[jasode]

>First of all, that's rude.

Real question: Is there some social etiquette rule that says describing a person to a news audience as "unknown" is being rude? Honestly, I've never heard of that.

If I created a billion dollar company and Bloomberg called me "an unknown", I'd consider it a massive compliment. It means that I was able to grow the company totally under the radar without any distracting interview requests from TechCrunch, TheVerge, Gizmodo, etc.

[gutnor]

I guess the problem is the combination of "35-year-old" with "unknown".

Seems the 35yo bit is irrelevant to the story, that's neither old nor young: you can have a significant career by that point and you are a long way from retiring. So I can understand some people from the Valley would think this is just another case of ageism.

A bit like saying "A Black Woman left me her seat in the bus" can be suspicious even though it is factual.

[nebulous1]

Apparently he was 29 anyway, so I'm not sure what the point of the 35 is.

And to be honest Chinese billionaires not being well known in the west isn't that surprising to me, particularly when their business ventures are heavily China-facing.

[johnchristopher]

FWIW I have always been under the impression that "first of all that's rude" is mostly used as a funny meme, a recurring harmless little joke (to put emphasis on what comes next in the speech).

[FLUX-YOU]

Bit of a joke at first, but became more serious when people started to frame it as a compliment. I wouldn't blame anyone for missing humor on here.

Ultimately, it's a difference of opinion and social influences. It got an article click anyway, so mission accomplished for Bloomberg.

[fredsanford]

But... Was he a known-unknown or an unknown-unknown?

[isoskeles]

Every other founder is virtually unknown before they become known. Is he unknown because he lives in China and didn't attend Stanford? What does it mean that he is Unknown?

[coldtea]

>Every other founder is virtually unknown before they become known

Not really. Tesla's founder was well known, for example (as a founder and exiter of another company). Ditto for the founder of NeXT.

And "unknown" here also means not born with a silver spoon, no heir, no previous positions eg. as CEO/CTO somewhere, no major tech connections, etc.

[miyhhbftdx]

> Tesla's founder was well known, for example (as a founder and exiter of another company).

Tesla's original founders are indeed "unknown."

[jamiegreen]

Maybe they intended to write

>Virtually Every other founder is unknown before they become known

.. :)

[NonEUCitizen]

should've asked instead: "...because he lives in China and didn't attend Tsinghua?"

[j45]

In this context, unknown could be pretty easily with calling someone a nobody.

A nobody, compared to who? A status quo? Innovation is about outliers getting things done.

Whereas a success like this would normally be celebrated to the moon and back. Why not here? Is this individual's success outside a self-congratulatory echo-chamber?

With media it's worth asking questions about the use of words, because they wordsmith for a living.

[moomin]

My real question is: do they really mean unknown or just “unknown to us”. Guy could be quite well recognised in China for all I know. There’s a lot of implicit parochialism that works its way into news stories.