[pg]

HN users are sophisticated enough not to simply post comments saying "I hate Dustin Curtis." Here they resort to something more akin to concern trolling.

The way you can tell something is amiss is the volume of commenters who seem worried about e.g. how Dustin is going to make money. If most startups issued such a bland funding announcement, it would sink beneath the surface of HN with barely a ripple of comment.

[lmm]

I hate Dustin Curtis.

[tptacek]

Man I have never wanted to see a company succeed more than I want to see Curtis' thing succeed now. What a bunch of wangs you all are.

If this is some kind of genius nerd underdog sympathy marketing ploy, I've never seen it done better.

[lmm]

Underdog? Have you read anything the guy writes? He's like Kanye West but without the humility.

[sillysaurus]

So you made me curious. I went and had a look at Dustin's writing. Here's a piece entitled "Do".

=========================

Wake up early. Show up. Learn how to think. Be genuine, but appear nice. Use envy for motivation instead of destruction. Do what you say you’re going to do. Ensure balance in every area of your life. Confront repressed thoughts immediately. Surround yourself with people who are better than you (but remember the thing about envy). Work out every day. Be good at what you do. Make money doing what you love. Have good friends. Never settle.

--

Now, as far as I can tell, every aspect of that post is good advice. It's evident that Dustin's advice was derived from experience, because some his points are counter-intuitive-but-true (which tend to only be learned as a byproduct of screwing up). The advice seems to match my own experience as well, so it seems possible it may be broadly true and (and therefore broadly useful).

I don't know what demon you see in him, but you're wrong.

Now, at this point, it seems only fair that we contrast Dustin's writing against someone else's writing. Let's use your writing, in fact.

So here's a piece you wrote, entitled "New Year - No Fun Allowed".

=========================

My resolution is to blog every day. Whoops, already missed that one. Make it every week, I guess.

Also, to finally launch the enormous white whale of a ship that I’ve been working on in Kerbal Space Program (which is what has kept me from here for so long). It will set all sorts of records, visit all the planets… I just need to have the damn thing not explode. I’m getting closer now; got as far as 20km, and the most recent launch was spoiled by pure bad luck (a piece I’d blown off the top of my rocket fell down back onto it).

You might think stuff like buying a flat or finding a job should be higher on the list than achieving something in a computer game. And you’d be right. But damned if it doesn’t feel like the other way around.

--

Eh... I was going to say some more stuff, but it appears you may be going through a rough period in your life.

This is something of a tangent, but: if you happen to want to talk with someone about what's on your mind nowadays, or if you just need someone to talk to, then please feel free to toss me an email. I'm happy to listen (if you want that) or to do whatever else I can.

Life can be rough, but don't let it break you, even if it seems hard not to.

[lmm]

>It's evident that Dustin's advice was derived from experience, because some his points are counter-intuitive-but-true (which tend to only be learned as a byproduct of screwing up).

That seems implausible given his age and job history. I don't see how he can possibly have tried e.g. settling enough to be able to assert one should never do it.

The whole tone is one of condescension, of the enlightened master speaking down to his acolytes. I'd accept it coming from e.g. that guy who built a windmill out of scrap metal, or Helen Keller, or even Mark Zuckerberg. Someone who's overcome adversity and/or achieved something useful - or perhaps even just someone old enough to have a bit of life experience. From a bay-area upper-class white male who has never had to struggle, who so far as I can tell has never done a day's real work in his life? No; I'd accept domain-specific advice on design or writing (which he seems to have a genuine talent for), but I refuse to believe he knows better than me how to live - and that's how he's phrased it, not as suggestions or things that worked for him, but as instructions and universal truths.

>Eh... I was going to say some more stuff, but it appears you may be going through a rough period in your life.

Hah, a reader. No, don't worry, I guess it sounded bad out of context. No Fun Allowed is the blog title, not because I don't have fun but because I spend most of the posts taking silly things way too seriously. My present employers have chosen a somewhat inconvenient time to make 2/3 of their developers redundant, which in the worst case might set my life plans back a few years, but life is good; thanks for the sympathy, but I'm doing ok, at least for the moment.

[pg]

who so far as I can tell has never done a day's real work in his life?

How could you possibly know a thing like that?

The things you've said in this thread are so much worse than anything you accuse Dustin of saying. I wonder the contrast doesn't strike you.

[jspthrowaway2]

Really? Wondering how to monetize a blogazine is concern trolling driven by hating Dustin Curtis?

I worry that moderating this community has jaded you. (That's concern trolling.) It's a valid question, and one I'd ask of any blogazine that received funding; do you stick ads on it? Charge a subscription fee? Sell user data?

[pg]

Not all of it, no, but some of it. (The whole point of concern trolling is that the two are indistinguishable, so you only notice something's amiss when you see odd patterns.)

[swombat]

For what it's worth, though I posted a post concerned about how Svbtle will make money (with some analysis), I have nothing against Dustin and I wish him the best with Svbtle and other endeavours. Just can't see how this thing makes money later. As a blogger myself, I'm somewhat attracted by Svbtle (there is something desirable about it), but I can't see the sense of blogging there rather than on my own platform. It seems inferior in every way...

boggles

Svbtle is a strange puzzle.

[rohamg]

pg- when i first read your comments i was surprised at the categorical ad hominem dismissal of svbtle's critics. scrolling down, i see what u mean- the level of negativity and vitriol engendered by seemingly innocuous facts is surprisingly out of proportion. even for HN :) one wonders why the posters torture themselves so much. the internet has always been packed with garbage - but garbage to you can be treasure to me. don't like it? click the back button! it's always been that easy. it's almost as if these out of proportion "controversies" against svbtle are being manufactured by svbtle supporters in order to attract attention? sounds like it could work :)

[jspthrowaway2]

That's fair, I suppose. Probably a good sign for you, though, as you mentioned re: controversy.