I still know where I came from.
hackerbob 17y ago
I think for public figures, people are always going to find something small or big to hate on. So I think you deal with it and not wonder about it. As to the comment. Honestly. If your good at something and you worked at. You should not be afraid of the thought of telling someone your good at it, perhaps even one the best.
raganwald 17y ago
I'm going to have to ask you to use the phrase "why some people hate you." RIght or wrong, why would I get up in the morning and hat a guy who I have never met and has so far not done me a bad turn? Because he admires himself? What is this, Sunday morning church moralizing about the SIn of Pride? This is Hacker News! We pride ourselves on our hacking prowess and startup-fu!! If you want a sin to rail against, it's false modesty. Jason may be wrong about how smart he is. That's just being wrong about something. It's no more reprehensible than my being wrong about thinking I could raise a son and found a company at the same time (Paul, you were right about my chances even if I have no regrets about my choice).
- jackowayed 17y ago
  I didn't mean to imply that all people hate him. I just meant that there are (many) people that hate him. I would have said "why everyone hates you" if that's what I meant. But I can see why it would sound like that's what I meant.
  - raganwald 17y ago
    Fair enough. And it seems from reading HN you may be right, although I suspect it has more to do with certain choices than with certain words. But looking at my own life I'm in no position to moralize about business ethics, I used to work in sales...

jasonmcalacanis 17y ago

Why would I care if people hate me because I'm honest? I can tell you I would have been one of the worst NBA players of all time and one of the best business journalists of all time with a straight face... because both statements are true. rock on

jackowayed 17y ago
Simply saying that would have been ok--a little cocky, but excusable in my book--were it not immediately followed by your statement that you were "cursed with being a CEO/founder." If you really wanted to realize your potential as a tech journalist, you could have. No one forced you to start companies. Saying that you're "cursed" by achieving one of the top goals of half of the people here (having a wildly successful startup)--and becoming orders of magnitude richer than the average person because of it--isn't going to help with all of those "haters" who downvote half of your comments to -4.
- wooster 17y ago
  I'm pretty sure that was meant to be humorous.

petercooper 17y ago

but I hope you see why people do. And like Jobs, Gates, Ellison, Branson, or whoever, I hope he doesn't care if random people on the Internet think he's arrogant or is a "dick." You don't get to even Jason's level by dwelling on this (or, at least, showing it in public). That aside, if Jason had a ton of time to dump into being a "top tech journalist", would he be up against really serious competition? Cringely? Mossberg? Scoble? Arrington? All awesome in their own ways but the gamut of skill in that game is pretty thin.

_delirium 17y ago
He seems to care enough to post in nearly every HN thread that mentions him, often pretty defensively, unlike those other people you mentioned...
- petercooper 17y ago
  Good point. I guess he's not far enough up the totem pole yet to stop hanging out with us serfs ;-) Actually, I wish he would try and become a top 10 tech journalist. His writing is good and certainly more entertaining than the constant Mahalo SEO-runaround forced down our throats here at HN..
  - jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
    I like to talk with folks.... it's the journalist in me. I don't consider you guys/gals serfs--far from it. I consider you guys the real people who actually do sh#$%t. Most of the folks I get to hang out with are CEOs and VCs who talk about the sh2@#$t their people do. I'm all about the doing.... ... thus the reason I'm here with the doers. I'm from the bottom, so I still feel it for the bottom.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
    - poutine 17y ago
      Well don't let the downvote brigade discourage you from posting here. I'm sure many of us like hearing from an entrepreneur that's made it, even if you do ruffle feathers. Personally I like hearing from people who tell it as they think it is, even if they're wrong sometimes.
    - petercooper 17y ago
      I'm from the bottom, so I still feel it for the bottom. Don't be fooled by the blogs that I rocked; I'm still, I'm still Jason from the block Used to have a little, AOL gave me a lot Mahalo isn't spam and I still know where I came from.

hackerbob 17y ago

I think for public figures, people are always going to find something small or big to hate on. So I think you deal with it and not wonder about it. As to the comment. Honestly. If your good at something and you worked at. You should not be afraid of the thought of telling someone your good at it, perhaps even one the best.

raganwald 17y ago

I'm going to have to ask you to use the phrase "why some people hate you." RIght or wrong, why would I get up in the morning and hat a guy who I have never met and has so far not done me a bad turn? Because he admires himself? What is this, Sunday morning church moralizing about the SIn of Pride? This is Hacker News! We pride ourselves on our hacking prowess and startup-fu!! If you want a sin to rail against, it's false modesty. Jason may be wrong about how smart he is. That's just being wrong about something. It's no more reprehensible than my being wrong about thinking I could raise a son and found a company at the same time (Paul, you were right about my chances even if I have no regrets about my choice).

jackowayed 17y ago
I didn't mean to imply that all people hate him. I just meant that there are (many) people that hate him. I would have said "why everyone hates you" if that's what I meant. But I can see why it would sound like that's what I meant.
- raganwald 17y ago
  Fair enough. And it seems from reading HN you may be right, although I suspect it has more to do with certain choices than with certain words. But looking at my own life I'm in no position to moralize about business ethics, I used to work in sales...