4 ms·
It is surely a mere coincidence that every time PG makes up some category of elite people he finds himself right in the middle of it.
by bambax 6y ago
It is surely a mere coincidence that every time PG makes up some category of elite people he finds himself right in the middle of it.
- burade 6y agowhen people achieve success too early in life they start thinking they're hot stuff
- qPM9l3XJrF 6y agoLooks like he sold Viaweb when he was about 34. Too early for you?
- loxs 6y agoYeah, and he has the money to prove that he is right.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Ma8ee 6y agoWas that meant to be sarcasm?
- qznc 6y agoEveryone is the hero in their own story. Don't know where i got it from. I usually use it as a reminder that even evil people like Hitler consider themselves as the good hero. Maybe in difficult circumstances. I don't want to compare PG to Hitler though.
- offtop5 6y agoIt's definitely a good thing to remember. Not to be sociopathic, but try to be the hero of your own story as well. Focusing on the things you do right and not remunerating on your mistakes it's a key part of mental wellness.
- sbarre 6y agoI mean, the other way to look at it is that he's writing about what he knows, or at least about his own experience/perspective? Better that than trying to write about something he knows nothing about.. p.s. I'm not defending him here, I'm generally not a fan of pg, but I think there's a less narcissistic possibility here. ;)
- fn1 6y agoSurvivorship bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
- __alexs 6y ago"There may even be a phenomenon like Dunning-Kruger at work..." His lack of self awareness is incredibly impressive. I'm almost envious.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- emiliobumachar 6y agoNope. Counterproof: http://paulgraham.com/good.html http://paulgraham.com/good.html "When you write something telling people to be good, you seem to be claiming to be good yourself. So I want to say explicitly that I am not a particularly good person. When I was a kid I was firmly in the camp of bad." Having read and forgotten most of his essays over years, I could recall this in a minute. So probably there's more.
- qPM9l3XJrF 6y agoWould you prefer that successful people keep their ideas about how to be successful to themselves? That doesn't seem very equitable ;o