5 ms·
People have always read way too much into this essay instead of looking at it for what it is: marketing material for Y Combinator. It doesn't speak to you? Ok.
by imgabe 8y ago
People have always read way too much into this essay instead of looking at it for what it is: marketing material for Y Combinator.
It doesn't speak to you? Ok. That's fine. You aren't the target audience. Obviously there have always been millions upon millions of people who live perfectly happy, productive, successful lives working for large organizations. However, some subset of people have always felt dissatisfied in this arrangement. For some of those, this essay might be the spark they need to look around and find something that suits them better (and maybe Y Combinator can fund them.)
I'm feeling old that the average HN reader anymore doesn't seem to know who Paul Graham is.
- paulcole 8y agoYeah pretty obviously pandering to the desired audience: > There may be a similar problem with the way we work: a normal job may be as bad for us intellectually as white flour or sugar is for us physically. Could almost hear all the heads nodding in agreement. If only he'd mentioned intermittent fasting or the fact that the hiring process for developers is broken...
- CoolGuySteve 8y agoI wonder if pg ever wrote something along the lines of that old pinnacle of masturbatory pandering: "The first differentiator of an elite developer is to read industry blogs, which you're already doing, so congratulations!" I feel like I've read it before from him but I'm having trouble remembering now 10 years later.
- edanm 8y agoFYI, this was written in 2008, before IF became a thing.
- paulcole 8y agoBack then we just called it anorexia. Really shows what marketing can do.
- MarsAscendant 8y agoIt's deeply unfair to compare a wilful, meaningful calorie intake reduction with a pathological anxiety over any sort of consumption of food. If you didn't know the difference "back then", it was due to ignorance, not a marketing image.
- paulcole 8y agoI am quite stupid.