"broadcasting an opinion that is extremely unpopular with the people who make up his dealflow?"
What do you think the actual net effect of that will be though? That Andreesen will actually lose out on the best or many deals?
Not only do people have short memories, but money and opportunity smooth over many problems in people's minds. Rationalization. [1] I remember reading how up in arms people were about MIT and Schwartz. Some alum threatened to pull support. So how many actually did? (I don't know the answer).
Of course if the "brand" continues to broadcast opinions on an ongoing basis that are unpopular that's a different story.
[1] Faced with economic opportunity the tobacco industry spreading around wealth and business opportunities did pretty well for many years.
"Just like steve jobs was able to call the founder of HP in highschool and ended up getting a job there for the summer."
There is nothing that unusual about that now except with tech companies or any other company that is the current "belle of the ball" or super large and well known.
The idea is to learn and gain experience not to get some buzz because you have achieved some popular culture dream of working for the same place that millions of others would like to. Sure we'd all like to work at those places. That's the problem.
If you pick any company that is generally off the public radar (and not being fawned over in the press with a celebrity CEO) it is quite possible to send a postal letter to the CEO and have a fair shot of getting a summer job. Or even an email but my feeling is a letter would get more attention and seem more genuine.
Not all the value lies in the usual suspects that have more applicants than they can handle.
A corollary to this goes with low paid jobs. Our offices used to be located near a Walmart. Yet not one time in 9 years to anyone ever come through the door looking for an office or admin or warehouse job. Yet everyday people showed up at the Walmart and got a much lower paying job and (from our pov) much worse working conditions. It's important to put effort in, be creative, and not do what everyone else is doing.
"reality the majority of the healthy public has no understanding of what true chronic pain entails"
Agree. And forget even chronic pain. Simply having a nagging pain, a bad cold, nausea, or a bad headache is certainly enough to take the joy out of many things in life. Even a drip in my throat can kill my buzz.
Agree. My wife is a MD also (internal medicine) and the only time I saw her cry was when she received a call in the middle of the night and found out that one of her patients that was dnr/dni (an elderly lady) had exactly that done to her. The staff at the hospital where she was off shift had overlooked the directive.
What do you think the actual net effect of that will be though? That Andreesen will actually lose out on the best or many deals?
Not only do people have short memories, but money and opportunity smooth over many problems in people's minds. Rationalization. [1] I remember reading how up in arms people were about MIT and Schwartz. Some alum threatened to pull support. So how many actually did? (I don't know the answer).
Of course if the "brand" continues to broadcast opinions on an ongoing basis that are unpopular that's a different story.
[1] Faced with economic opportunity the tobacco industry spreading around wealth and business opportunities did pretty well for many years.