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Comment by keyle | Hacker News Reader

Side jab... hasn't posted on HN since 2015 but regular on Twitter? What gives?

HN and Twitter both have their dismissive assholes with their “You just invented ... buses.” (or taxes, or taxis, you get the idea)

But on Twitter you can block people and you can delete things easily. pg doesn’t write essays any more either, because now he has a hostile audience like with the Information, or when he said if you have a thick accent learn to speak English more clearly or when he said inequality is less important than growth and he got ragged for that. Writing in public is at best barely worth it for him with his greater profile.

... or he is jus more interested in raising his kids. I dunno, but that seems a sane choice in an insane world to me.

HN requires time investment, you have to find something to talk about. Twitter is a better format if you're just sharing random thoughts as they come to you.

> Side jab... hasn't posted on HN

Side side jab hasn't done an essay (one of the reasons I thought he was stepping down from YC somewhat) in quite some time.

Also this tweet is a good reason why on those essays he would always have someone read what he says first there are always 'thanks to so and so' for reading the essay.

Obviously there is some implied advice when PG says something. Look at how everyone is giving their 2 cents on a simple tweet.

He was the moderator here. He stepped down from that role when he retired from YC.

It would amount to stepping on the toes of the new mod to treat HN like his personal pool of friends. It would be harmful to YC because HN serves the company in various ways.

He has no such conflict of interest on Twitter.

That's considerate of you, but we'd love nothing better than for pg to come back here and treat HN as a pool of friends. It would make this community happier, and us too. And a happy HN is the HN that's most valuable to YC.

One cements your spot as a “thought leader” (blue verified check, very visible follower/retweet/like count, routinely used as a source by the media), the other not at all.

I think PG has a solid enough "personal brand" that he doesn't need to build it through being a twitterati "thought leader."

PG is stuck in the awkward no-mans-land between having f-you money and starting a rocket company. He achieved the first long ago, and will never achieve the second, so being a Twitter guru is a reasonable compromise.

From what I know about pg and Jessica, they would have no interest in starting a rocket company - even if they had infinite resources.

Figuring out how to get the smartest people in the world working on important problems (like rocket companies!) is way more their style. And they’re having incredible influence on that even in “retirement.”

Ironically, he cemented his spot as a thought leader by building HN. Even when he's not here, he still holds influence.

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