So? I was telling a story from my personal experience to try to demonstrate how that statement (in isolation) reeks of privilege. It does not reek of male privilege, which I'm admittedly less sensitive to than class privilege.

But imagine growing up surrounded by people telling you to "Stop with all that computer stuff. That's nerdy boy stuff. Boys won't like you if you're into that." Or parents who refuse to buy their daughter a computer for similar reasons. That is a story I've heard from plenty female engineers I know.

Does that count? I was trying to make my point more relatable. Sorry.

But if anything your own example seems to reaffirm pg's point. You fished a computer out of a garbage bin and therefore had some coding experience before university age. You found it on your own. PG observes that this is 'invariably' a quality of the most successful founders and therefore (presumably) one which he looks for in prospective founders.

Oh for fuck's sake.

Yeah, I'm not going to play Calvinball with you. Sorry!

I guess it was a privilege arguing with you.

To be honest, I didn't realize we were arguing until it turned into this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y&t=1m18s

Before that I thought I was just sharing a personal story with you to illustrate someone else's point.

If you really believe that, would you be neutral on a law that forbade boys under 18 from using a computer? By your hypothesis the ones who are destined to be successful will circumvent it without penalty.

What you mean like an actual privilege and not just an inconvenience?

No, because he's using an example from his own experience to rebut Paul Graham's (partial) explanation of gender imbalance at startups.