Tell HN: With Regret & Surprise I Say Good-Bye to HN

BACKGROUND---Nearly 6 months ago I moved my wife and 3 kids to silicon valley to start a new life and pursue a tech. start-up. I studied and planned for nearly two years, eventually arriving in Palo Alto, CA the first week of June.

My background is not in tech. hence, due diligence was key. My best resources were techmeme, PG essays, JL F@W and pmarca's blog. PG's essays were very significant and one of the reasons I chose to move to the valley and compete on the most fertile start-up ground on earth.

CURRENT---Yesterday I posted on HN a question addressed directly to PG/JL (read: Ask PG/JL). To my surprise I got an email from PG that said "don't ever do that again."

My question was simple and professional. I want to be clear, it would have been perfectly within reason for PG to write that he didn't respond to personal inquiries or something along that vein. No harm, no foul. But instead, just "don't ever do that again".

Like many of you, I've been asked often over the years to share a thought or provide counsel to others of like-mind. I can't imagine greeting a sincere request the way PG greeted mine.

Perhaps it is wrong to let this affect me as personally as it has, after all I have never met the man. On the other hand, when you spend hours with an author's words an odd intimacy develops.

END---I am an optimist and believer at heart, my great hope is that PG just had a rough day and typed me an email without thinking it through.

The great Andrew Carnegie used to say that there is nothing worse than attending an empowering motivational event only to see that after the performance the speaker is chain-smoking cigarettes and chugging whiskey. Staying around would be akin to buying a Mac after discovering Steve Job's uses a PC.

This is how PG made me feel. I've lost respect. I wish him, and all of you, the best.

GOODBYE