
Lunch with Sean Parker: on how he's coping with his new reputation - estherschindler
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/8383ab06-45e3-11e0-acd8-00144feab49a.html#axzz1FkqxeoCx
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jakarta
I thought this was a great quote:

“You have got to be willing to be poor [as an entrepreneur],” he says. “There
was a time when I was living out of a single suitcase. I had a rule that I
wouldn’t stay on one person’s couch for more than two weeks because I didn’t
want to become a bother.”

You've got to be willing to make sacrifices if you want to chase your dreams.
A lot of people don't fully grasp that when they are coming in.

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tastybites
Even small-scale stuff that nobody writes articles about like putting a
personal guarantee on a 2-year commercial office lease or a line of credit
qualifies as sacrifice and is actually quite risky.

I'd offer a small edit on the premise and say that it isn't necessarily a
willingness to be poor, but a willingness to _go broke for your convictions_
that is important. Being poor/impoverished is a mindset, being broke is a
temporary condition.

Somewhat tangentially related is the derivatives trader mindset which I have
been reading about recently.

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paulbaumgart
"Being poor/impoverished is a mindset, being broke is a temporary condition."

I'd say being poor/impoverished is a lack of money and a lack of friends or
family with money (otherwise whose couch are you going to crash on?). (Only)
being broke is just the former.

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jkaljundi
Loved the attitude in the quote: "So is a billion dollars cool? He ponders the
question carefully. “No, it’s not,” he says. “It’s not cool. I think being a
wealthy member of the establishment is the antithesis of cool. Being a
countercultural revolutionary is cool. So to the extent that you’ve made a
billion dollars, you’ve probably become uncool.” "

~~~
dweekly
It's a good idea to ask yourself what your goal is. Do you actually want to
make a billion dollars? At what expense? Some things correlate much better
with happiness than cash.

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tomjen3
Money has made more happiness than has poverty.

~~~
_delirium
Sure, but "have enough money to avoid poverty" is a much different goal than
"make a billion dollars".

~~~
jonah
Yes. Once you reach a certain level of income the increase in happiness levels
off. (Around 60k in the US apparently.)

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gruseom
Here we have a headline that for once is exquisitely accurate: the article is
more about lunch than it is about Sean Parker.

~~~
reduxredacted
I completely agree. While sitting in my basement in a t-shirt and sweatpants,
I happened upon a very interesting headline on Hacker News... (I'll stop, I'm
no good at it)

I found it really excruciating to read this article. I realize that there's a
sort of _formula_ for telling a story in news magazines (and I appreciate that
it is an art form), but it drives me crazy when the _story_ is more about the
interview circumstances and less about ... anything, really.

... Then I realized something that I've found unique about Hacker News over
the last several years: The submitter added the bit about "how he's coping
with his new reputation". So I can neither fault FT for writing a _story_ ,
nor can I fault the submitter for finding something about the story that I'd
find interesting (to the contrary, I greatly appreciate the service).

Perhaps it's a new startup idea (or an old one done in many different ways
[newser or even wikipedia]) ... _the point_ in more than 200 characters and
less than 4 paragraphs. Bonus if it includes customization to the reader's
interests.

EDIT: phrasing.

~~~
kvdr
All of you thinking about this is such a long article with no meat, why he
describes food so much, hold off a bit. This is THE format of the column, he
does this every week with interesting people (mostly in showbiz), its just
relevant to HN due to Sean Parker.

~~~
gruseom
I guessed that from the format of the article and from its original title,
which as I pointed out is unusually accurate: the person being interviewed is
secondary, after the lunch.

It's a strange argument, though, to say that criticism must be less valid
because they do this every week.

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jasonlynes
his character in the film was my favorite. i didn't think he was portrayed as
an asshole at all; in fact, he seemed pretty badass. and the scene with the
stanford girl was like the quintessential moment every geek dreams of. "you
just slept _on_ sean parker." classic.

~~~
narag
I'm happy to see I'm not alone. I wondered if the fact I saw the film dubbed
to Spanish made me lost some nuances.

To those who think that the character is an asshole, maybe you could answer if
it's because the interpretation (demeanor or tone of voice) or the behavior.

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rcavezza
What's the purpose of including the entire bill?

They also left out some key details:

(1) Who paid? (2) How much did they tip?

~~~
jasonlynes
it's the format of the piece. he goes to lunch with interesting people at
interesting places and includes what they ate.

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angstrom
That's great and all, but what I really wanted to know is how he used his
napkin? Was it folded in a triangle in his lap or a rectangle...gasp, did he
use one at all?!

Superfluous information is superfluous information.

That said, I still skimmed it for the bits and pieces I found interesting.

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TamDenholm
Its a pretty interesting read. I've got to say i can see the similarities
between his portrayal in the movie and his portrayal in the article and while
both of those might be untrue, its still interesting. Personally though, i
dont really think hes an asshole.

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camdykeman
I also noticed the similarities between the article and his character's
introduction in The Social Network. In fact, the similarity is a bit suspect.
Either Sean is actually a socialite robot who operates the exact same way
every time he enters a restaurant or the author saw the movie first and has
some unconscious drive to make the real Parker fit that mold. Either way, he
doesn't seem like an asshole, he seems calculated. He's branded himself; he
makes you hate him then like him...he keeps people interested and as a result
hes extraordinarily successful.

