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I read the article, didn't know the details, but what I now see is : - somebody who has proofs of great achievements he did - a backstory showing how these ac

by guylhem 14y ago

I read the article, didn't know the details, but what I now see is : - somebody who has proofs of great achievements he did - a backstory showing how these achievements are compatible, possible and repeatable for this young immigrant who is decided to succeess - during the vice.com video, apparently a self-reflective decent dude, whose only mistake may have been to send a self promotion video to get the job he really really wanted. He didn't hate. He worked on himself and was pushed my a great internal drive. He was trying to get the right to pursuit happiness applied to his situation. I call that a success. Then the haters showed up and hated him, for daring to pursuit dreams, his dreams, thinks that they would certainly never get to do themselves, even in their wildest dreams These haters may have seen him as a show-off - and that's sad. I call someone like this a beacon of hope on what we humans can achieve if we really put ourselves to work. Pay attention - these persons are quite infrequent, sometimes fragile (Aaron). Help them if you can. But they're here on a mission to change the world. If you are one, I advise you to HIDE the good things you do. Poeple are jealous. Any good dead you do, any investment on yourself you make, any skill you have (breaking bricks for ex) - whatever. Consider that a dark secret of yours and wait for the day when usual humans will no longer hate, but welcome instead, humans with 'better' capacities. RIP Aleksey, you seemed like a great man. The word unfortunately was not ready to allow access to people like you... yet.

saraid216 14y ago
According to his Wikipedia page, most of the claims he made were demonstrably false. (I had never heard of him before this HN post.)
- EvanKelly 14y ago
  I followed his resume story pretty closely when it broke simply for the outrageousness of it all and this is correct. I can't speak to what he achieved afterwards. The ones I remember distinctly: - Video of him skiing in the video is stock footage he bought on craigslist. - Video of tennis serve at 140 mph. - Plagiarized an economics paper in his resume - Claimed to be one of a limited number of people in Connecticut certified for nuclear waste disposal ivygateblog.com seemed to be the biggest follower of his and may still have a lot of the articles and the paper resume.
  - droithomme 14y ago
    Some of these stories such as the nuclear waste one came from stories from people who met him at Yale, and reported in the Yale campus tabloid Rumpus. Jordan Bass, an acquaintance seems to be the source for several of the outrageous ones which were told in the context of Bulldog Days, an official Yale event featuring illegal underage drinking for high school seniors that were accepted. It's pretty clear that most of what he said at this event, assuming he said it at all, was intended as a joke. After it got written up in the campus newspaper and people knew him for this it seems he continued with the joke during his time there since people obviously greatly enjoyed it. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/23/061023ta_talk_mcgrath http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/23/061023ta_talk_mc... * taught tennis to Jerry Seinfeld and Harrison Ford * a specialist in Chinese orthopedic massage * the Dalai Lama wrote his college recommendation * he is an action star * he is an espionage expert * he is a professional athlete * he practices on the C.I.A. firing range * he participates in martial-arts competitions in a secret system of tunnels underneath Woodstock, New York * he competes at skiing competitions in Switzerland * he worked for the Russian Mafia forging passports * won two games in a tennis match against Pete Sampras * founded a charity for troubled kids * wrote a book called "Women’s Silent Tears: A Unique Gendered Perspective on the Holocaust" * is a professional male model * must register his hands as lethal weapons at airports * is one of four people licensed to handle nuclear waste in the state of Connecticut * has killed two dozen men in Tibetan gladiatorial contests My take? He was an awesome guy.
    - EvanKelly 14y ago
      Some of these things (charity for troubled kids, holocaust book) appear in his non-video resume which he sent to the investment banks. In the context of a huge elaborate joke about himself, this guy is easily someone I would have liked to hang out with, purely for the entertainment factor. I'm liable to believe it was a little bit of both.
    - pepr 14y ago
      It's somewhat sad given the circumstances, but this reads as one of those Chuck Norris lists.
- deleted 14y ago
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look_lookatme 14y ago
I agree with everything here and would add that the whole story reminded me of what it was like poring over my developer resumes a decade ago trying to impart a sense of achievement and drive in as terse a way as possible (don't go over one page, don't use pronouns!) and with little hard experience. Today, aside from the sheer chance of being in an industry with more talent demand than supply, I can point to code that I've written and my raw merit as a developer can almost instantly be understood and I can easily find a job. Github is a resume and all that. But I often forget that it's not always so easy for people outside my discipline and it's everything a person can do to differentiate themselves and show determination and a sense of personal development. That is the tragedy of his video resume, because there is certainly a talented and proud and sincere person underneath that production and all that so many people could do was find a way to tear it down.
deleted 14y ago
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ucee054 14y ago
I don't they are really comparable. Swartz was in effect martyred by the US Government over an "information wants to be free" matter of idealism. Vayner became a laughing stock because some asshat in UBS leaked Vayner's awful, awful, AWFUL video resume. And all Vayner had going for him was some athletics. It's "The people deserve access!" versus "I can karate chop 7 bricks, hire me UBS!" If you think people laughed at Vayner out of jealousy, you haven't seen the video resume. Swartz was a great man? OK Vayner? Not so much. More like an above-average guy, unfairly hounded. ADDENDUM: There's a lesson here, you should be very careful about what info you give to an organization, even a 'respectable' one like UBS, even in a job application, so that you don't give some bastard the chance to ruin your life... I doubt the person who did this to Vayner even loses sleep over it.

by guylhem 14y ago

saraid216 14y ago

According to his Wikipedia page, most of the claims he made were demonstrably false. (I had never heard of him before this HN post.)

EvanKelly 14y ago
I followed his resume story pretty closely when it broke simply for the outrageousness of it all and this is correct. I can't speak to what he achieved afterwards. The ones I remember distinctly: - Video of him skiing in the video is stock footage he bought on craigslist. - Video of tennis serve at 140 mph. - Plagiarized an economics paper in his resume - Claimed to be one of a limited number of people in Connecticut certified for nuclear waste disposal ivygateblog.com seemed to be the biggest follower of his and may still have a lot of the articles and the paper resume.
- droithomme 14y ago
  Some of these stories such as the nuclear waste one came from stories from people who met him at Yale, and reported in the Yale campus tabloid Rumpus. Jordan Bass, an acquaintance seems to be the source for several of the outrageous ones which were told in the context of Bulldog Days, an official Yale event featuring illegal underage drinking for high school seniors that were accepted. It's pretty clear that most of what he said at this event, assuming he said it at all, was intended as a joke. After it got written up in the campus newspaper and people knew him for this it seems he continued with the joke during his time there since people obviously greatly enjoyed it. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/23/061023ta_talk_mcgrath http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/23/061023ta_talk_mc... * taught tennis to Jerry Seinfeld and Harrison Ford * a specialist in Chinese orthopedic massage * the Dalai Lama wrote his college recommendation * he is an action star * he is an espionage expert * he is a professional athlete * he practices on the C.I.A. firing range * he participates in martial-arts competitions in a secret system of tunnels underneath Woodstock, New York * he competes at skiing competitions in Switzerland * he worked for the Russian Mafia forging passports * won two games in a tennis match against Pete Sampras * founded a charity for troubled kids * wrote a book called "Women’s Silent Tears: A Unique Gendered Perspective on the Holocaust" * is a professional male model * must register his hands as lethal weapons at airports * is one of four people licensed to handle nuclear waste in the state of Connecticut * has killed two dozen men in Tibetan gladiatorial contests My take? He was an awesome guy.
  - EvanKelly 14y ago
    Some of these things (charity for troubled kids, holocaust book) appear in his non-video resume which he sent to the investment banks. In the context of a huge elaborate joke about himself, this guy is easily someone I would have liked to hang out with, purely for the entertainment factor. I'm liable to believe it was a little bit of both.
  - pepr 14y ago
    It's somewhat sad given the circumstances, but this reads as one of those Chuck Norris lists.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

look_lookatme 14y ago

I agree with everything here and would add that the whole story reminded me of what it was like poring over my developer resumes a decade ago trying to impart a sense of achievement and drive in as terse a way as possible (don't go over one page, don't use pronouns!) and with little hard experience. Today, aside from the sheer chance of being in an industry with more talent demand than supply, I can point to code that I've written and my raw merit as a developer can almost instantly be understood and I can easily find a job. Github is a resume and all that. But I often forget that it's not always so easy for people outside my discipline and it's everything a person can do to differentiate themselves and show determination and a sense of personal development. That is the tragedy of his video resume, because there is certainly a talented and proud and sincere person underneath that production and all that so many people could do was find a way to tear it down.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

ucee054 14y ago

I don't they are really comparable. Swartz was in effect martyred by the US Government over an "information wants to be free" matter of idealism. Vayner became a laughing stock because some asshat in UBS leaked Vayner's awful, awful, AWFUL video resume. And all Vayner had going for him was some athletics. It's "The people deserve access!" versus "I can karate chop 7 bricks, hire me UBS!" If you think people laughed at Vayner out of jealousy, you haven't seen the video resume. Swartz was a great man? OK Vayner? Not so much. More like an above-average guy, unfairly hounded. ADDENDUM: There's a lesson here, you should be very careful about what info you give to an organization, even a 'respectable' one like UBS, even in a job application, so that you don't give some bastard the chance to ruin your life... I doubt the person who did this to Vayner even loses sleep over it.