Hacker News Reader

Comment by rkon | Hacker News Reader

At first I thought this was posted by one of the email's recipients as a form of revenge on its douchebag author. Then, I realized it was posted by the author on his own blog... how embarrassing.

The whole letter/blog simultaneously reeks of desperation, egotism, conceit and condescension. He clearly craves validation and doesn't hesitate to dole it out to himself. "I picked you guys because you're the best! Now quit sucking and start being awesome like me! Money money money!"

Sad.

View on HN

Surely this guy is joking.

"A joker is someone who does not complete something, and has excuses. Don't be a fucking joker."

and later

...Hannibal is his greatest hero, the guy who ALMOST conquered rome, but had a great excuse for not doing so.

and

"Now, here’s the score. I had a very fast, but totally possible timetable. At first, we were on it, and killing it. Then, one of us slipped. I don’t know who slipped first, it’s irrelevant. Now, we’re all slipping. "

Right, so the timetable doesn't include any latitude for delays.

and

"I can do marketing campaigns, but I need product and tech set up first. I mean, it’s not optional, it’s a core dependency. All of this shit was supposed to be done weeks ago."

Sounds like an excuse, sounds like he should stop being a joker and just GET IT DONE. No excuses.

This guy is deluded, lives in a separate version of reality where he has excuses but no one else can. Excuses can also be reasons why something is not going to work.

He's joking for sure. Just have a look at the very first paragraph! (see also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3246869)

Hard to believe it's a joke. In that case the whole blog must be a joke. Just read the about page on his blog. Same degree of douchebaggery

Why would he "change names and details" if it wasn't for real?

He's definitely not joking. Deluded? Maybe. See his latest work of art (posted today):

http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/an-open-letter-to-simon-and...

I'm at a complete loss for words.

>Right, so the timetable doesn't include any latitude for delays.

Sounds like something a joker would say!

he's a complete egotist

"Whenever I compared myself to people similar to me, it wasn’t even close. I worked more, accomplished more, produced more, did more meaningful things, was traveling the world. I read more books, did more writing, was generally healthier and more disciplined, spent my time well. I was the top 1% for my age, and even better than that if you measured me against people from similar backgrounds."

http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/the-weakest-of-the-great-me...

This is very far fetched armchair psychology but people driven _THAT_ incredibly much are usually not fueled by positive energy (alone). Together with the almost compulsive comparing to other people, sounds a lot like coping mechanisms for an inferiority complex or worse. OP should consider some therapy to learn about why he is so focused on comparing to others and why he is so hell-bent on work.

Interesting. Do you think it is possible to be extremely driven/ambitious/perseverant without having the motivation of external comparison?

This is an interesting question... I would say yes it is possible, there can surely be other motivators why you might work very hard.

In this case, I just got the feeling from reading his posts that OP has a very VERY strong bias towards comparing and measuring up to other people; and he is extremely focused on success and achievements in what feels to me like an unnaturally extreme way. Quite a few of his posts focus on nothing but that and all together just feels unhealthy and un-natural to me. That's the distinction I see to "just" being VERY motivated vs. being "driven". Being a work-a-holic by definition is an unhealthy behavior and there could be a whole bunch of reasons why people slip into that.

Like I said, it is nothing but armchair psychology - but the possibility that certain psychological issues could actually end up benefitting your career or success (or even success with women) is pretty much undisputed. Not all flight mechanisms or addictions have to be to very obvious substances. Work and success and being praised can be very powerful and toxic.

The key thing is that his ambition is not to achieve something, it's to "be the top 1%".

His ambition is all about being better than others.

Healthy ambition is an ambition to create something beautiful, to help people, to deliver the total solution, to live up to your own standards and values.

Unhealthy ambition is to dominate other, to be superior, to make the most money, to look the best, to constantly compare yourself to others.

People who constantly compare themselves to others usually do have inferiority complexes.

Oh wait, isn't this the patio11 stalker/back-handed compliment guy???? I couldn't find the link so maybe not...

Wow, he's really on a roll with his Nov 17th post too: http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/an-open-letter-to-simon-and...

Even more sad is that this post only exhibits a mild level of douchebaggery relative to some of his others that have made it onto the front page of HN.

Anyone who uses he word philosophy like psychology gets a downvote from me.

He's the joker.

They say most successful CEOs score highly on tests for being a sociopath.

I think this guy could be on his way to the Fortune 400!

Not sociopaths, psychopaths. Sociopaths tend to be introvert / loner types.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy#Psychopathy_vs._soc...

Contrary to popular belief, (certain) psychological deficiencies can be absolutely beneficial or enabling for being successful in business and other area.

I find it hard to take someone seriously about not being a joker when they keep reverting to capitals to emphasise things. If someone was telling me that my social skills were the top 1% while frequently using 'capital emphasis', I would not hold that evaluation in high regard.

If this was some of "motivational" speech, he might be ok.

But as an email it just looks insane.

I think, this is in part a consequence of the deification of Steve Jobs, who might have adopted a similar stance towards his partners/employees. Such behavior is now automatically assumed to be acceptable by some subset of people. The No Asshole principle is passé. The author may have written such an email irrespective of Steve Jobs influence. But the audacity to post it on his own blog for everyone to "admire" certainly has to do with the publicity around the Jobs' supposed douchiness.

I think that's probably ascribing Jobs too much credit. He certainly wasn't the first businessperson with a superinflated sense of self-importance and a serious disregard for the well-being of those "in his way", even when those people are his employees.

But he was the first one to use that self-importance to build the richest company in the world. Most of the stories about people like that end "and then all the good engineers quit so they didn't have to put up with him, the products started sucking and the business went down in flames". Steve Jobs avoided that somehow (probable by having really, really good judgment), but imitators don't see that part, they just see "self-importance works".

Go check out Steve Jobs's Janitor speech he (allegedly) gave to new VP's. It was his outlook exactly.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com