Hmmm. I think it's tempting to appear jaded in these instances. To poke fun at the omg-I'm-seeing-famous-people-in-the-flesh mentality. I know I have thought ab

Hmmm. I think it's tempting to appear jaded in these instances. To poke fun at the omg-I'm-seeing-famous-people-in-the-flesh mentality. I know I have thought about what makes social interactions different when one person is known by reputation or "claim to fame" and the other person is relatively anonymous. I think about this most acutely because I'm effectively nobody... so when I meet someone I and others look up to, it's definitely awkward. I second guess everything I say and every gesture I make... and I hate myself for it. It creates an asymmetrical dynamic. The whole interaction depends on the magnanimity of the so-called 'famous person' to ignore the awkwardness. It's interesting and weird and (at least for me) relatively rare and novel. But they are human beings. It's almost nice, being anonymous as I am, if you don't know who the hell the person is. Then you don't have to spend so many brain cycles going "wow WOW I'm talking to insert-celebrity-here". It's like Mark Pincus. I could have walked up to him randomly during a break and had a conversation and thought "wow, that was a cool guy with interesting perspective". But even the label on his name tag... "Speaker" gave him away as 'someone important'. Suddenly you feel like the emperor with no clothes... you start trying to justify why the heck you should be wasting this guy's time. It's funny how you don't have that concern with someone you don't look up to. So yeah, there is a lot of ooh-ing and ahh-ing in the crowd. You can't get around that really, but the day wasn't a PG worship-fest. If anything, it seemed less centered around him than last year's SUS (although I might just be projecting). The biggest collective inhale comes with someone like Zuckerberg or Fried walks in the room... and there is no real avoiding that. They are the current players that inspire and lead by example. And that is ok. There is always going to be someone serving that role. We as a species seem to need celebrity both for motivation and allegiance. People pick sides because it's natural to back a champion. But really, I promise you, there was no prostrating. ;) I respect PG and YC and thank them for putting on the event, but I, for one, come here for the conversation, just like I came to Startup School to talk to motivated people trying to make cool stuff. Randomly bumping into 'famous' people is a bonus I guess.