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Comment by elcapitan | Hacker News Reader

> First, he clearly has too much skin in the game

That sounds like an odd use of "skin in the game". "Skin in the game" would be if that thing failed and then he gets skinned, basically. Being invested in something with potentially lots of upside and worst case a bit of lost investment isn't like that.

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No, it literally means "being invested in something" regardless of the rest.

No it's not regardless of the rest. It implies actual risk. Some rich dude losing a dime is not skin in the game, unless the phrase is meant as completely meaningless masturbation. "Skin" implies an actual impact, otherwise it's just "in the game".

You are making it all about money but things like reputation, legacy, and ego can easily be "skin in the game".

Like .. what? Will people spit at him in the streets, if the company fails? Will they come with torches and pitchforks to his house and yell "it was a bad idea to run a browser in the cloud"?

It's interesting that you need any of this spelling out, especially as you're so irate about a turn of phrase, but even the post you're replying to here is politely spelling it out for you. Reputation _is_ money when you're a VC. You appear to be arguing with yourself and making up things to be angry about.

Nope, but I understand it's more convenient to think that.

Nope, but I understand you want to carry on being the only one that thinks that.

Happy to be "the only one" :)

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