What's interesting is how much of pg's early life was spent in preparation. Of course, it wasn't obviously preparation at the time, but art school + computer sc

What's interesting is how much of pg's early life was spent in preparation. Of course, it wasn't obviously preparation at the time, but art school + computer science PhD is a rare and effective combo. It's almost the complete opposite of the standard college dropout founder archetype. I recently read a hilariously titled book, "What Tech Calls Thinking" that's a pretty scathing analysis of the tech world. But one accurate point the author makes is that the college dropout founder usually doesn't have that much domain specific experience. Unless you come into college extremely well prepared, you're probably going to spend your first few years doing core and introductory classes. It's pretty unlikely you're going to get to the top 1% of a field within the first two years of college. With pg, it's at the complete opposite extreme. I mean, ffs who does an PhD and then decides to go to art school? I'm curious on whether pg believes he would have done well had he done a startup immediately after undergrad. Considering how much Lisp played a factor, I doubt it. What about post-PhD and pre-art school? I'm not sure either; the art school did have a strong influence as well. Another aspect that I liked was the duality of art and CS. I can relate to it, as I have a pretty big obsession with film and CS. Sometimes it feels like an endless tug of war between the two; one always distracting me from the other. It's fascinating seeing someone else handle that struggle.