Livingston: Why was HOT or NOT instantly so popular?

Hong: Looking at hot chicks is fun. It's voyeurism. The concept at the time was so new and edgy. No one had ever seen it before or thought about it. It was just so funny—and painful too. Like voting for people who were so ugly that you wondered why they were voluntarily doing it.

Livingston: Did you ever catch any shit from your technology friends?

Hong: Why would I catch shit? What would they be mad at me about?

Livingston: That you were squandering your education and talent on creating a site for ranking people's attractiveness?

Hong: Most techies would dream of that, are you kidding? People in Silicon Valley are entrepreneurs, they're not the risk-averse types that would think I was wasting my education. I was the first among my MBA classmates that made it into the Wall Street Journal.