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Paul Graham and his "no asshole" rule (Interview)
- Estragon 16y agoIt's actually Bob Sutton's rule. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_No_Asshole_Rule http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_No_Asshole_Rule
- MartinCron 16y agoFor anyone who is interested in interpersonal relationships at work, Bob Sutton is pretty much required reading. I especially enjoy his blog. http://bobsutton.typepad.com/ http://bobsutton.typepad.com/
- pg 16y agoIncidentally, we don't call it a "no asshole rule." I think what I originally said to Robert was that we try not to accept jerks, and since he'd heard the phrase "no asshole rule" he used that to describe it. Our criteria aren't the ones listed in this article, either. We're not trying to avoid people who make other people feel bad so much as those who are bogus, or dishonest. That's what we mean by a jerk: someone you can't trust.
- Estragon 16y agoThanks for the clarification.
- SkyMarshal 16y ago> someone you can't trust. Judging who you can trust, especially based on brief, early impressions, is quite a skill. Some have a natural intuition for it, others don't, but like many things I bet that intuition can be deconstructed into a series of learnable techniques. Would you consider writing an essay deconstructing how you and Robert judge who you can trust in business?
- jackowayed 16y agoHe's said in previous interviews that they all just ask Jessica, who is extremely good at judging character, because the rest of them aren't very good.
- 16s 16y agoShe must be their Counselor Troy :)
- SkyMarshal 16y agoAh, she's one of the intuitive ones. Some of it is probably due to women being more perceptive to body language and non-verbal communication than men are, on average. I wonder what else there is.
- StavrosK 16y agoDid I miss something, or was that awkward way the interviewer was interrupting pg real? At one point pg is saying something, and the interviewer interrupts him (while he's explaining) with some unintelligible thing, and pg goes "... <rage face> <swig>"
- ivankirigin 16y agoThat is scoble's style. He is friendly, gregarious, abd excitable which makes him great and horrible for interviews. His eagerness is net positive though. Often it makes interviews with more boring people tolerable.
- StavrosK 16y agoAh, thanks. I don't know him, and I didn't watch the entire interview, that part just looked too awkward to be serious...
- doubleg 16y agorelevant part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UacbJ72dluU#t=4m18s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UacbJ72dluU#t=4m18s
- wccrawford 16y agoSo, to save everyone the time, the 'no asshole' rule means they don't accept assholes and has the obvious benefit that there aren't many assholes in the 'alumni'. That's it.
- maxklein 16y agoHow do they know who is an asshole and who is not?
- nuclear_eclipse 16y agoIt's usually rather obvious just by chatting with someone for more than 5 minutes. It's also more obvious to those who aren't themselves assholes... YMMV
- pg 16y agoWe ask Jessica, who has near perfect judgment of character.
- sanj 16y agoIs she available for contract work?
- pg 16y agoActually she does often do this for YC-funded startups that are hiring people.
- Eliezer 16y agoI can see how you could tell that most of the people she told you to hire ended up as non-assholes, but how do you know that the people she tells you not to hire would actually have been assholes?
- vaksel 16y agoIn regards to twitter...they should just give pg this guy's twitter account http://twitter.com/paulg http://twitter.com/paulg He only used it once, and that was back in 2007. I'm sure the twitter guys would pull some strings to get pg as a user. Especially since they have no problem securing unused accounts "We have a rough guideline of 9 months of non-use." Other viable alternatives: http://twitter.com/realpg http://twitter.com/realpg - only used 2 times a year ago. I've also registered http://twitter.com/pgyc http://twitter.com/pgyc so you can use that if you want(registered so some asshole doesn't go and hold it hostage). I figure YC is something you'd be known for...and even if you stop doing the whole YC program...it'll still be part of your legacy. And it's a short username.
- buro9 16y agoWhy should twitter give anyone's account to anyone else? Besides, you're assuming because they're not posting publicly that they're not DM'ing or anything else. I'd be pretty peeved if I had registered an account and when I finally decided to make use of it had discovered that it had been removed to give it to some other person of the same name. Twitter should leave people's accounts alone unless there is a good reason (preferably legal) for interfering with it.
- vaksel 16y agotwitter has access to the accounts...I'm sure they check whether or not the guy logged in or DMed within the past 3 years before transferring an account. Either way, he can have the pgyc one I got...and the other people get to keep their accounts.(although based on their twits...I'd bet that they are the logged in once and test and never used again types.)
- allenp 16y agoI guess the question is - why should someone (non-paying) be able to reserve an account name and not use it for nine months or more and expect to be able to keep the account? It doesn't serve any benefit to the community to have squatted accounts.
- kmfrk 16y ago
- jacquesm 16y agohttp://electricpulp.com/guykawasaki/arse/ http://electricpulp.com/guykawasaki/arse/
- Keyframe 16y agothe_real_pg is available on twitter, just sayin'... nudge nudge
- teoruiz 16y agoI am so sorry, but I have to say this because it is what came to my mind when I watched it: Robert 'Scobleizer' Scoble is, most likely, an asshole. And that's what I can read all over PG's body language throughout the video. And again, I'm sorry for this mini-rant.
- randallsquared 16y agoI have to say this because it is what came to my mind when I watched it You have to say this because it came to mind? Really?
- jaxn 16y agoIn my very limited interaction with Robert Scoble I have found the opposite to be true. I found him to be open and a good listener.
- blasdel 16y agoHe sure as hell wasn't at Startup School 2009 -- he was bouncing up and down in his seat during the presentations raring at the bit to be an asshole, and interrupted several in just about the rudest possible way (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=901438 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=901438).
- kloncks 16y agoI think whatever you saw is probably due to the fact that this was a very quick interview done outside in an impromptu way. PG's body language could have meant a million other things. Scoble's one of the greatest advocates of startups and not just in Silicon Valley, so I'll strongly disagree with the "asshole" description.
- chunkbot 16y agoI'm a great advocate of startups, but I'm also the first to admit I'm an asshole.
- AmericanOP 16y ago
- beilabs 16y agoHaving read all of his essays I have never heard Paul speak before. Seems like a pure gentleman.
- robobenjie 16y agoI heard him speak first and then ended up reading all his essays, hearing them in his voice.
- JeanPierre 16y agoNever heard him? Not to derive this into some "list of Paul Graham's speaks", but I really suggest to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7K0vRUKXKc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7K0vRUKXKc. A good speak, I think.
- andrewcooke 16y agoI've read some of what he's written - I thought he came across as much more "normal" in that video. It improved my opinion of him considerably...
- Lewisham 16y agoIt freaked me out when I found out pg spoke with an American accent. I just assumed he had an English one from his place of birth. D'oh!
- adamgravitis 16y agoFunny, I always thought Paul would speak in received pronunciation... :-)
- araneae 16y agoHe also has cute dimples.
- mudge 16y agoI love how his name tag is partially peeled off. Very casual and some how nice.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- qeorge 16y agoA friend lived in a co-op at Oberlin, which had only one house rule: "don't be an asshole." That one rule supplanted all the traditional ones for group living: don't leave dirty dishes, don't play obnoxiously loud music late at night, etc.
- pg 16y agoLike the domestic version of "Don't be evil."
- kscaldef 16y agoIt's also a more succinct variation of Caltech's honor code: "no member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the community."
- philwelch 16y agoWikipedia, now largely as a holdover from its less bureaucratic days, has a fairly similar meta-policy called "don't be a dick": http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_a_dick http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_a_dick
- charlief 16y agoDid it work for you? I tried many times during school, and it didn't for me. People would appreciate the spirit of the rule, but it would be too subjective to be useful in the most heated situations.
- eogas 16y agoPaul Graham uses the word 'right' where most people use periods...right?
- JesseAldridge 16y agoOn a related note, I've always thought a better title for "How to Win Friends and Influence People" would be, "How not to be an Asshole", or at least, "How to avoid acting like one." http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671723650 http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/06...
- dasil003 16y ago"How to avoid acting like an asshole" It has a nice ring to it.
- maxawaytoolong 16y agoThis is an interesting rule in the context of Hacker News. Now that it's not really about hacking any more, it seems like the common trait is that everyone is an asshole.
- mkramlich 16y agoI'd love to see a No Assholes rule on HN. By that I mean if an admin saw a post that was asshole-ish, the poster account would be disabled. It would encourage polite discussion. The current point system mostly encourages point-baiting and groupthink/PC-ness. Internet posting seems to encourage rude behavior, and it's exacerbated when you have a bunch of geek personalities who often lack good social skills.
- maxawaytoolong 16y agoThe problem with that approach is long, drawn out threads filled with phony politeness.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- nl 16y agoDid anyone else notice how Paul seemed to know exactly what to say (hardly any "umms.." or "errs...", while Robert Scoble seems not to have thought about his questions?