[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.