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Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?

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Re: Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?

#21

Post by cperciva »

azharcs wrote: post #20
cperciva wrote: post #2

This doesn't quite qualify as ignoring, but I think it matches the spirit of the question: I wouldn't be running Tarsnap now if Paul Graham hadn't listed "Single Founder" as the #1 mistake that kills startups. Having read that, I decided I was going to prove him wrong, damnit.

Hey, Do you hate CSS ;-) When I visited your website, I actually checked my web developer toolbar to see if CSS is disabled. Can I design tarsnap and provide you a CSS template.

I don't particularly like CSS, but I do use it. I believe in separation of content and presentation, though, so I want the page to be readable without CSS. While the page is somewhat ugly, I think the minimalism suits the service.

That said, if someone sends me a redesigned page, I'll certainly look at it. :-)

Re: Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?

#22

Post by kwokokwai »

cperciva wrote: post #2

This doesn't quite qualify as ignoring, but I think it matches the spirit of the question: I wouldn't be running Tarsnap now if Paul Graham hadn't listed "Single Founder" as the #1 mistake that kills startups. Having read that, I decided I was going to prove him wrong, damnit.

But you havent succeeded.That Tarsnap site sucks!

Re: Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?

#23

Post by _delirium »

azharcs wrote: post #20
cperciva wrote: post #2

This doesn't quite qualify as ignoring, but I think it matches the spirit of the question: I wouldn't be running Tarsnap now if Paul Graham hadn't listed "Single Founder" as the #1 mistake that kills startups. Having read that, I decided I was going to prove him wrong, damnit.

Hey, Do you hate CSS ;-) When I visited your website, I actually checked my web developer toolbar to see if CSS is disabled. Can I design tarsnap and provide you a CSS template.

I went to the site to see what you meant, and figured initially I had gone to the wrong site, because I saw some modern-looking thing with floating divs and whatnot. ;-) When you implied it was pretty old-school I was expecting the design to look like, say, this: http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/

Re: Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?

#24

Post by cperciva »

kwokokwai wrote: post #22
cperciva wrote: post #2

This doesn't quite qualify as ignoring, but I think it matches the spirit of the question: I wouldn't be running Tarsnap now if Paul Graham hadn't listed "Single Founder" as the #1 mistake that kills startups. Having read that, I decided I was going to prove him wrong, damnit.

But you havent succeeded.That Tarsnap site sucks!

Tarsnap is a backup service, not a website.

Re: Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?

#25

Post by azharcs »

cperciva wrote: post #21
azharcs wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, Do you hate CSS ;-) When I visited your website, I actually checked my web developer toolbar to see if CSS is disabled. Can I design tarsnap and provide you a CSS template.

I don't particularly like CSS, but I do use it. I believe in separation of content and presentation, though, so I want the page to be readable without CSS. While the page is somewhat ugly, I think the minimalism suits the service. That said, if someone sends me a redesigned page, I'll certainly look at it. :-)

Sure, I am on it. Give me a week and I will have something to show.

Re: Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?

#26

Post by Alex3917 »

uuilly wrote: post #17

Paul Graham is not some magic oracle. He's a statistician who has seen, experienced and analyzed (formally and informally) a lot of very rich data. To ignore him and get away with it you either have to be an outlier in his model or the kind of person who would never appear in his model to begin with. He mainly sees YC applicants and there may be a selection bias among them. Entirely possible that there is a really gr…

"Paul Graham is not some magic oracle."

Well normally at YC dinners he goes into his yurt and swallows a lot of peyote, and then he comes out talking in tongues and we all write down what he's saying and try to figure out how to proceed.

Re: Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?

#27

Post by cperciva »

dood wrote: post #11
cperciva wrote: post #2

This doesn't quite qualify as ignoring, but I think it matches the spirit of the question: I wouldn't be running Tarsnap now if Paul Graham hadn't listed "Single Founder" as the #1 mistake that kills startups. Having read that, I decided I was going to prove him wrong, damnit.

Likewise, though I haven't "got away with it", because I haven't succeeded yet. But I'll show him, oh yes. And then he'll have to amend his advice to "no single founders unless they're really awesome".

And then he'll have to amend his advice to "no single founders unless they're really awesome".

At one point PG stated that the YC investing rule here was "no single founders unless you're a genius".

Re: Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?

#28

Post by [deleted] »

_delirium wrote: post #23
azharcs wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, Do you hate CSS ;-) When I visited your website, I actually checked my web developer toolbar to see if CSS is disabled. Can I design tarsnap and provide you a CSS template.

I went to the site to see what you meant, and figured initially I had gone to the wrong site, because I saw some modern-looking thing with floating divs and whatnot. ;-) When you implied it was pretty old-school I was expecting the design to look like, say, this: http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/

[deleted]

Re: Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?

#29

Post by zepolen »

azharcs wrote: post #20
cperciva wrote: post #2

This doesn't quite qualify as ignoring, but I think it matches the spirit of the question: I wouldn't be running Tarsnap now if Paul Graham hadn't listed "Single Founder" as the #1 mistake that kills startups. Having read that, I decided I was going to prove him wrong, damnit.

Hey, Do you hate CSS ;-) When I visited your website, I actually checked my web developer toolbar to see if CSS is disabled. Can I design tarsnap and provide you a CSS template.

It just goes to show that a pretty landing page is not all that necessary. Functionality and usefulness are more important than web 2.0 glitz and glamor. You think tarsnap's website is ugly now? You should have seen it at the beginning.

I wish more HN startups would realize that. Almost all of the 'review my startup' posts are just a single page with an email signup form you fill out to be notified when the app will be ready.

Re: Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?

#30

Post by apu »

azharcs wrote: post #20
cperciva wrote: post #2

This doesn't quite qualify as ignoring, but I think it matches the spirit of the question: I wouldn't be running Tarsnap now if Paul Graham hadn't listed "Single Founder" as the #1 mistake that kills startups. Having read that, I decided I was going to prove him wrong, damnit.

Hey, Do you hate CSS ;-) When I visited your website, I actually checked my web developer toolbar to see if CSS is disabled. Can I design tarsnap and provide you a CSS template.

Hah! tptacek: are you adding this to your list of data points?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1639443

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