What? You thought that publicly calling out prominent groups of people didn’t open you up to some criticism yourself? You know what they say about people who write open blogs.
Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s healthy to criticize, and especially to criticize those with unchecked power. A handful of technology venture capitalists are indeed uber-wealthy kingmakers who operate in a relatively small community with an easily overwhelmed press corps that’s apt to turn a blind eye to the standard-issue behavior of industry jerks.
So, your posts about VCs and founders have done a great service in many ways. Indeed, bald-faced criticism of prominent folks is often welcome at first blush. People are downright thirsty for it. It’s lauded and re-shared to the hilt.
But then, after a couple more times, it starts to seem formulaic. Easy to parody.
So here’s the thing, Andy. You’re starting to annoy people.
Because it’s really not as easy as you say it is, this business of delineating between “nontrepreneurs” and real founders, between “smart” VCs and “dumb” VCs. 98 percent versus 2 percent is an awfully pessimistic figure — and, as others have pointed out, it’s not even accurate. The world here just isn’t this black and white.
Clickable as it all is, to me this kind of perspective is reminiscent not of business writing, but of old fashioned style tenets that still get bandied about in women’s magazines and chick lit today: Are you hourglass shaped or pear shaped or apple shaped? Are you a Jackie or a Marilyn or an Audrey?
It’s alluring in its simplicity, which is why it continues to sell. But ultimately it’s a false way of looking at the world.
And, after a short while, all this mud-slinging just makes other people ask: “Who is he to judge?” “Who is he, Bill Gates? It’s just like people asked what was so special about those ladies who wrote The Rules . And that’s a nasty, negative, dark, pessimistic question and way of looking at other human beings — a level of criticism that hardly any of us can measure up to. But to be fair, you dished it out first.
