The thing about Marc Andreessen is that of all VC-types of people he seemed like one with a modicum of tech legitimacy, given his history/role in the development of the web.
Unfortunately it seems to be quickly evaporating.
Unfortunately it seems to be quickly evaporating.
http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-talk.1993q1/0182.ht...
My impression has been that UIUC is/was jealous and wanted the IP / recognition. They admit he built it, but wanted a cut.
So simple. And yet sublime. Given a million years, I'm not sure I could have come up with that solution.
Why do you give people who can easily afford to have a team craft an image the benefit of believing it? I categorically don't. Not because I am of bad faith, no, precisely because I trust people to do what's in their interest: make sure your fund gets to talking with your audience.
The fact is, pmarca’s engineering chops are not a conspiracy invented by non engineers. He did in fact create a brilliant piece of software (Mosaic and, at some greater distance, Netscape), and the technical elites of Silicon Valley saw this and are responsible for much of his wealth and influence.
But the mundane truth is that engineering chops do not automatically translate into virtue, tact, political acumen, investment prowess, or any number of other skills or positive attributes. It is understandable that engineers want to believe they are on a higher plane of human existence but the evidence is inconclusive.
No publicist tricked us into thinking Andreessen was a brilliant programmer, we tricked ourselves into thinking brilliant programmers are necessarily superhuman.
It is not, just as it is not that PR departments know how to appeal to hypocrites.