6 ms·

Paul Graham Says...

41 points by llambda 14y ago

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
tnash 14y ago
PG is not a god, he's just a dude (No offense meant PG). It's kind of weird to put him on a pedestal like this. Interested in what he thinks of these kind of things (The cult of PG?).
- larrys 14y ago
  "cult of PG" Actually that would have been a better name for the site or "cult of HN" so you can at least worship several gods.
- its_so_on 14y ago
  yeah, it's kind of weird because he's not really typical "internet sensation" advice (like Steve Jobs was). PG is all about doing boring things like making sales and shipping product. If you present him a billion dollar idea, he'll chop both legs off so it can't run away, and say: Look, THERE is your market. Restaurant on the moon: Great idea. But instead, why not open a Nevada diner with a lunar theme, and then bootstrap from there? Make the wallpaper Internet-connected and automatically load the tweets of whoever is sitting there. If nothing else, you can become the king of Internet-connected wallpaper! What are you waiting for? You should be shipping!
larrys 14y ago
This should be implemented so that someone interested can enter an email and be pushed their daily affirmation. I think the large photo is distracting. The quotes should rotate and not require a reload. That said if I was PG this would make me uncomfortable.
- stephenhuey 14y ago
  Functionality is a bit lacking, but this site is certainly not lacking in its strangeness.
- antsam 14y ago
  You could call a daily Paul Graham quote app "InstaGraham." I want 1% equity if that idea takes off ;)
nseemakurty 14y ago
I'd love to share the quote that I see, but don't know how. It'd be great if the quotes had associated permalinks.
mindcrime 14y ago
LOL, I honestly don't know whether to say this is radically cool, or amazingly disturbing, or both. It's, erm, interesting to say the least. I really hope pg comments on this, I'd like to know how he feels about being deified or whatever, like this.
plainOldText 14y ago
Reminds me of @shitmydadsays
sbochins 14y ago
I'm assuming this is a joke. That picture in the background is a bit much. I opened the site at worked and closed it right after the picture loaded from fear of embarrassment.
- RegEx 14y ago
  It appears it's not a joke: http://www.pgsays.com/about http://www.pgsays.com/about
asto 14y ago
Hahahahaha... Am I the only guy who finds this hilarious!? I really want to see PG's reply to this!
rdl 14y ago
Kind of creepy, but the quality of the quotes seems to make up for it. I do like that you linked to the original essays from each quote. I'd make the photo smaller, and include more information -- community input on how each of those quotes applies to their own or well known startups? It would be easier for someone to believe the more audacious claims (which seem obvious to HN readers) like startups being a bimodal distribution, etc. The weakness of pg's essays is that they're just flat text; if you could somehow make them better by associating data with the quotes (and thus with the essays), the additional awesomeness would cancel out the creepiness.
akg 14y ago
This is actually pretty cool. Now I just need this to come up (modulo the large headshot of PG) every time I get distracted from building/shipping product.
- foxhop 14y ago
  That image looks really derp-a-derp if you ask me. I follow his advice most of the time, but I don't want to remember that image, it will make me laugh.
pan69 14y ago
I find it very scary when people do things like this. You don't really know if they're being serious or joking. For me the disturbing part is the large photo that makes it look very messianic, which is ridiculous in my opinion. To me PG is a smart dude with a boat of experience who's made some clever observations over the years. I don't think you need to elevate it beyond that.
doki_pen 14y ago
I just puked in my mouth.
sabatier 14y ago
oh Lord... I bet he'll love this.
cthompson 14y ago
Definitely creepy. If I want to read what Paul Graham says I'll just go here http://paulgraham.com/articles.html http://paulgraham.com/articles.html
JVIDEL 14y ago
+1 on commitment>ability You don't know how many times I have seen a startup fall apart because the cofounders couldn't stand even one minor setback. PS: don't like the picture though...
natarius 14y ago
Is this a thing: http://www.stevetold.us/ http://www.stevetold.us/

41 points by llambda 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

tnash 14y ago

PG is not a god, he's just a dude (No offense meant PG). It's kind of weird to put him on a pedestal like this. Interested in what he thinks of these kind of things (The cult of PG?).

larrys 14y ago
"cult of PG" Actually that would have been a better name for the site or "cult of HN" so you can at least worship several gods.
its_so_on 14y ago
yeah, it's kind of weird because he's not really typical "internet sensation" advice (like Steve Jobs was). PG is all about doing boring things like making sales and shipping product. If you present him a billion dollar idea, he'll chop both legs off so it can't run away, and say: Look, THERE is your market. Restaurant on the moon: Great idea. But instead, why not open a Nevada diner with a lunar theme, and then bootstrap from there? Make the wallpaper Internet-connected and automatically load the tweets of whoever is sitting there. If nothing else, you can become the king of Internet-connected wallpaper! What are you waiting for? You should be shipping!

larrys 14y ago

This should be implemented so that someone interested can enter an email and be pushed their daily affirmation. I think the large photo is distracting. The quotes should rotate and not require a reload. That said if I was PG this would make me uncomfortable.

stephenhuey 14y ago
Functionality is a bit lacking, but this site is certainly not lacking in its strangeness.
antsam 14y ago
You could call a daily Paul Graham quote app "InstaGraham." I want 1% equity if that idea takes off ;)

nseemakurty 14y ago

I'd love to share the quote that I see, but don't know how. It'd be great if the quotes had associated permalinks.

mindcrime 14y ago

LOL, I honestly don't know whether to say this is radically cool, or amazingly disturbing, or both. It's, erm, interesting to say the least. I really hope pg comments on this, I'd like to know how he feels about being deified or whatever, like this.

plainOldText 14y ago

Reminds me of @shitmydadsays

sbochins 14y ago

I'm assuming this is a joke. That picture in the background is a bit much. I opened the site at worked and closed it right after the picture loaded from fear of embarrassment.

RegEx 14y ago
It appears it's not a joke: http://www.pgsays.com/about http://www.pgsays.com/about

asto 14y ago

Hahahahaha... Am I the only guy who finds this hilarious!? I really want to see PG's reply to this!

rdl 14y ago

Kind of creepy, but the quality of the quotes seems to make up for it. I do like that you linked to the original essays from each quote. I'd make the photo smaller, and include more information -- community input on how each of those quotes applies to their own or well known startups? It would be easier for someone to believe the more audacious claims (which seem obvious to HN readers) like startups being a bimodal distribution, etc. The weakness of pg's essays is that they're just flat text; if you could somehow make them better by associating data with the quotes (and thus with the essays), the additional awesomeness would cancel out the creepiness.

akg 14y ago

This is actually pretty cool. Now I just need this to come up (modulo the large headshot of PG) every time I get distracted from building/shipping product.

foxhop 14y ago
That image looks really derp-a-derp if you ask me. I follow his advice most of the time, but I don't want to remember that image, it will make me laugh.

pan69 14y ago

I find it very scary when people do things like this. You don't really know if they're being serious or joking. For me the disturbing part is the large photo that makes it look very messianic, which is ridiculous in my opinion. To me PG is a smart dude with a boat of experience who's made some clever observations over the years. I don't think you need to elevate it beyond that.

doki_pen 14y ago

I just puked in my mouth.

sabatier 14y ago

oh Lord... I bet he'll love this.

cthompson 14y ago

Definitely creepy. If I want to read what Paul Graham says I'll just go here http://paulgraham.com/articles.html http://paulgraham.com/articles.html

JVIDEL 14y ago

+1 on commitment>ability You don't know how many times I have seen a startup fall apart because the cofounders couldn't stand even one minor setback. PS: don't like the picture though...

natarius 14y ago

Is this a thing: http://www.stevetold.us/ http://www.stevetold.us/