> he has an unhealthy obsession with "classifying" people, by which he actually means ranking them, from top to bottom
I remember coming to an event at the YC headquarters a few years ago and that's exactly the way PG acted in person as well. He was surrounded by people wanting to talk to him the whole time, whenever someone would say hi and introduce themselves he would immediately ask for their HN username, then either strike a conversation or just say something along the lines of "doesn't ring a bell" and pass on to the next person.
Many of the people that have gone through YC feel like the program has inherited that same quality. There are a few darlings in each batch that the partners really focus on and put their biggest efforts towards, while the rest feel almost inadequate for not being as awesome as the top ones.
There is an arrogant pretense in self-imposed naming and carving up the world into your personalized compartments.
It seems PG has now stooped to the infamous Quadrant Diagram beloved by management consultants and other superficial minds who ought to know better...
The ribbonfarm guy and Eric Weinstein also come to mind, with their look-at-me coining of petty neologisms and vacuous abbreviations. They may be smart and reflective, but their heavy-handed narcissism drowns out any underlying insights.
I wonder how that behavior is reconciled with the idealistic basis of YC's application process where its open to everyone without needing warm intros and all. Pretty hypocritical to decide the only people worth your time are the people who found and had the time to engage with an internet forum that occasionally seems less like a forum and more like a recruiting and marketing tool for YC startups.
I remember coming to an event at the YC headquarters a few years ago and that's exactly the way PG acted in person as well. He was surrounded by people wanting to talk to him the whole time, whenever someone would say hi and introduce themselves he would immediately ask for their HN username, then either strike a conversation or just say something along the lines of "doesn't ring a bell" and pass on to the next person.
Many of the people that have gone through YC feel like the program has inherited that same quality. There are a few darlings in each batch that the partners really focus on and put their biggest efforts towards, while the rest feel almost inadequate for not being as awesome as the top ones.