Yeah, this feels pretty shill-like, even if he does make it clear he's investing.
Though it's also the readers who are to blame for upvoting a low-content advertisement. From some random blogger this would have died or been called out as not worthy, from the Pres of YC everyone happily discusses Asana...kinda lame.
> Though it's also the readers who are to blame for upvoting a low-content advertisement. From some random blogger this would have died or been called out as not worthy, from the Pres of YC everyone happily discusses Asana...kinda lame.
To be fair, this is extends beyond just this post. While some of pg's/sama's essays are insightful, quite a few of them in recent memory were incredibly vapid, but still remained at the top of HN for a day or so. Would never have happened if they had been written by some random person.
The mistake here is assuming that things on HN reach the top solely because of quality in the first place. After all, YC companies get to insert their job ads in the front page whenever they want.
The only discussion boards were things are really "meritocratic" are the ones like 4chan, but most people don't find these very palatable for understandable reasons. Other than that, pretty much any online board tends to have a cult of personality around the people running it.
> The mistake here is assuming that things on HN reach the top solely because of quality in the first place. After all, YC companies get to insert their job ads in the front page whenever they want.
I'd never claim that quality is the only reason why things reach the top of HN, but if you're suggesting that we rig it in favor of YC, that's not true. There's no similarity between the job ads and how stories work. That's why we have the job ads to begin with: it's a distinct mechanism, managed by software, and the relation to YC is both public and always the same.
Btw, YC startups don't get to "insert their job ads in the front page whenever they want". There's a queue, it doles out one ad at a time, startups that haven't had an ad recently get to go first, and no one gets more than one a week. That seems pretty even-handed to me, but if you have a suggestion for making it fairer, please tell us.
I don't think there is a big problem in upvoting content from known writers just because they are known. After all, they got to this position for a reason, and we shouldn't expect everybody to read everything without at least a basic filter.
The problem here is that this isn't even an article, it is just propaganda.
Though it's also the readers who are to blame for upvoting a low-content advertisement. From some random blogger this would have died or been called out as not worthy, from the Pres of YC everyone happily discusses Asana...kinda lame.