Lying Not The Best Career Strategy, Turns Out
TechCrunch has posted a TAKEDOWN PIECE of a young woman named Shirley Hornstein who FOOLED SILICON VALLEY into giving her jobs and letting her into parties with a clever mix of namedropping and photoshopping.
The piece by Anthony Ha reveals that she was a Silicon Valley staple, making it onto “top twenty” lists and generally fooling people at every turn. Things started to come apart when Sean Parker’s Founders Fund took legal action against her last year to get her to stop saying she was affiliated with the company (OOPS).
HEED THIS CAUTIONARY TALE.
Don’t say you know people that you don’t know! Don’t say you have worked at companies where you have not worked! And don’t photoshop yourself into pictures with celebrities and post them to your social media feeds to give you “cred” (not actually a picture of her with Justin Timberlake, research shows). Someone eventually is going to feel stupid for believing you! And then they will write a post on a website to take you down and it will become the top hit on Google when someone types in your name. Career ENDER. (Well, in an alternate universe at least—reality TV stars have been made from less.)
The TechCrunch post strikes me as kind of mean-spirited, but I think it comes from an understandable place—it sucks to have been had. This wasn’t mentioned in the TechCrunch post, but they fell for her, too; here she is in a video last year on the TechCrunch blog, representing Zaarly and namedropping TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington. Also featured in this video is my hometown buddy and TechCrunch assistant Greg Barto, recipient of a free haircut … and free lies.
(Is that burying the lede? It doesn’t actually seem relevant that I know someone who knows her, but maybe it is actually?) (The world is so, so small.) (I guess this is where I should also say that I was just reminded on GCHAT that I met her once in the street for two seconds but I have NO REMEMBRANCE OF THIS and therefore NO INSIGHT and NO OPINION and TO CLAIM SO would be doing the same thing that she’s doing, but instead of namedropping Justin Timberlake, I’d be namedropping a person who namedropped Justin Timberlake.)
This has gotten more complicated than it needs to be. Don’t lie. Really, ever. Just don’t lie to anyone.
I think the first link (“TAKEDOWN PIECE”) is wrong? It just takes me to the haircut video of your friend instead!
ETA: I think this is the one you meant: http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/28/talented-shirley-hornstein
Interesting piece, though those photoshopped pictures of celebs are SO absurd.
@craygirl
Also, I kind of had my conspiracy-loving heart broken when the tag “lying liars and the bloggers who believe them” didn’t lead to any more articles :) Make it a series!
Second paragraph: “last year when Sean Parker’s Founders Fund took legal action against her last year”
ETA And the correct place for the haircut link doesn’t have it
Someone got pwnd.
As someone who can’t even leave an anonymous blog comment for fear that I’ll “get caught.” This kind of person utterly fascinates me. What does it feel like to be in her head? Does she start to believe in the person she created at a certain point?
On another note, re lying for jobs: my dad dropped out of school in 9th grade, but when he was in his early 20s he applied for a job at a computer center for a bank, falsely stating that he had graduated high school. He got the job and rose in the ranks before the lie was discovered. They called him in to fire him and he was like, “Look, that diploma has no bearing on the good work I do here, please just give me a chance.” And they did, and he kept working super hard and became manager of the place and it really DIDN’T matter.
But that was in the 60s. Different world etc
@AnnieNilsson As someone who is the worst liar in the world, it does boggle my mind that people like her are like, “Yeah, this is TOTALLY a good idea. No one will ever find out.”
The thing that sucks is that people like this never seem to give interviews and open up about what the hell they were thinking.
@AnnieNilsson I had a teacher in high school who somehow earned a college degree without ever graduating from high school. But no one ever bothered to care whether she had a high school diploma so she got to continue teaching IB and gifted classes.
@jane lane I have no high school diploma, a BA from USC, and an MA from Mills. I also taught junior high school for several years. Totally possible, and really not that rare. I never took the SAT or the GRE either.
Well…it sounds like she could get a job photoshopping stuff at least.