Would be better as a podcast or essay, the dialog is dicey, but seeing the body language turns it into a cringefest.
A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]
51–60 of 159 posts
Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
For popular, public content, you could split the price amongst many buyers, like Kickstarter.
I wish I could do this with subtitles! I hate waiting years for subtitles to TV series and obscure movies to become available. Ones in European languages mostly e.g. Cordon season 2 has been out for years, no English subs available. Latest season of Rita , out for a year, no English subs. The Colombian Ugly Betty , impossible to find many years later. I waited a couple of years for the latest season of Engrenages etc…
Subtitles are derivatives of copyrighted content, so publishing them without a license might get you sued, especially if you're charging for it.
Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sales is grim work for introverts, you can do it but if it's most of what you are doing then you need to question what the point of it is.
This seems to be the issue with me. I am more like 'laptop' guy who is rather good in researching. I am also keen on observing things. But sales stuffs, cold calling give me chills. How do I overcome it?
Cooperate or delegate. It needs to be done, and done well, but not necessarily by you. However, this means that you'll need to take in their opinions about the product above your own, since their opinion will be informed by interaction with real customers and yours won't.
Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]
#54Man he was really hating windows. To a point where he "wrote software for it without writing software for it directly"
Writing software on windows is like using chopsticks with mittens. You can do it, it’s not pretty, and it’s not the use case the mitten sewer had in mind during development. Read the Unix Programming Environment to see the exact opposite mindset for OS design.
What a load of nonsense. C#'s a great language and their dev tool, Visual Studio, is second to none.
Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]
#55Would be better as a podcast or essay, the dialog is dicey, but seeing the body language turns it into a cringefest.
If it is cringeworthy for you, you can just play it in the background while doing something else. I kind of liked it. It is a genuine unprepared for interview and you see very few of these nowadays.
Whenever you try something this spontaneaous there will always be a lot of hesitations, a lot of ums and ahs, and some arguments as to which direction the conversation should go in. But you still get something more interesting and original.
Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]
#56Would be better as a podcast or essay, the dialog is dicey, but seeing the body language turns it into a cringefest.
If it is cringeworthy for you, you can just play it in the background while doing something else. I kind of liked it. It is a genuine unprepared for interview and you see very few of these nowadays. Whenever you try something this spontaneaous there will always be a lot of hesitations, a lot of ums and ahs, and some arguments as to which direction the conversation should go in. But you still get something more intere…
True, the content was great. Issue is with the dynamics between the interviewer and pg, fidgety/supplicating shit, you can feel it. It goes beyond an unprepared natural awkwardness into something more gross. But like you said, the info is great so you put the tab in the background
Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]
#57I feel that PG needs to make a concerted effort to use "uhm" less. It negatively affects his ability to eloquently communicate an idea.
As I mentioned elsewhere, the use "umms" is only because he tries to talk off the cuff. This makes his talks much more interesting.
Most of the smooth talkers you see on tv and youtube have basically learned what they are going to say. They sound slicker, but eventually what they do say is less interesting because it has been pre-learned and thus pre-filtered.
This is a general problem with Television and popular culture nowadays. If you look at old tv talk shows you can see real spontaneity, but this is mostly absent from modern tv. Of course, the other side of the coin is that on modern TV interviewers and interviewees are much smoother and more self assured, as they already know what they are going to say.
I really hope that people do not get spoiled by this pre-learned smoothness of presentation as to fail to appreciate actual spontaneous interviews and conversations.
Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Writing software on windows is like using chopsticks with mittens. You can do it, it’s not pretty, and it’s not the use case the mitten sewer had in mind during development. Read the Unix Programming Environment to see the exact opposite mindset for OS design.
What a load of nonsense. C#'s a great language and their dev tool, Visual Studio, is second to none.
Developing ruby on rails apps is config hell though with windows
Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]
#59I feel that PG needs to make a concerted effort to use "uhm" less. It negatively affects his ability to eloquently communicate an idea.
I agree, but it's also his trademark. Kinda like Michael Jackson's "Hee-Hee". :)
Its a viral trademark too - you used to be able to spot YC founders and staff because they would uhm in just the same way. JL has an identical uhm to PG.
It seems kind of functional - it usually follows something cheeky / provocative - its basically a pause for laughter.
Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sales is grim work for introverts, you can do it but if it's most of what you are doing then you need to question what the point of it is.
This seems to be the issue with me. I am more like 'laptop' guy who is rather good in researching. I am also keen on observing things. But sales stuffs, cold calling give me chills. How do I overcome it?
B2C products cold calling is not necessary.
B2B products cold calling is generally a must.
Consider that in mind. I can do sales ok, mostly by faking it, but I will never be as good as extroverts who love that interaction. Its just a brain drain to me many times.
Delegate when possible, SOPs, etc.
Going to conventions and doing face to face talks is easier than straight cold calling. People are less likely to outright reject you in front of your face
I deal with telespammers all the time. The amount of bullshit I hear everyday is amazing. We use a fake alias at work to filter out potential B2B spam as a honeypot, and dump that honeypot data in data broker centers. If it was important I would go looking for their services.
The amount of people I hear saying "oh I just spoke with fake_alias yesterday" is a lot. Sometimes people would physically show up saying they had a meeting arranged with "fake_alias". 95% on calls for "fake_alias"has been a waste of time, but 5% there are some nice useful calls and some clients that used data aggregation to find us. I always just ask what their company does, who they are, etc. If they dont answer 100% waste of time.
Then google business phonecall spam, asking for verification. I updated googlebusiness listings myself, and I still get these calls.
You need to understand how big and small businesses operate, and what your target market is. The approach to B2B sales is very different here.
The cold calls that really worked out did their homework and "pretended to be a customer". E.g. hey im a client looking for xyz goods and services do you have this? Oh you dont? My company sells them.
Underhanded though but I like the creativity.
Most cold calls are done in several stages though. Do hot/cold reads (kind of like a gypsy/psychic) through the receptionist. Youll get alot of information about who makes decisions , what things company is struggling with etc. Receptionists see everything. Press 0 on most telephone systems to reach them. Ask if they are okay with you asking a few questions abot their comlany and how they feel etc. This is for B2B situations where there's only X number of clients out there.
Knowledge is power when it comes to doing B2B cold calls. Know the companies weaknesses and play on that