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PG may be a bit over optimistic about good triumphing but personality cult seems a bit inaccurate, certainly if you look at the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality

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I'm not saying that PG has built a cult of personality around himself, but rather around the narrative of the ethical, hard-working, pull your own bootstraps, outsider hacker hero.

Think Steve Jobs, Zuck, etc.

> I'm not saying that PG has built a cult of personality around himself

Heh. Are you kidding? Paul Graham could post a fart on Hacker News and it'd get 1200 upvotes in 10 minutes.

That's a non sequitur. Not only did pg not build a cult of personality around himself, he has a complete horror of it.

PG's reputation, including on HN, is because of his essays and what he did with YC.

The point is not whether PG actively set out to build a cult of personality. The point is that it exists today. I tend to agree with the GP comment about PG's gaseous emissions.

Exists != built.

That's exactly the point I was making (that is, not agreeing with the "built a cult of personality" part someone said at the top of this thread but pointing out that it exists anyway and the consequences are the same either way)

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