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I am baffled by the criticisms of this essay. I can't identify any statements here which are false. We're on hacker news, which is a site about programming and
by memset 3y ago
I am baffled by the criticisms of this essay. I can't identify any statements here which are false. We're on hacker news, which is a site about programming and startups and capitalism. There theoretically couldn't be a better audience.
I suppose the strongest criticism would be that pg's advice outlines necessary conditions to start the next Google but are not sufficient. Yes, the stuff you "make" needs to feel like a fun project, but without the "...something people want" then your company will not make you rich. As with any advice, there there will always be exceptions ("do you really need a cofounder?") but as far as "here is some advice to achieve x", where x is "create a billion-dollar company" this isn't a bad start.
- nkjnlknlk 3y agoIt's misleading and poor advice to children. You see this issue a lot in certain immigrant communities where the equivalent "talk" might be: "How to become a Doctor [and be rich and successful]". Becoming a doctor is orders of magnitudes more in an individual's control but even _then_ we observe the plethora of issues that occur.