[jessedhillon]

What the fuck.

You're flaming Mark Suster -- that's what it means when you tell him he has his head up his ass -- because you don't like some of the conclusions he's drawn from his experience. His experience as a successful entrepreneur, investor and mentor.

Essentially, from what I can tell, you have a problem with tone -- the guy uploads his brain and you slam him for his choice of words. He's not telling you that you're stupid or inferior, he just used a tone you didn't like. And for this reason, you're blasting a guy who just dumped a wealth of valuable experience into a coherent, emotionally relatable stream of consciousness. A humble and gracious thing to do, by any standard.

But no, you're totally right -- let's get mad and tell him to fuck off for his style.

Instead of blasting a guy for having an amazing career and sharing life lessons which you find personally inconvenient: go do something amazing and then come back and let us all know how it felt.

[polyfractal]

Umm, woah there buddy?

The parent poster presented disagreements in a rational, calm manner that facilitates discussion. Everyone is entitled to opinions, and he made his points in a rather respectful manner.

You, on the other hand, exploded like a bomb. Why the need to lash out so violently? You've been around HN for a long time so you should know that this kind of discourse is not really desired.

[jessedhillon]

Are we reading the same posts? Is it calm and rational to tell someone their head is up their ass?

[polyfractal]

Ah, fair enough, I did glance over that particular verbage in his post. Cursing aside, the overall tone of his post was pretty level-headed.

I think people can and should disagree with opinions, including opinions of someone as well known as Mr. Suster. And you can and should be able to disagree with someone disagreeing with said opinions.

But do it nicely, yeah?

[jessedhillon]

Apart from being a little sarcastic I think I was generally respectful. I basically said that it was overkill to flame him so harshly when the only argument appears to be based with Suster's style. It's certainly fine to disagree with anyone, just why so harshly, and especially over such a minor point. Why not more respectfully?

[minimax]

I've never heard of Mark Suster before today and I'm sorry if I offended you by criticizing one of your role models. Though if you reread his post, he does mention impertinence as being a characteristic of entrepreneurs. Maybe Mark Suster and I have more in common than I initially thought.

[jessedhillon]

You didn't offend me by criticizing him. You went, in my mind, totally nuts on him because you didn't like his tone. You said his head is up his ass for giving his POV on entrepreneurship. You were sarcastic and snarky and for no substantive reason.

Impertinence is also a common characteristic for a lot of other people, many of whom neither you nor I would like to be compared to.

[001sky]

As of this writing: ~225 upvotes for artcle and only 25 comments. Just something to note. A 9:1 ratio signals a pretty strong submission, IMHO.