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Comment by spike021 | Hacker News Reader

Unfortunately I had an experience with Naval completely the opposite of what you're describing. I'm a student and had heard of him before several times along with using AngelList. Earlier this year I saw him walking in downtown San Francisco with somebody else, so I thought I would say hi and introduce myself for a moment since he seemed like a nice person.

I think they must have been having some kind of very important, heated conversation because as soon as I went up to him and simply started to say "hi, hope I'm not interrupting...", he stopped me and said "we're having a conversation!!" and kept walking.

Most likely it was just the wrong time and place to do that but unfortunately I now have a pretty disappointing first impression of him.

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We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10373136 and marked it off-topic. (The root wasn't off-topic, exactly, but most of the branches are.)

Fine with me and makes sense. thanks dang!

Sorry, but in what universe is it considered rude to not talk to random strangers who interrupt you in the street?

I certainly don't think you should hold this experience against him. Hopefully he doesn't hold it against you.

I didn't say it was rude, though. I would have hoped he could've just said "sorry, but I'm too busy to talk right now."

Like I said, it was likely wrong place/wrong time. First impression doesn't mean all subsequent impressions.

Anyway, I hope I do get the chance to meet him eventually when it's the right time.

"We're having a conversation!" is a perfectly legit saying, even to someone who is not a stranger on the street. On the other hand, Naval is a celebrity, and it's more expected for a celebrity to get such requests - maybe not wanted, but probably common. The deeper question is less anecdotal: to what extent, to cite Kevin Spacey (who cites Jack Lemon), the tech community sends the elevator back down. In this respect, AngelList has done a tremendous change to open more opportunities to more people. It actually opened the closed doors to many, and great news they are taking it to the next level. If this fund succeed, even more funds will follow.

> On the other hand, Naval is a celebrity, and it's more expected for a celebrity to get such requests - maybe not wanted, but probably common.

I'm not sure I agree. He might be relatively prominent within the SV startup community, but that doesn't make him a celebrity. The vast majority of people (heck, the vast majority of engineers) would have no idea who he is.

In every universe my friend.

I have no idea what the context was for Naval, but if someone walks to you and say "excuse me I hope I am not interrupting," REGARDLESS of your conversation (because you are in a public place), you stop and give them 15 seconds.

For how do you know they are not telling you your car is being towed, or your kid is being taken away, or you dropped your wallet.

If it were Obama who walked to them would they have stopped for 15 seconds? If yes, then what is the difference?

At the very least say with a smile that you are sorry, but this is really not a good time, but they can email you if it is not urgent.

> For how do you know they are not telling you your car is being towed, or your kid is being taken away, or you dropped your wallet.

You don't generally start conversations like that with "hope I'm not interrupting". "Someone's taking your kid!" would be the starting point, most likely.

> If it were Obama who walked to them would they have stopped for 15 seconds? If yes, then what is the difference?

They're not Obama?

If you are nice to people simply because it is advantageous to you, then you are not nice. As far as I am concern, yourself and Obama get the same first 30 seconds, countenance, and respect. And if I must turn both of you down, I should do it politely.

Note: I am not saying this is what the guy did, I have no context and I was not there.

Look, I think quite highly of myself... but 30 seconds of my attention is not worth 30 seconds of Obama's attention to the average person. "We're having a conversation here" isn't impolite, and a no one has a right to a random stranger's attention.

Sorry spike, I wasn't trying to be rude. Never my intention. You likely caught me unawares and my animal brain responded before my human one could catch up. Be well.

No worries Naval. I really didn't take much offense to it. Just wrong timing on both sides. Sorry as well if my comment came across the wrong way.

I don't think most people would take kindly to a stranger trying to butt into their conversation. This alleged event makes me think no less of him.

I'm not quite sure how just saying "hi" is butting into a conversation. I didn't shove my hand in his face and ask to have five minutes of his time immediately. That's rather extreme.

Why not just say something along the lines of "it's alright, but I'm not able to speak right now"?

His response was probably a bit more aggressive than necessary, but think about how many times he gets propositioned/pitched to per day.

Also, consider the venue: someone who comes up to you on the street and starts a conversation (especially in SF, I lived there for 7 years while working at startups) is likely asking for a handout, donation, trying to get you to sign a petition, trying to scam you, mentally ill, or some combination of the above. Someone who interrupts your conversation with another person on the street immediately comes across as rude regardless of their intentions.

There was probably no way you could have successfully engaged him in a conversation, even a very short one, at that chance encounter. It just wasn't a good set of circumstances.

>Why not just say something along the lines of "it's alright, but I'm not able to speak right now"?

Because he probably doesn't have superhuman levels of patience and tolerance.

Why is everybody down-voting the guy/gal. Can you at least give an explanation?

Nowhere in their comment did they write something negative about Naval. They just described their interaction, and frankly if this is exactly what happened, I would go out and call it "not friendly" at best.

One unfriendly interaction does not make a person bad, or take away from Naval. We have no idea what his context was, or what he was discussing at the time.

As for OP, I think it is great you shared this. If for nothing for the simple reason that you have just given him a chance to reflect on that and rectify it if it were a mistake.

Isn't this what we want? Honest feedback?

OP would have to be pretty oblivious to life if he needed feedback for that interaction. He saw that someone was in a conversation, tried to interrupt, and then was offended when that someone didn't want to be interrupted. Look, if someone's doing their own personal business, don't try to interrupt. And if you do, at least be understanding that they had no obligation to stop what they were doing just to humor a stranger, so there's no right to be offended.

Last comment on the subject. There is a difference between "Hey how are you man? Thanks for stopping by, but I am really sorry but we are in the middle of something very important. Could you email me instead" and "Sorry we are having a conversation."

Based on what OP said, it sounds more like he didn't hear/see them having a conversation, that observation came after the fact.

Protip: Always get a referral if you want to meet busy people!

You have to understand in SF it's somewhat common for scammers, homeless people, or very aggressive Israeli sales people to butt into conversation and try to talk to you on the street. It's very likely he has been conditioned to this or thought you were one of the above.

aggressive Israeli sales people?

yea that is begging for elaboration ...

Probably referring to people who are vendors typically in shopping malls and other busy areas since there can be more Israelis doing that kind of work.

I'm guessing it is in reference to the folks who work at the booths found in the hallways of shopping malls. AFAIK, those who own those stands prefer to hire good looking young people with a lot of hustle. A lot of Israelis taking a gap year after the army coincidentally fall in that bucket

In the malls selling cosmetics, and in front of all the Adore stores.

I can be completely wrong but I suspect this is a reference to close.io founders?

"Aggressive Israeli sales people"?

Chris Chen, why do you think Israeli sales people are on par with scammers? That sounds more than a little bit out of line. Why do Israelis bother you so much?

Chris, you need to take a good long look in the mirror and decide if this is who you want to be. I'm also surprised that this forum is not down voting comments which don't seem so on topic.

http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?218927-Vine-Vera-Orogold-...!

https://www.reddit.com/r/SkincareAddiction/comments/30mlby/a...

I didn't even realize they were scammers, but I didn't say they were scammers. I said they were very aggressive, because those Orogold and Adore cosmetic salespeople stand out on the street and aggressively try to make conversation with you and interrupt you.

The common thread with all those people I mentioned were that they were aggressive and they would try to interrupt you.

Hi Chris,

You found 2 links and you've concluded that Israeli sales people are scammers. The first article starts by refer to an Israeli as a Gypsy thief. You should be ashamed to link to an ugly statement like that about the Romani and the articles don't get much better.

I don't see anything in your two links about Israelis interrupting conversations. In both links they are giving away free products and not interrupting people. I'm guessing you took a free sample and then bought something. I'm not a fan of the entire beauty care industry and won't defend such companies. Perhaps you should consider a healthier lifestyle if you want your skin to look better, or better yet, don't worry about your skin, instead worry about what's in your heart.

A quick peek and I can see that people have contacted the BBB about your company. My customers (yes, I'm a salesperson) can always call me up and I proactively make sure they are happy so they don't have to. Maybe you should contact your customers after they receive your product and make sure they are happy. Forcing your InstaPainting.com customers to go to the BBB to get a response out of you is not ideal. I don't think you are a scammer though. That'd a very unfair conclusion, don't you think?

That's cool. I completely agree with you.

Thanks for hearing me out. Be well.

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