[dfraser992]

Based on this, and other essays, I am beginning to suspect Paul Graham is the technological equivalent of David Brooks (the NYT columnist). I'm a well educated middle middle class white American and after reading this essay, I immediately groked how the non-white Other groups (gays, black, etc) in society get offended by the ignorant and simplistic assumptions or stereotypical thinking of the In groups (the politically correct brigade being outrageously sensitive to even mere nuances or surface details, of course, in a needless fashion). I am beginning to understand the various criticisms of the HN community... then again, my life has been much more varied than the average middle class American and I'd like to think I have a more comprehensive understanding of life (yeah, arrogant). Or I just think and read too much.

Or maybe it is more a matter of values, and the values of rich white guys in Silicon Valley are hardly those of most of humanity. One's values are factors in the blinders you were while interpreting reality, along with whatever unconscious crap you're not dealing with (or maybe those feed into the values) and from that arises your attitudes, etc.

Anyway, my immediate emotional reaction on reading this was WTF? I wasn't impressed.