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While perhaps not worthy of a post on Hacker News, I do see the humor in this account, highlighting the humble brags of the VC world. I think what’s important o

While perhaps not worthy of a post on Hacker News, I do see the humor in this account, highlighting the humble brags of the VC world. I think what’s important or funny is that normally these people simply humble brag and then have their flock immediately praise them for all of their good deeds and fortune. An account suddenly calls them out, and they immediately find the “block” button.

wutbrodo 7y ago
Eh, I think a lot of people have internalized a toxic strain of thought in our current culture that says that it's a bad thing to be proud of your achievements. There's a theoretical version of this account that skewers an overinflated sense of self-importance[1], but from scrolling through this account, it just seems to be coming from a place of self-hatred that sees anyone enjoying their achievement as doing something wrong. Most of these tweets are just "congrats to XYZ! So proud to be part of this success as one of the early funders!". What exactly is the issue with celebrating a victory you had a part in, and congratulating those who were more central to the victory? I can actually relate to this on a personal level: After a medical issue wreaked havoc on pretty much every facet of my life over the course of a couple years, I got better and started putting the pieces of my life back together. One of the first things I did was start working again, and for the first time in years, had a job where I felt like I was being challenged and succeeding (my work performance was one of the things that suffered pretty terribly while sick, including having to take a ~year off). As you can imagine, I was really excited about this one thing going well in my life after years of being sick enough to be bad at everything, and I'd be straightforward when talking to friends about how well I was doing. Apparently, I have a few friends that have internalized the toxicity I'm describing: they're insecure enough about their careers that they couldn't even stand hearing someone speak positively about doing well at work, regardless of the context. The VC case may be seen as okay because it's "punching up" in a way that wasn't true in my case. But "punching upwards" often just means defining your desired targets as "upwards", and using the phrase as an excuse to wallow in envy and toxicity, as if this is somehow salutary for either your mental health or for society. This Twitter account isn't quite a big deal, and it's a very mild expression of this tendency. But seeing it as "calling out" something bad is entirely missing the point IMO. [1] Here's the only example I found in the first dozen tweets which is actually mockable: https://twitter.com/VCBrags/status/1232396401763667970 https://twitter.com/VCBrags/status/1232396401763667970
- bubblethink 7y ago
  >Most of these tweets are just "congrats to XYZ! So proud to be part of this success as one of the early funders!". This is a matter of taste, but I find this to be vastly superior: "Contragts to XYZ!", and someone from XYZ may or may not thank the funders with a follow up. That is, there is no implicit association or expectation of getting something in return when you congratulate someone. >I'd be straightforward when talking to friends about how well I was doing. If you are talking to people in person, that has a different context from broadcasting to the world.
  - wutbrodo 7y ago
    > If you are talking to people in person, that has a different context from broadcasting to the world. If anything, I'd expect mild self-promotion to be _more_ acceptable on the latter, since it serves as both a vehicle for personal and professional communication. Ie, "so proud to have been nominated for the [some award] for [book that I wrote]" is a pretty normal tweet on Twitter, and there's nothing especially wrong with it or mockable about it.
    - bubblethink 7y ago
      It's a matter of taste and ultimately subjective. The camp that disagrees with this approach lumps these sorts of behaviours as seeking validation or neediness, particularly in the broadcast mode. Show, don't tell and all that. In the 1-1 mode, it's passable as long as there is some relationship and context where this exchange would make sense.
      - wutbrodo 7y ago
        > The camp that disagrees with this approach lumps these sorts of behaviours as seeking validation or neediness, particularly in the broadcast mode. Show, don't tell and all that. In the 1-1 mode, it's passable as long as there is some relationship and context where this exchange would make sense. Sure, I guess my point was that this matter of taste (seeing the expression of pride in one's achievements as "seeking validation or neediness" in a bad way) is precisely the toxic cultural current that I was describing. In my anecdotal experience, it's usually driven by a heaping dose of self-hatred being externalized onto others by dragging them down.

wutbrodo 7y ago

Eh, I think a lot of people have internalized a toxic strain of thought in our current culture that says that it's a bad thing to be proud of your achievements. There's a theoretical version of this account that skewers an overinflated sense of self-importance[1], but from scrolling through this account, it just seems to be coming from a place of self-hatred that sees anyone enjoying their achievement as doing something wrong. Most of these tweets are just "congrats to XYZ! So proud to be part of this success as one of the early funders!". What exactly is the issue with celebrating a victory you had a part in, and congratulating those who were more central to the victory? I can actually relate to this on a personal level: After a medical issue wreaked havoc on pretty much every facet of my life over the course of a couple years, I got better and started putting the pieces of my life back together. One of the first things I did was start working again, and for the first time in years, had a job where I felt like I was being challenged and succeeding (my work performance was one of the things that suffered pretty terribly while sick, including having to take a ~year off). As you can imagine, I was really excited about this one thing going well in my life after years of being sick enough to be bad at everything, and I'd be straightforward when talking to friends about how well I was doing. Apparently, I have a few friends that have internalized the toxicity I'm describing: they're insecure enough about their careers that they couldn't even stand hearing someone speak positively about doing well at work, regardless of the context. The VC case may be seen as okay because it's "punching up" in a way that wasn't true in my case. But "punching upwards" often just means defining your desired targets as "upwards", and using the phrase as an excuse to wallow in envy and toxicity, as if this is somehow salutary for either your mental health or for society. This Twitter account isn't quite a big deal, and it's a very mild expression of this tendency. But seeing it as "calling out" something bad is entirely missing the point IMO. [1] Here's the only example I found in the first dozen tweets which is actually mockable: https://twitter.com/VCBrags/status/1232396401763667970 https://twitter.com/VCBrags/status/1232396401763667970

bubblethink 7y ago
>Most of these tweets are just "congrats to XYZ! So proud to be part of this success as one of the early funders!". This is a matter of taste, but I find this to be vastly superior: "Contragts to XYZ!", and someone from XYZ may or may not thank the funders with a follow up. That is, there is no implicit association or expectation of getting something in return when you congratulate someone. >I'd be straightforward when talking to friends about how well I was doing. If you are talking to people in person, that has a different context from broadcasting to the world.
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  > If you are talking to people in person, that has a different context from broadcasting to the world. If anything, I'd expect mild self-promotion to be _more_ acceptable on the latter, since it serves as both a vehicle for personal and professional communication. Ie, "so proud to have been nominated for the [some award] for [book that I wrote]" is a pretty normal tweet on Twitter, and there's nothing especially wrong with it or mockable about it.
  - bubblethink 7y ago
    It's a matter of taste and ultimately subjective. The camp that disagrees with this approach lumps these sorts of behaviours as seeking validation or neediness, particularly in the broadcast mode. Show, don't tell and all that. In the 1-1 mode, it's passable as long as there is some relationship and context where this exchange would make sense.
    - wutbrodo 7y ago
      > The camp that disagrees with this approach lumps these sorts of behaviours as seeking validation or neediness, particularly in the broadcast mode. Show, don't tell and all that. In the 1-1 mode, it's passable as long as there is some relationship and context where this exchange would make sense. Sure, I guess my point was that this matter of taste (seeing the expression of pride in one's achievements as "seeking validation or neediness" in a bad way) is precisely the toxic cultural current that I was describing. In my anecdotal experience, it's usually driven by a heaping dose of self-hatred being externalized onto others by dragging them down.