Haters
paulgraham.com
Haters
1–10 of 308 posts
Re: Haters
#2Curious, what sorts of famous people do we have hanging around HN?
Re: Haters
#3I find this parallel interesting. I definitely have "fanboys" (I cringe at the term, but it's what pg uses, so I'll be consistent) who drive me crazy with their complete lack of critical thinking about my work -- I can see obvious flaws in many things I do, but they apparently can't -- but I can't think of anyone whom I would describe as hating me. Plenty of people ignore me, of course -- but that's quite different from actively denegrating my work or attacking me at every opportunity.
I can see three possibilities here:
1. I've just been lucky so far.
2. I have haters but I've simply not noticed them.
3. There's a range in the spectrum of "fame" where people attract fanboys but not haters -- particularly when people are famous within narrow niches -- and I'm in that range.
I'm leaning towards the third possibility, but I'm curious what other readers think here.
EDIT: pg points out on Twitter that haters are rarer than fanboys, so it may be a combination of 1 & 3: I've been lucky, but most "minor celebrities" are lucky.
Re: Haters
#4> Haters are generally losers in a very specific sense: although they are occasionally talented, they have never achieved much.
So if people become haters because they never achieved much, why do people become fanboys?
Re: Haters
#5> Haters are generally losers in a very specific sense: although they are occasionally talented, they have never achieved much. So if people become haters because they never achieved much, why do people become fanboys?
Judging from the people who have self-identified to me as fanboys: They often aspire to follow an example. So the difference between the groups may be less how much they have achieved and how much they hope to achieve -- a question of optimism as much as anything else.
Re: Haters
#6The common ground is that these people are way too interested in what other people are doing. As if life is what other people are doing instead of what one is doing oneself. Life is for participation not spectation.
Re: Haters
#7Curious, what sorts of famous people do we have hanging around HN?
Depends on your definition of famous, but Patrick Collison of Stripe is here every now and then. Antirez of Redis, too.
Re: Haters
#8> Haters are generally losers in a very specific sense: although they are occasionally talented, they have never achieved much. So if people become haters because they never achieved much, why do people become fanboys?
My personal theory: same reason but scoped to a limited domain. You can be a generally happy and successful person but a fanboy of an athlete because you've never achieved much in sports. You want someone to succeed because it resonates with some unrealized potential in yourself.
Re: Haters
#9I find this parallel interesting. I definitely have "fanboys" (I cringe at the term, but it's what pg uses, so I'll be consistent) who drive me crazy with their complete lack of critical thinking about my work -- I can see obvious flaws in many things I do, but they apparently can't -- but I can't think of anyone whom I would describe as hating me. Plenty of people ignore me, of course -- but that's quite different f…
I don't think you qualify as famous in the sense pg uses the word. You're well known and highly regarded in some circles, but that's really different to how people think/feel about Travis, Eric Schmidt, Elon, SamA, etc.
(Or I'm not using the word properly which might be the case because I'm not native English -- I have friends who are as well known/successful on their field as you are (apprx.) and I'd never call them famous.)
Re: Haters
#10We always have leaders and followers. I think the haters might be those who are fanboys of someone else.
Think about team-sports, the English soccer hooligans. They succumb to terrible violence because they are fanboys of their own team and haters of the other team, including the followers of the other team.