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In this case you can't really separate the political, not that you probably ever can. Also, here's a good question, why is it always conservatives that seem to want "politics" to be separated from "real life"? A question for another time. Back to this article. PG's entire worldview centers around an assumption that wealthy, powerful people are inherently good and a benefit to society. I don't think he believes all of them are, but that generally they are. Except for the ones he doesn't like or got lucky. This is, of course, obvious retroactive defensiveness of his own wealth and influence and once you know to look for it, you see it in many of his essays. In PG's worldview, successful founders (Himself included ofc) just have "it", some kind of natural talent and ability for creating wealth and value, and we (everyone else) should get out of their way and let them fix things. "It", by the way, can be anything from resourcefulness to intelligence, to determination, depending on what PG feels like writing about. Whenever one of these great men runs into adversity and is unsuccessful (Arc for example), then it is clearly the fault of others who simply Do Not Get It. Perhaps they are stupid, perhaps he has simply failed to make them see. He isn't sure yet. But he is sure it is definitely not his fault. It cannot be, because he has "It". In spite of having worked with hundreds or thousands of startups, there is no curiosity in his worldview. No desire to dig deep into the data and understand why some people succeed and others do not. No analysis on the opportunities some have that others do not (what a remarkable privilege it is to be able to take several years off to start a company in your 20s and have the resources to do it). There are so many interesting things he could try to learn from the data he has. But there is no need. Great founders just have "It" and the world is definitely a better place for them. Nuff said. |