4 ms·

Frankly, I'm having trouble taking either of you seriously. The comment was a silly one, but clearly the ego of Paul Graham cannot handle jest that compares YC

• gruseom 17y ago
  The original comment seemed more belittling than frivolous. As for ego, I don't have a window into anyone else's psyche (do you?), but can think of an easy explanation that has nothing to do with ego: YC is a business. It would be irresponsible not to defend one's business against false or disparaging statements. Beyond that, it's important to hold the discourse to a certain standard; we have many examples of the pestilence that befalls online communities where this isn't actively done. (Your comment wouldn't raise an eyebrow in many of these places, but it was locally acidic.) IMO PG does a pretty good job of pushing back on this kind of thing while at the same time letting reasonable criticism have free rein. That's a hard balance to strike and not likely how a runaway ego would go about things.