
Ask YC: Notable People On YC - jasonlbaptiste
Just a simple thread to post notable people in the industry and their usernames/ comment streams.  My contribution: Fred Wilson<p>http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=fredwilson
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smanek
It seems like that there is a reason that names are tiny/gray: we should judge
what is said on its merit, not based on who said it.

I've had the good fortune to know and work with some extremely smart people,
and none of them is _always_ right. How is it useful to be able to follow all
of X's comments?

I've found that the moderation system here is fairly good at separating the
wheat from the chaff. Far more so than identity is, at least.

~~~
chris_l
The point here being that these people are notable for a reason. I expect to
find disproportionately more useful/insightful comments from them on their
subjects than from the average user, including myself.

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gojomo
Obsession with 'celebrity' is not healthy.

~~~
aneesh
Healthy or not, it's human.

~~~
whacked_new
So are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Saying "it's
human" means "it's easy to do this," and is too often an excuse for not-so-
excusable behavior.

~~~
dbrush
I think inquiring about notable figures in the fields and industries in which
many of us here find sustenance could hardly be considered 'not-so-excusable'.
Branding said inquirers as fanboys seems pretty inexcusable to me.

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wallflower
Owen Byrne - Digg co-founder: <http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ojbyrne>

Marc Andreessen - Netcape/Opsware/Ning (appears dormant)
<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=pmarca>

Aaron Swartz <http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=aaronsw>

And you never know who is lurking.

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johns
<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dhh> (although apparently now dormant)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jzawodny> (relatively new addition)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=pg> (hehe)

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edw519
I really like the idea that "notable" people may be lurking here. If only for
the reason that we should all think twice before degrading someone else (or
generally acting like an idiot). You never know who you're really talking to
or who else may be witnessing it.

(Imagine losing a 7 figure deal a year from now because the investor found out
you insulted him here.)

~~~
akd
You shouldn't degrade other people on the Internet, even if they don't have 7
figure deals to revoke.

~~~
edw519
Right. But sometimes I'd settle for people doing the right thing even if it's
for the wrong reason.

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aneesh
Everyone's definition of "notable" might vary a little, but:

Paul Buchheit: <http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=paul>

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ovi256
I heard Paul Graham comes around sometimes.

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dawie
He is here quite often actaully

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technoguyrob
Eliezer Yudkowsky.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=eyudkowsky>

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dcurtis
I would be willing to bet that just about every notable person in the
startup/programming industry uses this site and may occasionally post
comments.

I would also be willing to bet that only an extremely small subset of those
notable users would publicly reveal themselves.

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DanielBMarkham
I'd like to point out that I disagree with the purpose of this article -- I
want to take submitter's comments on their own merits. I don't care if you are
Bill Gates or the janitor.

However -- and this is a "feature" of HackerNews -- I have to upvote it to
keep it in my list, and I am curious to see the answers.

So count this as a forced upvote.Simply because I am curious about something
should not make me upvote it. Geesh.

~~~
byrneseyeview
I'd like to do that, too. But there are many people with opinions. And many of
those opinions are worthless. And many of the most interesting opinions sound
worthless at first -- so I'd rather listen to what smart people say, knowing
that if they sound crazy, it's probably because I'm dumb.

Fortunately, twitter's front page and the 'next blog' button on the Blogger
bar can supply a pretty much infinite amount of random opinions from
strangers. I would be interested in how informative that is.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
I'm not sure how you ever get around making a personal decision whether some
idea is worthwhile or not. Simply because a person had one startup, does that
make them a startup expert? Probably not. If I publish a book on model trains,
does that mean my opinion on world trade is somehow worthy of five minutes of
your attention?

In fact, most of what people say -- even famous people -- is probably off-the-
cuff and not exactly geared to your particular situation. Most all
communication, in fact, is basically just chit-chat: obscure facts,
disagreements based on partisanship instead of philosophy, pot shots at those
out of power, praise for those in power, etc.

You can decide to listen to what "smart people" have to say, and that's
probably a good idea. I'd just be really careful how I defined "smart people"
-- it certainly isn't fame. In fact, I'd turn the equation around backward: I
would judge the people to listen to based on their ability to have given me
insight in the past, not their fame, fortune, or other crowd-based attribute.

~~~
byrneseyeview
But we're not talking about whether or not Paris Hilton reads HN. The people
in question are startup founders, Putnam fellows, essayists, etc.

There are many streams of data. Most are (in my experience) not worth the
effort. I mostly listen to people who have said interesting things in the
past, and I mostly hear about them through other such people. I inject a
little randomness into that process by reading old and obscure stuff, but
that's more to view my ideological bubble from the outside than to get a high-
quality data source.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
So let me make sure I understand you correctly. It's more important to listen
to famous people in this area (startups, Putnam, essayists) than it is to
listen to more mundane people who have been proven to given you advice that
was worthwhile to you personally?

I read all the time. I take college lectures on CD and DVD. I love reading HN.
But I don't think any of that consumption was based on the celebrity status of
a person inside the community. Rather it was based on the perceived future
value to me. Projected future value, as best as I can figure, doesn't relate
to "notable people" Bill Gates made billions, but if he posted here on his
opinion of functional languages I would give him no more or less consideration
than if you did. In fact, if you and I had talked about functional languages
in the past and I found your comments useful, I'd be more inclined to hear
what you had to say over Bill. "Bill Gates" or "PG" or whatever is just a
concept we have of people we've never met. I think you'll find once you meet
them that they have to prove themselves like the rest of us. Life is like
that: what have you done lately?

I read commentary to kick my belief system around. Lots of great commentators
out there. But I don't have heroes, and if one of my favorite commentators
were to post here, who cares?

I'm probably missing something. Apologies if I'm off-base.

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staunch
Joel Spolsky: <http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=spolsky>

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dfranke
RTM, of course: <http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=rtm>

And though it'd be a stretch to call them notable, people I at least heard of
before they came here:

Colin Perciva (FreeBSD security officer; Putnam winner):
<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=cperciva>

John Graham-Cummings (active in the anti-spam community; caused a firestorm
when he submitted Reddit to Digg and got censored):
<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jgrahamc>

Doug Renert (partner at Tandem E.):
<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=DougR>

and I think ESR might lurk here occasionally.

~~~
jgrahamc
I'm notable? <blushes>

~~~
DanielBMarkham
congrats. You made it.

It's all downhill from here. : )

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yangyang42
Great. When somebody puts me in this thread, I'll know I made it!

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a10
Jeremy Zawodny <http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jzawodny>

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rokhayakebe
edw519 I do not know who he is outside of HN, but he sure is somebody here and
I follow his comments/ <http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=edw519>. May I
also add the one and only <http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mattmaroon>

~~~
iamelgringo
Ed's an all around nice guy. We've met both online and in meat space at the
last Startup School.

~~~
rokhayakebe
So can you confirm if he is PG or not? Just kidding ;)

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iamelgringo
I was in the room at the same time that PG and Ed were. I think that dcurtis
and xichekolas were there chewing the fat with us at the same time.

~~~
dfranke
And me as well.

~~~
iamelgringo
I knew I was forgeting someone. Sorry.

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johns
<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jasonfried>

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jasonlbaptiste
mike arrington/techcrunch:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=techcrunch>

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ashleyw
Is that really mike and/or techcrunch staff?

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dfranke
It's Mike.

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wrigley
It was actually an article by Mike a while back which pointed me here! Hes a
big fan of the site by all accounts and am glad he pointed it out, its quickly
become one of my first bookmarked visits every morning

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whalesalad
Michael Whalen - <http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=whalesalad>

jokes.

