this is dumb advice. the crux of his post is that you should follow your passions and do what you love, which is good advice, but that in no way should be an e

this is dumb advice. the crux of his post is that you should follow your passions and do what you love, which is good advice, but that in no way should be an excuse for not having a disciplined, focused long-term plan to get there. imagine a startup/business saying: "screw goals/plans and holding ourselves accountable, we'll eventually find product/market fit and achieve scale just by doing what we feel is right at the moment." very similar to personal decisions in life. long-term goals are incredibly important because they keep you treading on the journey. of course, there's randomness in the path (unexpected events/obstacles, crazy learning curve, etc), but maintaining a long-term focus improves your odds of getting over those hurdles and getting to your destination. now that i'm thinking about this, good re-read of pg's old post on deterimination and discipline: http://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html http://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html