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Perhaps this is an unkind reading of your post, but it reads almost like a caricature, and the fact that others don't comment on it perhaps means that they are equally duplicitous, outwardly or to themselves.

I don't know who this post was directed at, or how you think that it can be helpful to "the public". But let's assume it was therapy. Fine.

I traveled the world with my girlfriend for 6 months and then dumped her. Honey, if you're reading this, it was me, not you. WHAT?!?!?!

I climbed the highest mountains, the kind that normies train for months to climb. Oh yeah, I did it without training... And by the way, I cruuuuushed it, bro!

WHAT?!?!?!

Oh, and that thing you'vr been reading about all day in your feed, you know about DOGE and saving America, you know with Vivek and Elon and all them smart people... Yeah, they really wanted a piece of me, but I wasn't feeling it so I peaced out.

So now, I'm in this place called Hawaii studying physics, because... Well, I don't know... Because Einstein... because Weinstein... Because the voices... Did I mention Hawaii... Oh guys, I am soooooo weird...

Honestly, you have issues dude. They are PRIVATE issues. I know self-promotion is the name of the game, or at least most games, these days. But not for this.

You definitely have a lot work to do. And it ain't physics. And none of us are going to be able to help you.

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I think there are lots of ways to read this, for me what I read is a lot of numbness. Yes, the achievements and prestige are there, but they’re sort of passing phenomena that come and go and don’t really move oneself in a meaningful way. There’s a sadness in not knowing how to fulfil one’s addiction to difficulty and grandiosity, and a humiliation in knowing how to achieve success but not happiness (particularly when that is what you’ve idolised for so long). I personally don’t find the hypoxia climbing a mountain to be a humble brag- that seems like obviously stupid behaviour to me, and I don’t feel jealous of someone who is so reckless with their health, no matter how high the mountain!

it is obviously not be sad in the way that being poor or spat on is sad, but it is still a real and lonely feeling that human beings are capable of, and this is very human to me.

I understand if you find it distasteful, and it’s in your right to! But I find at least this account is quite honest.

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Thanks for your thoughts Marlene. Maybe duplicitous was the wrong word. Maybe it should have been "clueless", or simply: "wrong". What I did find more disappointing is that the community seems to be equally clueless. They may be bright, incisive, productive, extraordinary people in many ways, but they seem to have lost the ability to answer the most eternal, universal, and human of questions: what does it take to be a douche?

I think I did learn something new from this essay at the end: while money is not a cure to being a douche, hard work is likely a pretty good prophylactic (I suspect that Vinay was a much more interesting human being while "in the shit" at Loom). And conversely, free time is likely a multiplier. So if he wants advice, I'd probably tell him to get back to work on some project where there's no exit until there's "the exit". Then, it doesn't have to be about him any more. Because at this point, it's unlikely that he will be able to change the contents of his bag.

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