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>he supposedly worked to be a respected blogger and now he's rewarded for that

Supply and demand makes that the situation that he can tell people if they want his attention they need to buy him lunch, what it doesn't do is make him any less of a douche for doing so.

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No no no, I'm not selling my attention or a review on my blog. That never happens. What happens is companies asking me for advice and asking it for free and expecting me to invest my time. I think I made that pretty clear in the post...

But isn't that like saying an experienced software developer is a douche for asking for a salary higher than minimal living wage?

He brings value to the startups, seems perfectly OK to me to ask them to pay him back for his time, and a lunch is hardly expensive in exchange for the publicity.

Maybe it's some social convention I'm missing, but personally I have no problem with what he's doing.

I would put it in another context. It's like giving your developers a room to play games, read books and relax. You are basically attracting them by cool/nice things that aren't really expensive.

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