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Nowhere in the essay does he argue that the three qualities of independent thinkers are exclusive to startup founders. You clearly feel some type of way about P

Nowhere in the essay does he argue that the three qualities of independent thinkers are exclusive to startup founders. You clearly feel some type of way about Paul Graham.

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
While I may not necessarily be as harsh as the commenter you are responding do, I will say that I am starting to feel a certain way about pg, and it's much less positive than it was 5-10 years ago. I feel like a common thread in his most recent essays has been separating people into, for lack of a better term, "desirables" vs. "undesirables". True, he doesn't use those terms, and he often couches the language he uses about the undesirables in sort of a "they can't really help it, they're just born that way" phrasing, but the distain is barely hidden. And I find all of this somewhat ironic, given that as high as pg values curiosity, I don't really see a lot of self-introspection (at least as communicated in his essays) about why he seems to be much more interested in recent years in writing about how one group of people is intrinsically special and the other basically just exists to be led. I will specifically contrast this with Sam Harris. While they talk about different subjects, I find Sam Harris to be much more interested in thinking about "why do I think the way I do." More importantly, after listening to a Harris podcast I often find myself thinking about things in a very different way, where lately with pg's essays I find myself thinking "not this shit again."
- aerovistae 6y ago
  100%. I've gotten that impression about everything him and his protege Sam say since the first time I read anything they wrote. It's like their mantra. It's so tiring. "Surround yourself with smart people, cut out anyone who doesn't inspire you to move fast and break things." What about my fucking parents? What about the friends I grew up with who have ordinary jobs that aren't pushing the boundaries of human innovation? Should I ditch them all because they didn't found Airbnb? The pretentiousness of it is really tiring, and it's the one aspect of the hacker news community that I dislike: this constant Kool-Aid drinking that unless you've somehow impacted the system we all live in, you aren't really worthwhile.
  - tartoran 6y ago
    I think this is a misreading of PG’s essay and although I agree with some criticism of sorts that PG’s recent essays are lacking in what his early essays did for us, I really didn’t get that he was insinuating what you think. It was more of choose the career and surround yourself with the type of people that are good for your type.. But again, some criticism here is spot on for different resons while other is quite unfounded. But it seems to me that mr PG hasn’t changed much, his essays stayed pretty much the same while the whole landscape has transformed quite a bit since his early essays. If one of his vhehement critics is to read an old PG essay thinking it is recent they’d probably have the same reaction.
- closeparen 6y ago
  I don’t think “desirable” follows from “useful to capitalism and science.” Those are pretty controversial activities, to put it mildly. If PG can write an essay about Contrarianism Is Good and not inspire this reaction in anyone, then he’s not really talking about contrarianism, is he?
mcguire 6y ago
He picks out scientists, investors, essayists, and startup founders. (Hm. I wonder if he feels some particular closeness with those, specifically?) While I know he is read by some number of the first three, I believe his primary audience is the last.

Nowhere in the essay does he argue that the three qualities of independent thinkers are exclusive to startup founders. You clearly feel some type of way about Paul Graham.

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago

While I may not necessarily be as harsh as the commenter you are responding do, I will say that I am starting to feel a certain way about pg, and it's much less positive than it was 5-10 years ago. I feel like a common thread in his most recent essays has been separating people into, for lack of a better term, "desirables" vs. "undesirables". True, he doesn't use those terms, and he often couches the language he uses about the undesirables in sort of a "they can't really help it, they're just born that way" phrasing, but the distain is barely hidden. And I find all of this somewhat ironic, given that as high as pg values curiosity, I don't really see a lot of self-introspection (at least as communicated in his essays) about why he seems to be much more interested in recent years in writing about how one group of people is intrinsically special and the other basically just exists to be led. I will specifically contrast this with Sam Harris. While they talk about different subjects, I find Sam Harris to be much more interested in thinking about "why do I think the way I do." More importantly, after listening to a Harris podcast I often find myself thinking about things in a very different way, where lately with pg's essays I find myself thinking "not this shit again."

aerovistae 6y ago
100%. I've gotten that impression about everything him and his protege Sam say since the first time I read anything they wrote. It's like their mantra. It's so tiring. "Surround yourself with smart people, cut out anyone who doesn't inspire you to move fast and break things." What about my fucking parents? What about the friends I grew up with who have ordinary jobs that aren't pushing the boundaries of human innovation? Should I ditch them all because they didn't found Airbnb? The pretentiousness of it is really tiring, and it's the one aspect of the hacker news community that I dislike: this constant Kool-Aid drinking that unless you've somehow impacted the system we all live in, you aren't really worthwhile.
- tartoran 6y ago
  I think this is a misreading of PG’s essay and although I agree with some criticism of sorts that PG’s recent essays are lacking in what his early essays did for us, I really didn’t get that he was insinuating what you think. It was more of choose the career and surround yourself with the type of people that are good for your type.. But again, some criticism here is spot on for different resons while other is quite unfounded. But it seems to me that mr PG hasn’t changed much, his essays stayed pretty much the same while the whole landscape has transformed quite a bit since his early essays. If one of his vhehement critics is to read an old PG essay thinking it is recent they’d probably have the same reaction.
closeparen 6y ago
I don’t think “desirable” follows from “useful to capitalism and science.” Those are pretty controversial activities, to put it mildly. If PG can write an essay about Contrarianism Is Good and not inspire this reaction in anyone, then he’s not really talking about contrarianism, is he?

mcguire 6y ago

He picks out scientists, investors, essayists, and startup founders. (Hm. I wonder if he feels some particular closeness with those, specifically?) While I know he is read by some number of the first three, I believe his primary audience is the last.