4 ms·
Seems kinda unecessary and unfair to write hit pieces on the dead like this
by naillo 3y ago
Seems kinda unecessary and unfair to write hit pieces on the dead like this
- parthianshotgun 3y agoArguably kinder as the dead won't be terribly bothered by it
- naillo 3y agoCan't defend themselves though.
- gnicholas 3y agoShowing how his life ended up could help others from going down this path.
- UIUC_06 3y agoPick almost any music hero or sports champion and there's your lesson about too much money too early. There is no lack of those stories already.
- gnicholas 3y agoThere are many people who would not identify with the path of a musician or sports star, who would find Tony's educational and vocational path to be more in line with their aspirations.
- croes 3y agoOnly the living suffer, some because of myths about entrepreneurs. Most of the time it's a combination of luck, money and connections. After that money and PE cushion their flaws and errors unless they botch it big time.
- carride 3y agoIt is a book review, not a hit piece.
- blast 3y agoAgreed. The tell is the word "annoying" in this sentence: "Nor does Hsieh’s time at Harvard prove to be particularly illuminating: he, like many annoying undergraduates there, tested out his entrepreneurial chops in his dorm room". Only a member of a competing subgroup would use the word "annoying" like that. I'm surprised an editor didn't catch it. It gives away that the subtext here is inter-elite competition (media vs. tech, arts vs. business). The article is a stroke against one elite group (Hsieh and tech entrepreneurs) by another (the author on behalf of his New Yorker audience). You could write the same thing in reverse, bashing the author and questioning how he got in at the New Yorker, the same way he questions how Hsieh got his seed money. It's a deliciously nasty takedown and a perfectly chosen topic: equal parts envy and schadenfreude, and risk-free because the dude can no longer defend himself.
- SilverBirch 3y agoTo be honest I think most well adjusted people would understand that they themselves were annoying in as an undergraduate. I was an egotistical prick as an undergraduate, some of the things I did make me cringe looking back. But that's the nature of growing up.
- blast 3y agoYes, but that general sense is not how the word is used there. If it were, it would be redundant. He's talking about a specific subgroup (budding Ivy League entrepreneurs?) that he finds annoying in a specific way. It's a class distinction.
- pessimizer 3y agoIt's a hit piece aimed at the journalism, scholarship, and marketing that elevates the results of random number generators into life principles and universal truths. The people who wrote fawning pieces about Hsieh, SBF, or the invasion of Iraq are still telling you how to think. Hsieh was just a tragic addict/mentally ill person, a dime a dozen, only interesting because he was wealthy. There's no need to take him down. He's down.