Paul Graham
Paul Graham
Paul Grahamis an English computer scientist, venture capitalist, and essayist. He is known for his work on Lisp, for co-founding Viaweb, and for co-founding the Y Combinator seed capital firm. He is the author of some programming books, such as: On Lisp, ANSI Common Lisp, and Hackers & Painters...
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth13 November 1964
felt lively quite succeed type whatever
She was the type of person you just felt was going to succeed in whatever she did. She was quite lively and outgoing.
hackers scientists start
So hackers start original, and get good, and scientists start good, and get original.
against dress happen measure nerds
Nerds just don't happen to dress informally. They do it too consistently. Consciously or not, they dress informally as prophylactic measure against stupidity.
both easy good hacking moments others otherwise painting save tasks
In both painting and hacking there are some tasks that are terrifyingly ambitious, and others that are comfortably routine. It's a good idea to save some easy tasks for moments when you would otherwise stall.
business esoteric great requires starting
There are all these great programmers out there who think starting a startup requires esoteric business knowledge,
people
Some people just get what they want in the world.
customers
Small-business customers are very conservative and very cheap. We don't have to explain ourselves for the most part.
bad seemed side social
When Facebook first started, and it was just a social directory for undergrads at Harvard, it would have seemed like such a bad startup idea, like some student side project.
suppose
I suppose I should learn Lisp, but it seems so foreign.
ceo found visionary
Empirically the way you get a product visionary as CEO is for him to found the company and not get fired.
accounts cases far immediate sold
We don't have to go that far to sell our beer because our immediate accounts sell so much. Places that sold 10 cases before, now they're selling 30.
experience hard imagine running sort unless
Like having a child, running a startup is the sort of experience that's hard to imagine unless you've done it yourself.
In the startup world, 'not working' is normal.
instead
If you really understand something, you can say it in the fewest words, instead of thrashing about.