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A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]

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Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]

#151

Post by slededit »

golemotron wrote: post #150
slededit wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.NET integrates well with COM. You are using it all the time under the hood. COM was difficult because it was an OO framework that had to deal with: - C++ ABIs that changed on every compiler update but still had to work. -Support for C and Assembly which had no OO support at all. -Liteweight enough to run on a computer with 8MB of RAM total. Given these constraints it's unlikely you would do any better.

Why do you think I didn't respect the technology?

I'm just providing a counterweight to the "horrific" description. It was and still is pretty bad if you can't use the modern wrappers. But it served an important purpose and wasn't really possible any other way.

Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]

#152

Post by kapad »

dziungles wrote: post #149
kapad wrote: post #89

Was Geoff adequately prepared to host? I watched a few minutes and his introduction was pathetic. As was his setting of the agenda(which he didn't do any of). Were his discussion points later on good? If they were, I'll go back and watch the rest of this. Otherwise half of the video time (when Geoff is speaking) seems a waste to me. ;)

It was even worse later on. He couldn't even formulate the questions and was constantly interrupting.

Thanks.. I'm skipping everything post 2:02 then :)

Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]

#153

Post by sbr464 »

redshirtrob wrote: post #75
Razengan wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to be a user of your own product to really make it good. Look at Apple. Most of how they got where they are is by Jobs, Ive et al. making what they wanted to see, and nitpicking at everything until they were satisfied. Also: "people don't know what they want until you show it to them." Of course you have to address customers' frustrations, but relying on just "data" and marketing feedback all the time often…

This sentiment really bothers me. It's frequently used to disadvantage candidates from positions because they're not users of the service or product. It's just not generally true, but it's often repeated as though it were. It's demonstrably not true that you must be a user of a product to build a good product. To pick a random example: I doubt all pacemaker firmware developers have heart conditions that require pacem…

I feel like it could apply to pacemakers as well. I feel like certain qualities, features, annoyances, subtle benefits, etc could only be experienced if you actually went through having one installed, dealt with it every day, etc.

Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]

#154

Post by sytelus »

It’s just great to see pg talking and his little bites of wisdom always had been worth the time. Two specific things that popped out:

- He mentions that people who have worked in some companies for 20 years could not be good founders because good founders wouldn’t be able to stand these companies for 20 years.

- pg has often said founders must be nice people but then the host says he doesn’t think young Steve Jobs would get funded today at YC because YC specifically filters out such founders.

Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]

#155

Post by erikpukinskis »

dang wrote: post #109
peteforde wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fascinating and a little sad that anyone who spoke up about this point was downvoted into oblivion... even though my point is entirely valid and easy to verify. I don't think PG would disagree with my suggestion, and he certainly doesn't need people to defend him.

Perhaps it's because you/they are focusing on some minuscule act of wording instead of on anything significant in the video. We don't need to play the internet gotcha game on HN. In fact, it's off topic by the site guidelines, since it isn't done out of intellectual curiosity ( https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ).

You might think it’s minutia for Jessica to be erased, but obviously many of us disagree.

I think it’s a powerful data point to see Paul quietly accept the the title of Founder. It is evidence he’s not in the habit of correcting people who don’t see him as a co-founder with a woman.

It speaks to his mindset. And perhaps this thread speaks to yours as well. It’s not about some kind of gotcha game. We are legitimately interested in how deeply both of you are engaged with this subject.

Personally, I don’t mind if you and Paul don’t think it’s a serious issue. I don’t think you do. You are under no obligation to care. But I think we should be free to discuss the possibility that you don’t. And to notice evidence that you don’t.

This is the kind of thinking that makes me realize YC isn’t a good fit for me. I think it benefits both me and YC for YC’s approach to these issues to be discussed. You don’t want people like me to apply, it would be bad for the health of the program.

Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]

#156

Post by HiroshiSan »

sytelus wrote: post #154

It’s just great to see pg talking and his little bites of wisdom always had been worth the time. Two specific things that popped out: - He mentions that people who have worked in some companies for 20 years could not be good founders because good founders wouldn’t be able to stand these companies for 20 years. - pg has often said founders must be nice people but then the host says he doesn’t think young Steve Jobs wo…

I'm willing to bet that were he not funded his doggedness would prevail.

See the joke about determination and trump (somewhere in the video)

Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]

#157

Post by dang »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #155
dang wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps it's because you/they are focusing on some minuscule act of wording instead of on anything significant in the video. We don't need to play the internet gotcha game on HN. In fact, it's off topic by the site guidelines, since it isn't done out of intellectual curiosity ( https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ).

You might think it’s minutia for Jessica to be erased, but obviously many of us disagree. I think it’s a powerful data point to see Paul quietly accept the the title of Founder. It is evidence he’s not in the habit of correcting people who don’t see him as a co-founder with a woman. It speaks to his mindset. And perhaps this thread speaks to yours as well. It’s not about some kind of gotcha game. We are legitimately…

It doesn't "speak to his mindset". You've simply cherry-picked that detail ("a powerful data point"!) against all evidence to the contrary. No one who really cared about pg's "mindset" would look at just a single use of the word 'the' which he didn't even say. If that isn't the internet gotcha game I don't know what is.

Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]

#158

Post by peteforde »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #155
dang wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps it's because you/they are focusing on some minuscule act of wording instead of on anything significant in the video. We don't need to play the internet gotcha game on HN. In fact, it's off topic by the site guidelines, since it isn't done out of intellectual curiosity ( https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ).

You might think it’s minutia for Jessica to be erased, but obviously many of us disagree. I think it’s a powerful data point to see Paul quietly accept the the title of Founder. It is evidence he’s not in the habit of correcting people who don’t see him as a co-founder with a woman. It speaks to his mindset. And perhaps this thread speaks to yours as well. It’s not about some kind of gotcha game. We are legitimately…

I chose to see things from Dan's perspective because I trust that he's not an agitator and that there exists a large spectrum between intentional oversight and missed opportunity. Dan's point about this being unworthy of this much attention is correct. Ultimately, it's just not that big a deal and if it's enough to keep you from applying to YC, YC is probably not a good fit for you. You have to be able to see things from multiple perspectives if you're going to have the best chance at dodging blind spots. Things don't always have to be comfortable and if everyone is agreeing with you, it's possible that you're not moving forward.

At any rate, I don't for a moment believe that PG would ever introduce himself as "the founder" and I hope that didn't come across.

Re: A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]

#159

Post by ghufran_syed »

gnicholas wrote: post #147
ghufran_syed wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Resistance is Useless - the art of business persuasion” by Geoff Burch from England is a great and approachable introduction on how to start doing sales

This seems to have only one review (a one-star review) on Amazon [1]. Is it a well-known book? What did you like about it? https://www.amazon.com/Resistance-Useless-Art-Business-Persu...

It’s from England - strangely, the reviews don’t seem to cross over: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Resistance-Useless-Art-Business-Per...

Or maybe English and American standards are different? :)

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