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Comment by anaximander | Hacker News Reader

I think the author of this article made it (perhaps deliberately) ambiguous as to when these events took place.

he gave Pao a volume of Leonard Cohen’s poems and drawings (entitled Book of Longing) on Valentine’s Day and asked her out to dinner on a night when his wife was out of town

These could very well be two completely separate occasions. I suspect the author created this juxtaposition to elicit your precise reaction.

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This is why I feel it's just better to refrain from any sort of judgment on this case based on what you read in the news. You're right - as it's written, it looks like "Duh, he's hitting on her." But did he give a gift to everyone on Valentine's Day? When he "asked her out to dinner on a night when his wife was out of town", was it a date or a "Let's talk about a potential investment at a popular VC haunt"?

I have no idea which is true, and I don't think I'm going to be able to find out based on summaries in the news.

Why do you think that?

There are plenty of articles that agree the gift was given on Valentine's Day?

I think he is saying the dinner wasn't on Valentine's Day.

The timing of the dinner request isn't relevant.

The problem is the choice of gift on Valentines and the fact the author of the article basically equated buying erotic poetry with being "nice and mentoring".

I agree that the gift was inappropriate. I was responding to your comment:

"Hitting on a woman" - Doing nice things and inviting her to be alone with you on a day dedicated to romance.

The invitation to have dinner may have happened anytime.

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