4 ms·

I disagree. Strongly. Following your dreams, not working too much, spending time with family and friends, saying what you think, and being happy, might belong

I disagree. Strongly. Following your dreams, not working too much, spending time with family and friends, saying what you think, and being happy, might belong at the top of Paul Graham's todo list. He's already succeeded at what most people struggle at: making a living. He may have forgotten that getting by is hard. What's so wrong about being a "cog in a machine"? Large organizations exist partly because scale and specialization are useful. People aren't "cogs" out of perversity, but practicality. Sometimes your comparative advantage is in being a good cog. And sometimes being a good cog is admirable. Example: surgeons who specialize in one and only one procedure, doing it exactly the same way every time, have a low failure rate. They save more lives that way. Are they creative? Nope. They follow somebody else's rules. They make themselves as mechanical, as repetitive, as possible. And the guy on the operating table lives. Paul Graham is in a very unusual profession, where risk-taking is much more of an ideal than it is anywhere else. Also notice that he makes money off of telling other people to take risks. The more people decide to be entrepreneurs, the wider a pool he has to draw from. "Follow your dreams" is a useful meme for people like that; if a hundred people follow their dreams and fail and ruin their lives, PG never hears about it, but if one person follows his dreams and becomes a billionaire, PG might get a share. This isn't meant to vilify the guy; there's nothing wrong with making a living by inspiring people. And I'm sure he would say that he's fighting dangerous opposing memes against ever taking risks. I just think you can't take posts like this at face value.

adgar 14y ago
The easiest example of this can be seen in one of his comments upthread: > (pg): Sort of. More like working very hard till you achieve financial independence, after which you can do whatever you want. You don't have to stop working; you just never have to work on anyone else's terms. He states that as if anybody but an extremely lucky few can achieve "financial independence" (his words) before 60. One can say he was speaking to a particular audience, but in truth, the overwhelming majority of folks on HN aren't retiring early either. It all comes across as wildly out of touch. If it were anyone else, I'd say the new bubble had blinded the author, but pg's been around since before the last bubble. Perhaps shepherding young people through the new bubble is a blinding force as well.
lispler 14y ago
> What's so wrong about being a "cog in a machine"? Wanna live to work or work to live? I know that cooperate america tends towards the former, and much of the world is following that great success story. But, there is really not much point. In the end you're just as dead.
paulsutter 14y ago
Woah, cowboy. > if a hundred people follow their dreams and fail and ruin their lives, PG never hears about it Ruin their lives? Hundreds of people fail in front of pg all the time. As an entrepreneur you fail in little ways constantly, and in big ways repeatedly. But that's ok. Failing is how we learn. Can you think of anyone who ruined their life by failing at a startup?
- jacquesm 14y ago
  > Can you think of anyone who ruined their life by failing at a startup? Yes, I can. Lots of people, actually. But that's fine, I also know plenty of people that succeeded. Failing at a start-up can do a lot more to you than just costing you some money and some time. It can wreck your relationship with your significant other, your children, your family, your friends and so on. It can cost you more than you could afford. It can put you in debt for a long time to come. Whether or not this happens is related to how hard you're trying and at what point you throw in the towel. Fail fast is not just a way to tell people to iterate, it is also a way to remind you that if you fail you should fail in such a way that you don't end up losing more than you can afford.
  - paulsutter 14y ago
    All of those things happened to me, but my life hasn't been ruined. Not even a little. It was after my greatest failure that I finally learned to be happy. It wasn't easy, but it was important. The lone exception from your list is family. Failing in a startup cannot wreck your relationships. Only you can wreck relationships. Turning it around, when I think of all the people I know who have gone through the problems you mention, few did so as a result of starting a company. In fact your list seems well within the bounds of normal life. I'd love to hear an example of a person whose life was really ruined by a failed attempt to start a company.

adgar 14y ago

The easiest example of this can be seen in one of his comments upthread: > (pg): Sort of. More like working very hard till you achieve financial independence, after which you can do whatever you want. You don't have to stop working; you just never have to work on anyone else's terms. He states that as if anybody but an extremely lucky few can achieve "financial independence" (his words) before 60. One can say he was speaking to a particular audience, but in truth, the overwhelming majority of folks on HN aren't retiring early either. It all comes across as wildly out of touch. If it were anyone else, I'd say the new bubble had blinded the author, but pg's been around since before the last bubble. Perhaps shepherding young people through the new bubble is a blinding force as well.

lispler 14y ago

> What's so wrong about being a "cog in a machine"? Wanna live to work or work to live? I know that cooperate america tends towards the former, and much of the world is following that great success story. But, there is really not much point. In the end you're just as dead.

paulsutter 14y ago

Woah, cowboy. > if a hundred people follow their dreams and fail and ruin their lives, PG never hears about it Ruin their lives? Hundreds of people fail in front of pg all the time. As an entrepreneur you fail in little ways constantly, and in big ways repeatedly. But that's ok. Failing is how we learn. Can you think of anyone who ruined their life by failing at a startup?

jacquesm 14y ago
> Can you think of anyone who ruined their life by failing at a startup? Yes, I can. Lots of people, actually. But that's fine, I also know plenty of people that succeeded. Failing at a start-up can do a lot more to you than just costing you some money and some time. It can wreck your relationship with your significant other, your children, your family, your friends and so on. It can cost you more than you could afford. It can put you in debt for a long time to come. Whether or not this happens is related to how hard you're trying and at what point you throw in the towel. Fail fast is not just a way to tell people to iterate, it is also a way to remind you that if you fail you should fail in such a way that you don't end up losing more than you can afford.
- paulsutter 14y ago
  All of those things happened to me, but my life hasn't been ruined. Not even a little. It was after my greatest failure that I finally learned to be happy. It wasn't easy, but it was important. The lone exception from your list is family. Failing in a startup cannot wreck your relationships. Only you can wreck relationships. Turning it around, when I think of all the people I know who have gone through the problems you mention, few did so as a result of starting a company. In fact your list seems well within the bounds of normal life. I'd love to hear an example of a person whose life was really ruined by a failed attempt to start a company.