[FinnLobsien]

I think much of this comes down to wanting to be a type of person vs. wanting to do the actual thing.

It’s easy to be consumed by “I’m the wealthy San Francisco founder guy” and doing everything that lifestyle requires, including things that may not be good for you.

[Aurornis]

That's a really good way of putting it.

I've been to some weird SF events where you immediately recognize that most people there are in their fake it till you make it stage. Then you realize that many of them aren't interested in the part where you have to do a lot of hard work, they just want to be impressive and charming to a broad network so they can insert themselves into the best opportunities that come up.

Every startup collects a couple of these hires during their growth phase. Some times it can be really hard to separate the charm, charisma, and credentials from ability to get things done. The smart founders will push these people back out, much like this Jim guy got fired from the startup he managed to get into at the right place at the right time. It doesn't happen immediately, though.

[koolba]

The open source version of this has existed for decades as well.

There’s the doers that actually enjoy the craft, want to share what they’ve done, and contribute to things they genuinely find intellectually stimulating.

And for each of those true believers there’s many more fly by night wannabes that think it’s some kind of shortcut to social validation.