6 ms·

I earnestly think his writing has an overindulgent fandom here. Every single blog post rockets to the top and, in my opinion, they are usually short and lacking

• pjc50 6y ago
  In some ways, this entire site exists to promote him.
  • jhawk28 6y ago
    It used to. If you look at the recent discussions, they have been very negative responses.
    • bonoboTP 6y ago
      I think his earlier posts were more insightful. Or I was just younger.
• zepto 6y ago
  Yes. It’s because of who he is. If I wrote this post, it would not have the same meaning as if he wrote it. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but the reason is that we know that PG has huge experience of and access to startup founders and seen their outcomes and has had a great deal of opportunity to formulate thoughts like like this on the basis of what he has seen. I have experience of startups too. I could have written something like this, but it genuinely wouldn’t have been as meaningful coming from me, because I don’t have the same perspective as he does.
  • alecbz 6y ago
    I think if your perspective has enabled you to know things you wouldn't have otherwise, _most_ of that should just come through from the writing. It should be possible for you to write in a way that's convincing independently of who you are. A different person might not have been able to produce the same essay, but if the essay is the same, who the author is shouldn't matter too much (for a good essay).
    • zepto 6y ago
      I simply can’t see how this can be right. What we know about PG’s experience is a huge prior that shapes how we interpret what he writes. I think this probably explains some of the polarization we see in the comments - people who don’t know who he is see this as just a dumb blog post that seems to be getting too much karma. People who do, see it as insight from someone who is in a position to actually know something.
      • pseudalopex 6y ago
        Many of his critics mention his connection to HN, discuss his earlier essays, and so on.
        • zepto 6y ago
          Fair point.
      • alecbz 6y ago
        I'm not saying PG asserting some insight is the same as some random person asserting it: certainly PG has some prior we should take into account. But I think good essays are ones where you don't need to really rely on that prior. A good essay is one that convinces you that what it's saying is true, instead of just asserting it and relying on the reputation of the author. If an essay doesn't convince you directly, then: a) the author just didn't take the time to provide an explanation b) the explanation is too complex, or too difficult to materialize, it's something you just develop an intuition about c) it can't convince you directly because it's not actually true If you trust the author on the subject matter enough such that you're in a/b territory, then while I think an essay that explained more would be a better one, an essay that doesn't is still valuable. But I think at least one concern is that we're actually in c territory. Especially with stuff like "picking winning companies", I'm hesitant to take things at face-value. It's such a complicated thing to predict, it's easy to succumb to survivorship bias. I'm not convinced that PG is just so good at it that things should be taken at face-value.
        • 6y ago
  • ckastner 6y ago
    But what you are describing is just an appeal to authority. It's quite possible that putting the assertions of the text in the context of this particular authority does give it more credibility, but I've also heard that same authority make some very poor assertions. Just look at the objective criticism that some of the posts gather. Sometimes, there are really major, easily contradicted flaws in these texts.
    • zepto 6y ago
      You’re going to need to explain how you conclude that I am making an appeal to authority. I didn’t say anything about the validity of his argument. Only that it means something different and more interesting given his experience, than it would coming from someone else. Even when he is wrong, it is more interesting to us than when a random blogger is wrong.
      • ckastner 6y ago
        > You’re going to need to explain how you conclude that I am making an appeal to authority. Because of your phrasing: "Yes. It’s because of who he is." > Even when he is wrong, it is more interesting to us than when a random blogger is wrong. Relative to each other, perhaps. However, is something wrong by PG more interesting than literally every other topic being discussed on HN, so that it "rockets to the top", to quote the comment you initially replied to.
        • zepto 6y ago
          In that phrase, “Yes. It’s because of who he is.”, I am not referring to the validity of his argument. I am explaining the fact that his posts receive a lot of attention. There is simply no appeal to authority being made. The rest of your comment isn’t clear, are you saying there is something wrong with people finding PG’s pieces interesting?
  • throwaway284534 6y ago
    I beg someone out there, please run an experiment that reposts PG’s articles on Medium.com with a different author’s name. All things equal, I wouldn’t doubt that HN would start giving these posts a proper vote count. But then again, some people are more equal than others. shrug
    • zepto 6y ago
      Some people have more experience than others.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• lazyjones 6y ago
  On average, his writings are definitely more worthy of discussion than the newest JS framework or somebody doing something with old or underpowered hardware. Perhaps most of the once-top posts aren't as exciting as one would believe?
  • ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
    I enjoy reading his posts, but I'm not really representative of the prototypical HN reader. I do think they get more attention than ones written by others, but, hey; it's his baby, so it's not surprising that they go so well. For myself, I have always practiced Honor, Integrity, Honesty and Earnestness. Has nothing to do with business. It's a personal philosophy. It did me well, when I worked for a Japanese company, but tends to elicit scorn, when dealing with Americans.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• longerthoughts 6y ago
  >they are usually short and lacking in citation, evidence, or persuasion He’s not writing research papers. He’s just a thoughtful guy with a lot of experience sharing his ideas as concisely as possible. Part of the reason the posts are so interesting is because of the discussions they prompt - I wouldn’t mistake the level of interest on HN for everybody treating these as gospel.
• fbelzile 6y ago
  I mean, you're using a site which self-selects for his target demographic. He's the founder of a VC company which created the site your visiting and apparently his blog gets 15 million page views per year. I think it's just a numbers game, not fandom. I'm not defending what he writes, but this posts are generally fun to read and think about. Sometimes I don't agree with him or find holes in his arguments, but there's usually a nugget of truth you can take away. They're just blog posts, he doesn't need to be infallible. The occasional self-promotion from the people running the site is a price I'm willing to pay to use the site.
• qPM9l3XJrF 6y ago
  An "overindulgent fandom" which seems to reflexively write critical comments of anything PG/YC related.
• DoreenMichele 6y ago
  Part of what I once said about why Def Leppard songs were meaningful to me: A group of young men singing about love who also stood by their talented but now severely handicapped band member after he lost an arm is something that spoke to my soul. To me, these people had to know something more than pretty words. There had to be something deeper in their songs than just "sex, drugs and rock and roll." https://genevievefiles.blogspot.com/2020/04/anger-management.html https://genevievefiles.blogspot.com/2020/04/anger-management... Words never stand completely on their own. What they mean to people is shaped by context, history and reputation. Hacker News wasn't always a space with 5 million unique visitors per month who mostly barely know each other. When I originally joined in 2009, it had a sense of community. I never got to be one of the "insiders" in that community. I was a visitor looking in from the outside. But it did exist and many of those people still come here, though their presence isn't obvious. I don't think you can tell who pg's friends are by who says what on Hacker News. I've always respected the man, though he and I were never friends. I respected him because of how he comported himself here when he was in my mind just a moderator for a forum that I participated on, before he was big time famous and big time wealthy, when his wealth was measured in words starting with M, not B. I don't read every single thing he writes and I never have. But I certainly take his words seriously when I do sometimes read them. He has a PhD and he suggested to his girlfriend that the two of them should start a company together. That company is, of course, YC. I feel like it gets little press as a "pro diversity" company, but it's a big company with a woman founder and that's true because of Paul Graham. It was not Jessica Livingston who came up with the idea. It's sort of a stealth diversity thing and I generally don't say too much about that because I think that's the best way to do diversity and I don't want to ruin it by calling a lot of attention to it. But we've had a pandemic all year and the entire world is cranky as all hell -- me included -- and it's just rubbing me the wrong way that people are so desperate to find a dog to kick these days. So I feel a need to give a bit of pushback here lately.
  • inglor_cz 6y ago
    "people are so desperate to find a dog to kick these days" Thank you for a perfect description of the situation.
• samatman 6y ago
  He's the founder of the site. That's all it takes.