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A velvet glove conceals the iron fist. It may be that successful mean people just hide it well enough to seem nice and the "x-ray vision" of the author's wife
by beloch 9mo ago
A velvet glove conceals the iron fist.
It may be that successful mean people just hide it well enough to seem nice and the "x-ray vision" of the author's wife doesn't work on everyone. Once a mean person's position is unassailable, the velvet gloves come off. Alternatively, money is power and power corrupts.
The current crop of billionaires are at the pinnacle of success (depending on how you define it), but most sure don't seem very nice, and that's with a large PR team working overtime to hide the meanness.
- FeteCommuniste 9mo agoRight. Highly successful people are rarely mean in the crudest and most obvious ways, like punching somebody unprovoked. But there's nothing stopping them from being broadly callous, or screwing over people who are in no position to fight back.
- morgoo 9mo agoPeter Thiel is mentioned by name in the footnotes and I'd assume Paul Graham thinks relatively highly of him.