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What I Worked On

paulgraham.com

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Re: What I Worked On

#391

Post by samatman »

dang wrote: post #217
jeremysalwen wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people have different definitions of "upper class". Maybe "Upper-middle class" would have been a better term, since pretty much everyone in the U.S. calls themselves some flavor of middle class. But my point is is that most people are not doing nearly as well financially as a mathematician/manager working at Westinghouse modeling nuclear reactors[1][2]. For example, 70% of americans have less than $1,000 of s…

I agree. The question is whether they were above or below the financial threshold where kids know they'll be fine no matter what they do, and so are freer to take risks and pursue their interests. That's a popular argument to make about entrepreneurship being a class privilege, for example showing up in many comments in this thread. I don't know where that line is, but my impression is that people making this argumen…

I see two important thresholds, and I agree with you that they are routinely conflated.

Above the first threshold, when you completely run out of money, your family sets you on your feet. Might move into the basement, might get some grudging bailout money, but you get made whole. Below it, you're homeless.

Above the second threshold, your dad or one of his golf buddies spots you $50k on good terms to launch your first business.

Looks like pg was comfortably above the first threshold, and well below the second.

Re: What I Worked On

#392

Post by Afton »

whatshisface wrote: post #312
Afton wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incidentally, I think being in QA and being a good engineer is a recipe for a very good career. A surprising number of QA software developers are... just not very good developers. Working with a good developer that just happens to specialize in QA is an amazing experience.

Would that good-engineer QA specialist have a good career in terms of appreciation and remuneration, or merely a good career in terms of being the least likely to get laid off, and providing a lot of value to the company?

Well, both, but they are fairly decoupled, just like for 'regular' software developers. Pay is based on willingness to move (and get that sweet, sweet signing bonus), and willingness to negotiate.

Essentially: If you are an amazing engineer, you will likely do well everywhere. If you are a 'good' engineer, and you want to stand out, go into QA engineering where you will be relatively better than a lot of people.

Re: What I Worked On

#393

Post by RhodoGSA »

curiousllama wrote: post #260
RhodoGSA wrote: post #258

This story gives me so much hope. I too have meandered around in life. Although i've always 'Focused' and worked long hours, i've jumped between so many projects it's hard to keep track of them all. After HS i joined the air force for an enlistment, didn't care for it, tried college, didn't like it so i got a year long internship at tesla. Tried to go back to college for a semester but I hated it so i did another yea…

What job were you doing at Tesla? Is there a particular reason you hate college so much? Purely curious

CapEx. I love working at Tesla. I was excited everyday to wake up and go work 12 hours a day. College, I couldn't focus. I'd had 6 years of supply chain experience before trying to get a degree in supply chain and if i'm being honest everything i was learning in school was completely pointless and would never be useful. I even have the GI bill so i was being paid to go to school and my soul still couldn't take it.

Re: What I Worked On

#394

Post by totemandtoken »

cjenkins wrote: post #388
totemandtoken wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fear I'm one of these unsuspecting losers...except I guess that comment makes me suspecting. IDK, I don't want to play the game but it only gets worse in the corporate world. I wish there was a good solution, where someone could play it straight and get rewarded justly. Your art work is beautiful by the way.

Since we're commenting on a pg essay, IIRC startups are said to be the place where you CAN play it straight and get rewarded justly. The core idea being you can't fake or politic your way into making something users want. I wish I could find the link to the essay that directly states this but I'm having trouble finding it now (and my Google-fu doesn't seem to be strong enough to locate it).

I remember that essay too. I think at the time, he was probably correct but now (at least as an outsider, from a distance) it has become as much a game as the corporate world. The idea of being a founder eventually became as much a trope as being a company man, so I'm not so sure its a viable solution anymore.

Then again, I've never been in a startup or a founder so what do I know?

Re: What I Worked On

#395

Post by xapata »

mizzao wrote: post #338
xapata wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. Equally plausible is that we only write quotations from the people whose dots serendipitously connected.

Here's a good argument why the dots will connect eventually as long as you keep doing interesting things. One of my favorite books: https://davidepstein.com/the-range/

> the dots will connect eventually ...

To paraphrase Keynes, eventually we're all dead.

Re: What I Worked On

#396

Post by jkbyc »

cjenkins wrote: post #388
totemandtoken wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fear I'm one of these unsuspecting losers...except I guess that comment makes me suspecting. IDK, I don't want to play the game but it only gets worse in the corporate world. I wish there was a good solution, where someone could play it straight and get rewarded justly. Your art work is beautiful by the way.

Since we're commenting on a pg essay, IIRC startups are said to be the place where you CAN play it straight and get rewarded justly. The core idea being you can't fake or politic your way into making something users want. I wish I could find the link to the essay that directly states this but I'm having trouble finding it now (and my Google-fu doesn't seem to be strong enough to locate it).

The Lesson to Unlearn http://www.paulgraham.com/lesson.html (I think)

Re: What I Worked On

#397

Post by Detrus »

breck wrote: post #193
vonnik wrote: post #11

I think it's important that PG published this essay this week. And that he included projects that were wildly successful (YC) as well as projects that didn't get the traction he wanted (Bel). To me it shows two things: 1) that some of the most successful people make miscalculations about what the world needs. 2) that a few of them, like PG, are courageous enough to admit that. Personally, reading PG's essays and then…

> as well as projects that didn't get the traction he wanted (Bel) Was traction his goal? I'm not sure about that. I think the ROI on Bel is extremely high. It only looks small if you compare it to something like YCombinator.

Says somewhere that traction for Bel would be 20 users. Early traction.

Re: What I Worked On

#398

Post by [deleted] »

oftenwrong wrote: post #385
soniman wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard the "sell shovels" advice a million times but I've never heard of anyone getting rich selling shovels.

How about: AWS -> cloud platform shovel Google -> web advertising shovel Maybe these are bad examples? To a certain degree these created/heavily-defined the market they serve, whereas the "shovel" concept might require selling a solution to an existing market.

[deleted]

Re: What I Worked On

#399

Post by psychomugs »

zuhayeer wrote: post #201

“It wasn't happening in a class, like it was supposed to, but that was ok” Summary of the college experience even today. You have to go outside the classroom to learn and do the most interesting things. But because those interesting things happen in proximity to a university campus, college is still pretty valuable. Also relevant: “In other words, like many a grad student, I was working energetically on multiple proj…

"The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can't be learned at school." - Murakami Haruki

Re: What I Worked On

#400

Post by decentrality »

totemandtoken wrote: post #394
cjenkins wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since we're commenting on a pg essay, IIRC startups are said to be the place where you CAN play it straight and get rewarded justly. The core idea being you can't fake or politic your way into making something users want. I wish I could find the link to the essay that directly states this but I'm having trouble finding it now (and my Google-fu doesn't seem to be strong enough to locate it).

I remember that essay too. I think at the time, he was probably correct but now (at least as an outsider, from a distance) it has become as much a game as the corporate world. The idea of being a founder eventually became as much a trope as being a company man, so I'm not so sure its a viable solution anymore. Then again, I've never been in a startup or a founder so what do I know?

I have seen former employees of mine join companies started in YC, and the ethos I've seen around YC in that way reminds me of how my great grandmother talked about working at General Electric. It's a decentralized Empire in vibe, with all the games and politics. It was really difficult to deprogram people once caught by the allure. People think in terms of their programs, like cookie cutters.

Structuring SAFEs, doing mentoring and creating batches, and creating a kind of orthodoxy based on unorthodoxy done better, definitely hit a stale point. I think it's even to the point the founders could return and do it again based on what they learned, with more "stay hungry, stay foolish" again, albeit with veteran wisdom now, and it would be revolutionary all over again, upending its own past.

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