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Comment by ajross | Hacker News Reader

Ew. At what point do we just decide that this whole community has eaten itself? Remember when a "YC founder" was a diligent nerd just trying to make something people want and get to ramen-profitable before the runway from their tiny seed check ran out?

Now being a founder is such a valuable status that it's attracting people who thinking that ghoulish worshipful body art (on the bodies of people afflicted with the same status envy, it needs to be pointed out) is a great idea.

Do the nerds even have a home anymore?

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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48538229

Was that image of the plucky hacker shooting their shot actually something based in reality or something cooked up to get people interested in founding a company? Look at the inaugural YC class. Do those people today resemble what you're describing? It is important to have critical literacy about things like this. Describing a narrative that isn't consistent with reality in order to convince people to do something is not unique to Silicon Valley. I'm not encouraging wholesale cynicism but just a healthy level of skepticism.

Don’t judge a whole community by one freak.

absolutely contrary. You are who you surround yourself with. These people have a private social network called bookface. Hidden from the rest of the world

It sounds sinister when you say it like that, but I've got private group chats with my friends that are "hidden from the rest of the world" and someone shares pictures of their dog or music they liked. I think tattooing people with a company logo for an interview is fucked up, but let's not pull out the guillotines just because certain people are having secret encrypted private conversations with each other.

If you're advertising that you're going to permanently mark your almost certainly transient brand on desperate people for the promise of just an interview, I think it's fair to wonder what you'd prefer to keep hidden. In your case it's all puppies and rainbows, but presumably your public face is also quite a bit milder than, "Sure get the tattoo and maybe I'll see if you can make it to the next round of interviews, hope you're ready to work 7-day weeks if you make it!"

Lets be real, they aren't. This is a community that was notorious for sycophancy, desperation, and cruelty for quite some time now if the success of the show 'Silicon Valley' indicates anything. This is the community that keeps justifying limitless greed with the belief that we're building the future, while increasingly the future being built is defined by terms like, "Enshittification."

> if the success of the show 'Silicon Valley' indicates anything

That show was created by the creator of Office Space. They were both fictional and satire. Just because it was popular and there were some nuggets of truth in the jokes doesn't mean that every startup in Silicon Valley is as extreme of a cult as WeWork was.

> The founder of Corgi, a YC insurance tech company with a $4 billion reported valuation, known for running a Corgi cafe without any dogs, recently said (opens in new tab) that two-thirds of his early staff members have a company tattoo.

2 freaks, at the very very very least.

Wait. Apples and oranges.

People who haven't even been interviewed let alone hired getting a company brand is one thing. But coworkers (and likely friends) getting a company tattoo after getting hired seems completely plausible, especially if it has grown successful into a unicorn.

> two thirds of early employees.

unless he had exactly 3 employees, I'd say it's freakish.

https://sfstandard.com/2025/02/13/founders-dropouts-ycombina...

This article provides more examples. They wanted to stand out in a community that has become known for its excesses.

Noted sociopath Sam Altman is the most visible member of the commumity. it's the right judgement.

Come and gone. Gatekeeping has some merits

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