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Comment by speeder | Hacker News Reader

I am stumped.

That is the first terrible read I had on svtble, the first so excessively positive view of Mark Pincus that it reads like a PR stunt, and the first time I wonder what the hell happened.

I mean, seriously? WHY? What is the point? Why write a bordering absurd praise of a guy that is so infamous for his own admitted horrible things in the book?

If it was more realistic, I mean, praising the good and the calling out the bad is one thing, but I don't see this sort of treatment even with Steve Jobs (even very positive texts on Steve Jobs mention how he had bad temper and people feared to get fired by just being near him, or how he sometimes got stubborn with ideas that were not necessarily good ones).

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You are unable to comprehend how someone could have an experience and opinion which differs from the HN groupthink?

I'm surprised you're being surprised, since that post is pretty much on par with everything from svbtle which gets submitted here: preppy energetical pieces, self serving straight-from-the-heart musings on how hard it is to be successful or amusing rants lacking any self-consciousness.

On the other hand, it's refreshing to read something positive on Pincus, who has been crowned as the arch villain of the industry (does that make the OP the arch henchman of the industry?)

Personally, I think it is a PR stunt. Zynga's looking like it is about to die, Pincus' character is perceived in a legendarily bad light - I think that this is a shilling attempt to make him look good/softer so he can move on to other things soon without such a 100% negative rap.

I don't foresee this working out though...

I didn't read the OP, but I did read the other posts in the blog. I'm not really impressed by her capacity for insight.

Well, "she" doesn't have any, considering she is a he.

Really? I thought 'Sash' would be a female name. My mistake.

> Working at Zynga, people always tell me they “had the idea for Draw Something before Draw Something”.

Well, considering Pictionary was first published in 1985..

There was also an extremely popular mobile game in Japan that had the same basic premise, a year or so before Draw Something hit it big.

There was also a browser (flash?) game with a similar premise that I played in the mid-2000s.

And considering "ideas", especially in the games world, mean absolutely fucking nothing.

I thought it was interesting-- Pincus/Zynga have been vilified here and elsewhere-- it was interesting to read a first-hand account of it. Given that the author now works at a different company, there not a huge incentive to write this post in a slanted fashion-- I suspect it's pretty honest.

That's a flawed basis for reasoning.

This was clearly a valuable mentorship with an influential, connected and widely known industry leader. I can envision many scenarios in which the OP would not want to risk damaging it.

Note I am speaking generally, as I don't know the OP.

I think it's one of the best pieces I've ever read on svtble. Very intriguing.

People can have remarkably different experiences with people, and it's possible that this is the genuine experience of this person.

They mention almost dying and Pincus being their first visitor days later when they emerged from a coma...which is very strange.

That bit made me sad. No visitors for two days while lying in a coma? No friends and family?

I read it as the first visitor since waking up. It's still pretty sad :(

I am a close friend of Sash's and I'd like to point out that his family were by his side every hour they were aloud in the hospital. By no means was Pincus the only visitor, just the first non-family visitor.

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