4 ms·

>So why doesn't Graham recognize and advocate this? Perhaps it's because two of his biggest golden geese — Uber and AirBnB — are actually relying on exactly th

>So why doesn't Graham recognize and advocate this? Perhaps it's because two of his biggest golden geese — Uber and AirBnB — are actually relying on exactly the kind of political influence I'm calling out here in order to survive and prosper. Whether this is true or not, we need to realize PG has motives. He doesn't write essays just for his health.

nostrademons 11y ago
Having read PG's essays since 2002, I suspect his motive is that he wants to have good ideas. The kind that will be remembered after his death. He even said as much in one of his essays [1]. He's writing for legacy, not for profit. YC itself was one of those ideas - it started out as an experiment [2], derived from a talk at Harvard Computer Society [3]. The easiest way to test if an idea is a good one is to go do it, so he did, and it turned out it was, and that led to profit. I don't think it's fair to attribute Machiavellian scheming to PG. There are some other people in Silicon Valley that will take a position and then influence public opinion to make that position come true, but it's pretty rare, and I don't think it's the case here. Rather, it's the same reason all VCs talk their book: they start with a hypothesis about how the world is, then invest their book according to the hypothesis, and then tell everyone what the hypothesis is. The worldview comes first, the investments come second. [1] http://paulgraham.com/speak.html http://paulgraham.com/speak.html [2] http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html [3] http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html
- paganel 11y ago
  From half a world away I wouldn't say his motives are "Machiavellian", but his style and the subjects he wrote about definitely changed just after reddit and especially YC became important, mostly for the worst/not-interesting. I think I started reading his essays in 2004 or so, and he was a cool guy, not as cool as jwz, for example, but pretty interesting nevertheless because of his story of actually making some good money out of having used LISP (which back then was like a Nirvana-reaching thing, I mean, making big money out of LISP) and for being a programmer who was actually showing interest for other things outside programming, like Renaissance painting (Christopher Alexander and his Turkish rugs' patterns was also a thing back then among programmers). But then reddit launched, YC was founded, somehow they started making money, and things like Arc and trying to make LISP a world-dominating language became things of the past. That's when his writings became a lot less interesting for guys like me, i.e. for average programmers who just wanted to read what other guys smarter than them had to say.
  - S4M 11y ago
    Coming also from half a world away from Silicon Valley (Europe), I also think there is a large discrepancy in PG's essays before and after YC became successful. Before YC was successful, I felt that his essays were written by a very smart guy who thought a lot about various topics, and his advice made lots of sense (don't go for prestigious fields for prestige's sake, find what you really love, etc.), while now it feels that he's thinking that everything converge to make startup the only path to success (I'm exaggerating a bit, but not that much). I don't think he does that to bring more and more people to apply to YC, but I can feel the influence on spending lots of time with VCs and startups.
tptacek 11y ago
My best guess is that Graham writes these "essays" because he is, like a lot of us, simply the kind of dork who enjoys writing stuff like this.
dang 11y ago
It's closer to "for health" than you'd think. If you talked to PG about this I'm sure you'd come away with the same sense. My impression is that he writes essays as a way of thinking and because it makes him happy. Edit: these are representative of talking to him about it: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/676834210976411648 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/676834210976411648 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/680162174648492032 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/680162174648492032
- kelukelugames 11y ago
  I bet he writes as a way of thinking and it makes him happy. I bet he has biases, leanings, and motives too. Some of them are private or even subconscious.
  - dang 11y ago
    Sure, but you've replaced a very strong (implied) claim with a weak one that would be true of anybody.

nostrademons 11y ago

Having read PG's essays since 2002, I suspect his motive is that he wants to have good ideas. The kind that will be remembered after his death. He even said as much in one of his essays [1]. He's writing for legacy, not for profit. YC itself was one of those ideas - it started out as an experiment [2], derived from a talk at Harvard Computer Society [3]. The easiest way to test if an idea is a good one is to go do it, so he did, and it turned out it was, and that led to profit. I don't think it's fair to attribute Machiavellian scheming to PG. There are some other people in Silicon Valley that will take a position and then influence public opinion to make that position come true, but it's pretty rare, and I don't think it's the case here. Rather, it's the same reason all VCs talk their book: they start with a hypothesis about how the world is, then invest their book according to the hypothesis, and then tell everyone what the hypothesis is. The worldview comes first, the investments come second. [1] http://paulgraham.com/speak.html http://paulgraham.com/speak.html [2] http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html [3] http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html

paganel 11y ago
From half a world away I wouldn't say his motives are "Machiavellian", but his style and the subjects he wrote about definitely changed just after reddit and especially YC became important, mostly for the worst/not-interesting. I think I started reading his essays in 2004 or so, and he was a cool guy, not as cool as jwz, for example, but pretty interesting nevertheless because of his story of actually making some good money out of having used LISP (which back then was like a Nirvana-reaching thing, I mean, making big money out of LISP) and for being a programmer who was actually showing interest for other things outside programming, like Renaissance painting (Christopher Alexander and his Turkish rugs' patterns was also a thing back then among programmers). But then reddit launched, YC was founded, somehow they started making money, and things like Arc and trying to make LISP a world-dominating language became things of the past. That's when his writings became a lot less interesting for guys like me, i.e. for average programmers who just wanted to read what other guys smarter than them had to say.
- S4M 11y ago
  Coming also from half a world away from Silicon Valley (Europe), I also think there is a large discrepancy in PG's essays before and after YC became successful. Before YC was successful, I felt that his essays were written by a very smart guy who thought a lot about various topics, and his advice made lots of sense (don't go for prestigious fields for prestige's sake, find what you really love, etc.), while now it feels that he's thinking that everything converge to make startup the only path to success (I'm exaggerating a bit, but not that much). I don't think he does that to bring more and more people to apply to YC, but I can feel the influence on spending lots of time with VCs and startups.

tptacek 11y ago

My best guess is that Graham writes these "essays" because he is, like a lot of us, simply the kind of dork who enjoys writing stuff like this.

dang 11y ago

It's closer to "for health" than you'd think. If you talked to PG about this I'm sure you'd come away with the same sense. My impression is that he writes essays as a way of thinking and because it makes him happy. Edit: these are representative of talking to him about it: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/676834210976411648 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/676834210976411648 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/680162174648492032 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/680162174648492032

kelukelugames 11y ago
I bet he writes as a way of thinking and it makes him happy. I bet he has biases, leanings, and motives too. Some of them are private or even subconscious.
- dang 11y ago
  Sure, but you've replaced a very strong (implied) claim with a weak one that would be true of anybody.