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His advice is: - Work on a personal project that is motivating to you (obviously you won't work on it if it's not motivating to you) - It's a good sign if the

His advice is: - Work on a personal project that is motivating to you (obviously you won't work on it if it's not motivating to you) - It's a good sign if the project you're motivated to work on solves a problem that you and your friends care a lot about, because there's a good chance many more people will also want that problem solved and will buy/use your product. Sure, plenty of big companies were started via different paths, but not many were founded by kids barely out of high school.

suyash 3y ago
I didn't see the 2nd point but yes overall this clarifies.
daveguy 3y ago
> Sure, plenty of big companies were started via different paths, but not many were founded by kids barely out of high school. And neither was Google. Sergey Brin and Larry Page both hold masters degrees in Computer Science from Stanford.
- tomhoward 3y ago
  He's giving advice to school kids on what to do during their remaining school years or early college years.
  - tomhoward 3y ago
    Also, Larry was 23 when PageRank was first published - that's not much older than "barely out of high school", even if we have to be so literal about everything :)
    - fragmede 3y ago
      "not much". at that age it's material! who I was at 18 and who I was at 23 is way different than the difference between 35 and 40
  - makerdiety 3y ago
    As long as Paul Graham doesn't tell the truth that most if not all school kids won't ever make the next Google, then I'm okay with influencers (like Paul Graham, for instance) lying about the possibility of enormous opportunities being available to people.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - sandspar 3y ago
      I think high schoolers are smart enough to know that he's not literally saying "do this and you'll start the next Google".
  - daveguy 3y ago
    Yes. I was reinforcing your point. Not even the example he uses is directly applicable to the audience. Just out of highschool and 6 years in one of the most rigorous CS programs are very different.

suyash 3y ago

I didn't see the 2nd point but yes overall this clarifies.

daveguy 3y ago

> Sure, plenty of big companies were started via different paths, but not many were founded by kids barely out of high school. And neither was Google. Sergey Brin and Larry Page both hold masters degrees in Computer Science from Stanford.

tomhoward 3y ago
He's giving advice to school kids on what to do during their remaining school years or early college years.
- tomhoward 3y ago
  Also, Larry was 23 when PageRank was first published - that's not much older than "barely out of high school", even if we have to be so literal about everything :)
  - fragmede 3y ago
    "not much". at that age it's material! who I was at 18 and who I was at 23 is way different than the difference between 35 and 40
- makerdiety 3y ago
  As long as Paul Graham doesn't tell the truth that most if not all school kids won't ever make the next Google, then I'm okay with influencers (like Paul Graham, for instance) lying about the possibility of enormous opportunities being available to people.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - sandspar 3y ago
    I think high schoolers are smart enough to know that he's not literally saying "do this and you'll start the next Google".
- daveguy 3y ago
  Yes. I was reinforcing your point. Not even the example he uses is directly applicable to the audience. Just out of highschool and 6 years in one of the most rigorous CS programs are very different.