Idlewords has devoted an entire essay to the topic, "Dabblers And Blowhards" (2005). As a callout quote, and one immediately preceding a long list of specific issues with pg in his own essay Maciej Cegłowski is critiquing:

It's no surprise, then, that a computer programmer would want to bask in some of the peripheral coolness that comes with painting, especially when he has an axe to grind about his own work being 'mere engineering'. Yet while this might be charming or quirky in the abstract, it gets seriously annoying when real facts start getting butchered...

<https://idlewords.com/2005/04/dabblers_and_blowhards.htm>

From a flagged subthread here, several prior criticisms on HN:

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43515252

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43526888

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43527106

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43515723

(From: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43529517>.)

I don't know except I get the impression from reading responses to him over time that he represents something frustrating to some people here and on X.

Someone should correct me if I am wrong, but AFAIK - PG stands behind current shift in USA’s status quo. That is, support of MAGA, Trump, DOGE, techno takeover of USA, that vague idea of of converting USA into totalitarian corporate city states controlled by billionaire techno class.

Though last one shouldn’t be surprising as it was endorsed by YC 10+ years ago.

Hence - people are now much more critical of him.

[flagged]