Even so, extremely rich people in the scene are expected to avoid flaunting their wealth. Technology writer Kara Swisher explains: “They’re a better class of rich people. They do mingle. Bill Gates does mingle with the hoi polloi, kind of thing. He doesn’t really have to. He can go to a little island by himself as far as I’m concerned, but I think there is a lot more equality in mingling … They don’t have Hamptons houses and they don’t exclude themselves and you can run into them in Palo Alto … There’s not a lot of limousines and that kind of stuff. But there is status related to their wealth.” The first dot-com boom abounded with tales of newly minted millionaires living in studio apartments and wearing torn t-shirts. Flaunting one’s wealth is considered tacky, because it defies the scene’s emphasis on intelligence and technological savvy; a focus on looks or superfluous material possessions is viewed somewhat suspiciously as non-techie or at least non-nerdy.

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, loc. 192