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Comment by kubrickslair | Hacker News Reader

I know Sam even less, but when I first moved to Valley a decade ago he went out of the way to help. I wanted try out a crazy startup idea on a student visa with limited connections in the Valley - he loved what I was doing and went above and beyond to help me out.

It forever tuned me in to the ethos of Silicon Valley. And I have tried paying back where I can.

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If that ethos doesn't involve illegally overstaying student visas like Musk or burning millions of dollars then have you really truly embraced the SV lifestyle?

I think you misunderstood that he helped me overstay my student visa etc.

I was in a Ph.D. program at a top CS school and there are ways to transition your visa when building a startup. It was that I was not sure if the transition or the startup would work out - that startup did not - but years later another one did.

I would probably not have taken the plunge out of academia and not achieved much else had it not been for him. And I am deeply grateful for that.

I was just making a joke about how Silicon Valley, to some people on this planet, seems like an awful place that ignores some awful behavior when convenient. Embracing the "ethos" of such a place seems funny to me.

Never accused you of trying to illegally stay in the country or some such - I just referenced a famous South African Valley-man with a musky scent who did that.

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