Comment by santoshalper
7 months ago
Hacker News is primarily read by young, affluent, intelligent men. In the old days, people like us would often fall hard for Ayn Rand's bullshit (I know I did!), now they fall for this new bullshit.
Really, it's the same thing though - it feels good to have someone tell you that you are exceptional and that your biggest problem is that someone (women, minorities, The Man, bureaucrats) is holding you back from becoming the next Steve Jobs or Frank Lloyd Wright.
You gotta understand that most people are not principled and operate solely on a vibes-based ethical framework: "If it feels good, it's probably right."
The intelligence part is debatable. Clever, maybe, but "clever" is not necessarily intelligent. The latter is commonly taken to be a matter of depth and consideration as well as sharpness, and if you fall hard for "Ayn Rand's bullshit", you probably have neither (if not the capacity to develop them).