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If this guy is as completely incompetent as he claims (and claims, and claims, and claims again) then why should we listen to anything he says (though it's terribly embarrassing for him, but apparently he's going to say it in public anyway)?

Linkbait oxmoronic title is linkbait and an oxymoron. Endless false modesty is nauseating. Articles like this have little value. Links to articles like this belong on another forum. And comments like the one you're reading are necessary once in a while, but now I'm going back to doing something more constructive.




"If this guy is as completely incompetent as he claims (and claims, and claims, and claims again) then why should we listen to anything he says?"

Because, chances are, you're also as completely incompetent as he is.


I find his articles fun to read and thought-provoking. A lot of what he says goes against the conventional wisdom of the startup world or against my own way of doing things. So his ideas provide a good (and entertaining) opportunity to re-examine them.


Same here. This guy is actually the ONLY guy I enjoy reading in Techcrunch.


Same here, I relate a lot to his personal traits.


if you judge people for being self deprecating, you wind up self selecting people who overpromote themselves


The thing is, I don't think he was really being self-deprecating at all. If he were being self-deprecating, then after admitting to being mediocre, he wouldn't have spent the rest of the opening paragraph name-dropping extremely successful people who he claims read all his articles.

There were some reasonable ideas in there, but I didn't notice anything that hasn't been said before by many other people, and they probably said it using far fewer words, far more clearly, and with far, far fewer references to themselves.

I wasn't a fan of the implicit sexism betrayed by comments like "enjoy the sunset with your wife on occasion" and the reference to asking every girl on the street, either. The only link between anyone female and success in that entire article is a picture of a photogenic young lady holding hands with Larry Page.


> he wouldn't have spent the rest of the opening paragraph name-dropping extremely successful people who he claims read all his articles.

I'm surprised that anyone would take that part seriously. He's obviously being facetious.


I don't know what to tell you,

He has a blog that I actually find pretty entertaining

though if you hated this piece, maybe his writing isn't your thing

recommend: http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/how-to-be-the-luckiest-...


(FWIW, that "photogenic young lady" is Lucy Southworth, Larry's wife.)


How was that sexist again?


I think he/she means that the whole post assumes that the reader is a male.


Which is not sexist, because it isn't a prejudice, but rather a fact about TechCrunch's readership. It is wise, from a business point of view, to let that fact influence your tone and dressing. That doesn't necessarily coincide with the 'make the world better' point of view. That doesn't make it morally reprehensible.


You are not getting it.

James Altucher fills his stories with jokes.

He's laughing at himself, at his readers including you and me, at Larry Page and his wife and so on.


He's not joking, he's a master at personal branding. As much as you might want to think he's a narcissist -- it's really hard not to, at times -- he's simply found a superb way to make you remember who he is.


Oh god it's a light hearted piss-take.


Because if you don"t learn from other people's mistakes, you are the other people.




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