What I do on Twitter [being blunt and honest with my thoughts, at least as much as I can without being fired] might seem like bravery, but it is not. A lot of my friends ask how I am not worried about rubbing someone the wrong way, pissing some VC or founder in the ecosystem who might take offense at some tweet I blasted out without much thought.

My answer is that we vastly overestimate how much people care about us. Most people don’t. Atleast not enough to hurt their own interests. The people who know me well, know that they should not take my Twitter seriously. And the people who don’t matter to me, even if they care about my tweets, why should I be worried about them?

Also if there is one thing I have learned over 10 years working in this system it is that everyone wants the same things: money, power and status. If I startup tomorrow, the same VCs, the same thought leaders from twitter, will want to fund me, irrespective of whether they like my twitter or not. Parker Conrad’s first startup Zenefits literally broke laws, but his 2nd startup Ripling still attracted venture capital from top tier VCs. Why? Simple. He is a great entrepreneur. And VCs think he will get them superior return compared to the market.

I am also a hypocrite. I might meme a16z all the time, but if I had a chance to be their LP, I would throw everything at them.

If I was being really honest: my worry is not about offending someone. It is that I will stop working hard one day, my skills would stagnate, and no one would want anything from me. Then suddenly I would have to be like everyone else too. Attending meetups. Simping for people on Twitter. If I get shit done, no one would care.

Having said that I do know that I would have had more career opportunities if I networked more. Said the “right things”. But what is the fun in that?

Also, in another 100 years, no one will remember we existed. Do you remember the most successful businessmen from the 1970s? Can you name even 5?

Forget 100, it takes less than a year for people to forget you. Let’s say your grandfather died 6 months back? How many months did you take to forget he existed once. He had a career. His life. No one remembers anything. People are too busy living their own lives.

So why worry about random people on the internet and what they think?

Before Elon Musk normalised posting 69 jokes, people at the top of the pyramid just acted like railway station announcers. Now they copy him & post memes too. Because he normalised it. And people just copy what successful people in celebristan do.

We are all mimetic creatures and look at others to figure out what are the right things to do and say. We can’t decide independently what we are allowed to say.

For me, I would rather be me and attract the 10 people I want to hangout, work & figure out life with. I don’t need everyone to like me or follow me on Twitter. And that makes me easy to be based on Twitter.