[davidivadavid]

The thing about Marc Andreessen is that of all VC-types of people he seemed like one with a modicum of tech legitimacy, given his history/role in the development of the web.

Unfortunately it seems to be quickly evaporating.

[hvs]

I was at UIUC shortly after he graduated and the general impression was that he basically just stole Mosaic from the University to create Netscape. Not sure that bestows him with any tech legitimacy. He's certainly a good businessman.

[lettergram]

Having worked directly with several of the people involved and spent many years at UIUC.

My impression has been that UIUC is/was jealous and wanted the IP / recognition. They admit he built it, but wanted a cut.

[breck]

Evidence refuting this, and showing him very actively involved:

http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-talk.1993q1/0182.ht...

[fsckboy]

he could have been actively involved in creating Mosaic as a university project, and still be accused of leaving the university and stealing the software to create a new commercial product.

[kevin_thibedeau]

The source code was public so not much to steal other than the knowledge he already had.

[trhway]

Well, Page/Brin's BackRub was basically a science citation index, yet here we're. Add FB into that collection too. Ideas are nothing (we all have a lot of them), execution is everything.

[paulryanrogers]

...and timing, and connections, and money, and education, and mental health

[olivermarks]

exactly @paulryanrogers

[specialist]

Marc named the image tag. 'IMG'. Even better, it's standalone! No closing tag!

So simple. And yet sublime. Given a million years, I'm not sure I could have come up with that solution.

[jjtheblunt]

this made me smile

[brnt]

What if that legitimacy is merely a story crafted by his press department? It so obviously will help interacting with his target audience: devs who take pride in technical skills and knowledge.

Why do you give people who can easily afford to have a team craft an image the benefit of believing it? I categorically don't. Not because I am of bad faith, no, precisely because I trust people to do what's in their interest: make sure your fund gets to talking with your audience.

[eduction]

Is it so hard to believe that people with “technical skills and knowledge” can be hypocrites?

The fact is, pmarca’s engineering chops are not a conspiracy invented by non engineers. He did in fact create a brilliant piece of software (Mosaic and, at some greater distance, Netscape), and the technical elites of Silicon Valley saw this and are responsible for much of his wealth and influence.

But the mundane truth is that engineering chops do not automatically translate into virtue, tact, political acumen, investment prowess, or any number of other skills or positive attributes. It is understandable that engineers want to believe they are on a higher plane of human existence but the evidence is inconclusive.

No publicist tricked us into thinking Andreessen was a brilliant programmer, we tricked ourselves into thinking brilliant programmers are necessarily superhuman.

[brnt]

> Is it so hard to believe that people with “technical skills and knowledge” can be hypocrites?

It is not, just as it is not that PR departments know how to appeal to hypocrites.