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Comment by kanamekun | Hacker News Reader

From the article:

<< Yet if someone like that came to a top venture capitalist’s office, he or she could very well be turned away. Start-up investors often accept pitches only from people they know, and rely heavily on gut feelings, intuition and what’s worked before. “I can be tricked by anyone who looks like Mark Zuckerberg,” Paul Graham, co-founder of the seed investor Y Combinator, once said. >>

Paul was right - this meme just won't die.

<< People will probably still repeat that quote, but now if someone does it will be proof that either (a) they didn't do their research or (b) they have an ideological axe to grind. >>

http://www.paulgraham.com/tricked.html

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From the link you posted: As if anyone would think it did. Could anyone be so naive as to think that resembling Zuck would be enough to make a founder succeed? And is it plausible that we, of all people, who'd interviewed thousands of founders, would think such a thing?

This undermines the argument. Clearly very many people, in very many areas of our society, filter those they do business with based on appearance. It would be naive to think otherwise about society and the business world (though applying the generality to a specific person, such as Paul, is a mistake).

I thought the original quote represented Paul well -- it demonstrated awareness of the very human weakness in all of us, to instinctively prefer people like ourselves. Having the instinct doesn't mean Paul acts on it, or that it's his only instinct; being aware of it is what enables people to control it (or control for it).

EDIT: Added a few sentences.

I don't see how that is fair.

1. PG claims he was joking, and doesn't actually believe what he said.

2. The article quotes him as if he truly believed this, when in fact he believes the opposite.

3. You claim that if PG's argument for why he doesn't believe it is wrong, then the quote is likely to be true even if PG didn't mean it, and therefore it's accurate to quote PG as if he did mean it. That last part makes no sense.

You're entitled to believe him or not, to me it was racist and discriminatory and still is.

Not to mention he had fucked up before talking against women and accents... The guy shows all the signs.

I don't know him, he looks like a nice person... But I have no interest or encouragement into knowing him.

Yeah, sure, data is on my side too, being a white nerdy male (look like Zuck) would do good on you guys' ghetto.

> 3. You claim that ... the quote is likely to be true even if PG didn't mean it, and therefore it's accurate to quote PG as if he did mean it. That last part makes no sense.

I didn't say that or even talk about those issues (other than saying that to speculate on PG's actual thoughts would be "a mistake"). Maybe that's why it makes no sense to you.

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