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Comment by ncmncm | Hacker News Reader

Agreed, it is self-congratulatory.

Paul Graham essays decline in value exponentially with the number of times he mentions Lisp in them. He had one that went below 2^-20.

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I think a similar thing can be said about time. There were a lot of novel things to share in the early days, but these days it seems like his essays have taken a turn toward trite elitism. To be clear, I don't think this is specific to PG, but rather the case whenever someone feels the urge to continue producing for the sake of producing, nor am I saying that I'd be able to do any better. PG obviously has orders of magnitude more wisdom to share than me or most other people.

Needs to do a Daniel Day Lewis and go make shoes for a bit instead? (or whatever DDL is doing)

Probably a good idea for anyone that reaches the level of becoming a “public figure”. Log off, go do something with your hands, and come back in 4-6 months. Might reduce the incidence of formerly respected figures going full crank.

Yes !

Doing something outside of your bubble is great for learning some humility and G-d knows PG could do with some of that.

Once your rich and have made it you can’t emulate hustle mode anymore. Sure you can shine shoes but in the back of your mind you know you don’t have to.

It seems like the trend for the past ~10 years has been towards public figures slowly becoming cranks online. I have no idea why, but it sure seems to be happening a lot.

It is true of those with a Facebook or Twitter account, and it is because they need to get increasingly cranky to maintain the level of attention they have got used to. I doubt a change in algorithm could help much, but it seems worth trying more than once.

It’s not been clear to me if having social media turns public figures into cranks, or if some other process is involved and social media merely observe their descent.

Every one of us has the spore of an inner crank, or more than one, only waiting for air and moisture to burst forth.

I _really_ don't know how you got that from this article.

Why do you think Paul Graham essays decline in value exponentially with the number of times he mentions Lisp in them?

Eliza. Is that you?

Do you feel like it is?

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