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I'll never forget this essay, because he first delivered it as a talk at Harvard that Steve and I trained up from Virginia to attend. After Steve had lent me Ma

I'll never forget this essay, because he first delivered it as a talk at Harvard that Steve and I trained up from Virginia to attend. After Steve had lent me Masters of Doom, I was already convinced we should start a startup together, but this talk sealed the deal. I know Chris Slowe (later our first 'hire' at reddit) was in the audience that evening and I'm sure a number of other future YCers were also there with no clue of where it would lead. Thank you, Paul Graham, for making that comment about finding investment from rich people who'd done it before (but not him). If I recall, it was feeling guilty about hearing the dejection in the room that got him thinking about starting Y Combinator. And what a difference that decision has made in so many of our lives.

alnayyir 16y ago
My coworker and friend danced for Chris yesterday. I don't know why but I always find anecdotes about how Reddit got started really fascinating. Perhaps personal interest.
- kn0thing 16y ago
  I'd love to hear the backstory on that! Any other reddit anecdotes I can share for you? I shared a few on my blog (http://reddit.blogspot.com http://reddit.blogspot.com) during the startup, but we lucked into Chris because he went back to his PHD after doing YC that first summer and had 2 spare bedrooms, which Steve & I promptly moved into when summer ended and PG talked us out of moving back to Virginia. Chris generally just made us feel guilty for ever needing to sleep (since he was helping us part-time and PHD-ing at Harvard the rest of the time -- oh, and he met & dated his future wife then, too!)
  - alnayyir 16y ago
    Wow, way to make me feel terrible about not having more serious side projects while I work full time :P
- keysersosa 16y ago
  So here's the back story: we're working on migrating the reddit blog off of blogger and have a test environment set up that we were playing around with. We have a semi-private IRC channel that your coworker, as a close friend of the reddit team and heavy duty open source developer also hangs around in. I asked if anyone wanted login to the new blog interface to which I got a "Me! Me!" from the gentleman in question. Since he isn't strictly speaking a member of the dev team, I did the natural thing and said, "ok, but in exchange you're going to have to dance for my amusement." Suffice it to say he called my bluff.
  - alnayyir 16y ago
    >as a close friend of the reddit team and heavy duty open source developer also hangs around in. I know the significance of what he contributes to Reddit, I've been on Reddit for a long time and ran into him because of IRC. He's the one that got me my job :P I'm not surprised at all that he called your bluff, he's quite the playful fellow. I was amused when he shared it with the rest of our dev team (the video).
Cabal 16y ago
It's a good rudimentary read, but there's a lot more compelling stuff coming from the visionaries in the sector out there.

alnayyir 16y ago

My coworker and friend danced for Chris yesterday. I don't know why but I always find anecdotes about how Reddit got started really fascinating. Perhaps personal interest.

kn0thing 16y ago
I'd love to hear the backstory on that! Any other reddit anecdotes I can share for you? I shared a few on my blog (http://reddit.blogspot.com http://reddit.blogspot.com) during the startup, but we lucked into Chris because he went back to his PHD after doing YC that first summer and had 2 spare bedrooms, which Steve & I promptly moved into when summer ended and PG talked us out of moving back to Virginia. Chris generally just made us feel guilty for ever needing to sleep (since he was helping us part-time and PHD-ing at Harvard the rest of the time -- oh, and he met & dated his future wife then, too!)
- alnayyir 16y ago
  Wow, way to make me feel terrible about not having more serious side projects while I work full time :P
keysersosa 16y ago
So here's the back story: we're working on migrating the reddit blog off of blogger and have a test environment set up that we were playing around with. We have a semi-private IRC channel that your coworker, as a close friend of the reddit team and heavy duty open source developer also hangs around in. I asked if anyone wanted login to the new blog interface to which I got a "Me! Me!" from the gentleman in question. Since he isn't strictly speaking a member of the dev team, I did the natural thing and said, "ok, but in exchange you're going to have to dance for my amusement." Suffice it to say he called my bluff.
- alnayyir 16y ago
  >as a close friend of the reddit team and heavy duty open source developer also hangs around in. I know the significance of what he contributes to Reddit, I've been on Reddit for a long time and ran into him because of IRC. He's the one that got me my job :P I'm not surprised at all that he called your bluff, he's quite the playful fellow. I was amused when he shared it with the rest of our dev team (the video).

Cabal 16y ago

It's a good rudimentary read, but there's a lot more compelling stuff coming from the visionaries in the sector out there.