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I think this may be an American thing. People as successful as PG, Musk, Bezos, Gates etc become demigods, for a majority of people. Cults are created around th
by drclau 5y ago
I think this may be an American thing. People as successful as PG, Musk, Bezos, Gates etc become demigods, for a majority of people. Cults are created around them. They can never be wrong and so on.
As a result, the opposition arises too: the people who dislike these demigods for the same reasons their followers like them.
I say this is probably an American thing because I don’t see this happening in Europe. I worked for years for one of the most successful startups in Europe and I have no idea what the names of the founders are. Probably no one does by now.
- HDMI_Cable 5y agoAll of the attention around these guys seems like an extension of celebrity culture. I know Europe (in particular the UK and France) have a somewhat large culture around celebrities and their opinions / comings-and-doings, but the US is on a different level. These founder-cults seem like the cults around the Kardashians (or whoever), but for guys who couldn't care less about movies but really want to be rich.
- distances 5y ago> I say this is probably an American thing because I don’t see this happening in Europe. I worked for years for one of the most successful startups in Europe and I have no idea what the names of the founders are. Probably no one does by now. I agree there's much less business related worship in Europe. I also worked a couple of years for a successful "startup" (it's a public company so hardly a startup any more), and wouldn't be able to name the founders. I've also been visiting HN for a good while and have no idea who PG is, beyond that he apparently is some boss at YC and likes to write controversial blog posts. We do get our share of Gates/Bezos/Musk news but lots of it is quite critical, I don't think anyone sees them as role models.