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What I Didn't Say

paulgraham.com

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Re: What I Didn't Say

#251

Post by fhars »

iamjustin wrote: post #189
calibraxis wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So far seems he hasn't; he's explained why, and all the more power to him. BTW, I'm disappointed that only "witch hunt" (terrorism against women) is used in this particular thread so far. Where's "lynch mob" and "McCarthyism", to round out the irony trifecta? (Hilariously sick when men liken themselves to women, whites to blacks, and capitalists to communists.)

Both men and women were killed during the Salem Witch Trials. A "witch hunt" isn't terrorism against women.

75% to 80% of the killed victims were women, though, so it was mostly terrorism against women, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-hunt#Execution_statistics

Re: What I Didn't Say

#252

Post by [deleted] »

nashequilibrium wrote: post #116
crassus wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that nobody is mentioning is that many "fratty" companies have been wildly successful. That's why VCs aren't cracking down on startups to make them more professional. (Although it is a good idea to become more professional as your startup grows, for cultural appeal to the median tech worker) This fratty culture certainly drives away slightly older founders (by that, I mean 25+!) and others who don't appreci…

lol.....25+ is considered old? This is why most of the big startups of this year are social like snapchat, tumblr, etc. The opportunities where customers are willing to spend shitloads of money like enterprise, hardware are not funded anywhere near as well as social. This is beacuse 19yr olds dont know much about HR or disrupting the Investment Banking software industry. This requires some exposure to the problems fi…

[deleted]

Re: What I Didn't Say

#253

Post by minimax »

mjburgess wrote: post #236
grellas wrote: post #229

A word about credibility. It comes from the Latin word credo , meaning "I trust." Its value exceeds that of money because it marks you as a person - as someone who is respected, who is trustworthy, and whom you would want to count as a friend. It marks you not as perfect but as special. It makes others ponder not so much that they did the last deal with you but that they would want to do the next deal too. Just as we…

Fine, he was mischaracterized and he replied. But jesus, > pg's response is actually priceless: it is like a soft-spoken witness upending a bullying lawyer who had just viciously attacked him, leaving the attacker reeling for all to see. What's with the almost cult-like reverence for this largely pseudo-intellectual entrepreneur?

The guy you're responding to is George Grellas, who is a lawyer. That's probably why he couches it in terms of lawyer and witness.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#254

Post by Dewie »

smtddr wrote: post #217
jsmthrowaway wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, we're concerned about being misinterpreted and that misinterpretation being escalated instead of discussed with us so we can clear it up. But yeah, it's easier to just label us as sexists that like to joke about rape, right?

That's just an excuse. Why are you more worried that a female coworker will misunderstand you than a male one?

I can't really imagine a man complaining about (percieved) sexism being taken very seriously. (But maybe we're talking more broadly than about sexism in particular.)

Re: What I Didn't Say

#255

Post by aaronem »

jsmthrowaway wrote: post #243
aaronem wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you would prefer that I say something like this: "You assert that these studies exist, but you don't bother to identify them for those of us who are not au courant with the journals in which they presumably appear. Would you care to link at least a representative example of the studies to which you refer, so that those of us who are unimpressed by argument from authority may examine them for ourselves?" The s…

I'd prefer if you noticed that you pointed your vitriol cannon at a third party to your conversation who was simply remarking upon your comment. Suggest you check usernames before replying.

You seem perfectly willing to stand in loco auctoris for the poster to whom I replied in such fashion as to draw your ire, so I don't really find your latest plaint particularly compelling; given your clear failure to recognize the problem with "-- prove me wrong!", I can't see how you could possibly wriggle out of more than one of those four paragraphs. (But don't let me stop you from trying.)

Re: What I Didn't Say

#256

Post by skybrian »

aaronem wrote: post #181
semiel wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that PG is a human living in America, psychological studies suggest that is statistically very likely.

[citation needed]

Here are a couple:

http://med.stanford.edu/diversity/FAQ_REDE.html

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/01/0212/7b.shtml

Re: What I Didn't Say

#257

Post by MartinCron »

marquis wrote: post #237
MartinCron wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last time I was hiring, I wished I could easily review resumes without seeing the names, email addresses, physical addresses, school names, or even telephone numbers as I felt that I was bringing in my arbitrary bias. Telephone numbers? I found that I identified a lot more with area code 206 than 425 or 253, just as I identify a lot more with an @gmail.com address than @hotmail.com or @aol.com.

That's a great idea. Next time we put out a request for resumes we might just make something that allows for this. And put it on github..

If you wind up doing that, let me know. I would be willing to help if at all possible. Contact info is in my profile. Thanks.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#258

Post by aaronem »

po wrote: post #61
tptacek wrote: post #2

I apologize. I took it on faith that when The Information said they were running a "complete interview" with you, that it was in fact both complete and an actual interview. It seems very clear how this piece misrepresented you; the entire elided question you cite is particularly damning. I retain some of my misgivings (which have much more to do with the industry than with YC), but the "interview" clearly wasn't a go…

I had high hopes for The Information that their business model would lead to better quality reporting… Their page states: The Information recently sat down with Mr. Graham. We covered a wide range of topics including “mass producing” startups, Mr. Graham’s controversial statements on founder accents, his wife and YC's secret weapon Jessica Livingston (link) and some little-known stories about YC alum Airbnb. https://…

> I had high hopes for The Information that their business model would lead to better quality reporting

The only differences between The Information and The Register [1] are that the latter acknowledges its tabloid nature, and lacks the breathtaking presumption to peddle its tripe for four hundred dollars a year.

[1] http://theregister.co.uk

Re: What I Didn't Say

#259

Post by dylandrop »

grellas wrote: post #229

A word about credibility. It comes from the Latin word credo , meaning "I trust." Its value exceeds that of money because it marks you as a person - as someone who is respected, who is trustworthy, and whom you would want to count as a friend. It marks you not as perfect but as special. It makes others ponder not so much that they did the last deal with you but that they would want to do the next deal too. Just as we…

Can we lay off the cheesy deification of PG? He was called a sexist, and he responded well. He is not a paragon of society, he is simply someone who is very good at tech and making money. And he is probably a good person too, but come on, this is just silly.

On a second note I'm also curious as to what exactly you're referring to when you say he has the credibility that should make us know that he isn't sexist. I'm not saying he is sexist, I'm just saying that all of his credibility lies in making good business decisions, not gender relations.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#260

Post by orionblastar »

grellas wrote: post #229

A word about credibility. It comes from the Latin word credo , meaning "I trust." Its value exceeds that of money because it marks you as a person - as someone who is respected, who is trustworthy, and whom you would want to count as a friend. It marks you not as perfect but as special. It makes others ponder not so much that they did the last deal with you but that they would want to do the next deal too. Just as we…

Look you are getting credibility and trust confused with respect and other things.

Personally I don't trust anyone, I've been burned too many times. Yeah that makes me paranoid, but it comes from too many bad professional relationships were I was backstabbed by the other person to further their career goals. I must state that this does not happen in every organization, and that there are a few people I would trust if they showed some good faith and helped me out with things. But since nobody I know wants to help me out, and once I reached the age of 40 I get old I am too old for this industry.

But PG is worthy of my respect, he has paid his dues in this industry, he knows what he is talking about and has experience, he hasn't backstabbed anyone that I know of so he has credibility, yes he is one of the few that I would trust had he helped me out in some way.

Look there is a lot of jealousy in the industry for experienced people. We get called nerds, geeks, dorks, etc by all of the people in other industries. They claim they know how to use a computer, and sure maybe use a Wordprocessor and write on a blog using Wordpress, but every once in a while one of them gets a bad case of jealousy that 'hackers' or 'IT workers' know more than they do, so they lash out and do a hatchet job on someone who got some attention in the media. This is basically politics, and how one person can backstab another.

I've had my words taken out of context a lot as well. It is but just one way to backstab someone. It is not just the Internet trolls who do it but the news media and these people writing blogs that hate the startup community.

In street terms, these people are 'haters' if I used that term correctly.

My sister who got into discoranism calls such people as 'greyfaces' and here is the Urban Dictionary definition. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=greyface

You can use either the first or second definition, and it would define the person who did this to PG quite accurately.

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