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A Project of One’s Own

paulgraham.com

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Re: A Project of One’s Own

#101

Post by denimnerd42 »

okareaman wrote: post #83
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #10

> It's a bit sad to think of all the high school kids turning their backs on building treehouses and sitting in class dutifully learning about Darwin or Newton to pass some exam, when the work that made Darwin and Newton famous was actually closer in spirit to building treehouses than studying for exams. The current educational system seems to turn off high school kids (anecdotal evidence being my own) from pursuing…

> it's a bit sad to think of all the high school kids turning their backs on building treehouses and sitting in class dutifully learning about Darwin or Newton to pass some exam, when the work that made Darwin and Newton famous was actually closer in spirit to building treehouses than studying for exams. Charles Darwin ...University of Edinburgh Medical School (at the time the best medical school in the UK) ...father…

Didn't the wealthy also have amazing tutors..? Today tutors are more for people who are behind but I think back then tutors would fulfill the role that the web plays today. Except way more effectively.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#102

Post by TeMPOraL »

tmotwu wrote: post #70
TeMPOraL wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> being competitive in school-like activities provides them To an extent. I keep wondering, wouldn't it be better if schools/universities were structured as PvE challenges, not PvP ones? Trying to elicit a culture of collaboration, instead of pitting students against each other? I may be strongly biased, because I hate competition outside of games[0], and competitive incentives generally make me stop caring. -- [0] -…

Collaboration and competition are not mutually exclusive. Competition does not always result in self-determination. For instance, people mentor others because they might learn something new themselves or grow their network. Thus, you can enjoy collaborating with others while doing so because of your competitive ambitions.

It's the question of who are you competing with, and how hard. That's why I mentioned PvE and PvP games. I find a fair competition against a (widely understood) environment fine. I dislike competing against my fellow players.

As an example: our class at the university was somewhat unique in that, unlike most other departments/subjects, our scholarships were thresholded only by grade average. So, where students in other classes were competing against each other to reach the few top spots that paid money, in our class, we all helped each other out. Helping another student didn't jeopardize your chances at the scholarship, and it felt nice when the person you helped got the scholarship too. We were playing a PvE game - competing against the grading system. Even though ultimate rewards were given based on individual performance, there was no downside to cooperation.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#103

Post by fallat »

johnwheeler wrote: post #97
crispyambulance wrote: post #78

Read also a much better essay by a vastly more skilled writer with quite a different view, Bertrand Russell, "In Praise of Idleness." https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/ Russell would say that people of the age to be tech start-up fodder should instead DO NOTHING. It's better for them and for society. > I hope that after reading the following pages the leaders of the YMCA will start a campaign…

I read it and I don’t think it’s a “much better essay by a vastly more skilled writer”. It’s not practical, but PGs essay is. Peculiarly, I think your opinion and the difference between the two essays gives credibility to PGs points. One essay by an academic, and the other by a creator and people err on the relative value of the academic’s because that’s what they’re taught to do.

I read it and I don’t think it’s a “much better essay by a vastly more skilled writer”. It’s not practical, but BRs essay is.

Peculiarly, I think your opinion and the difference between the two essays gives credibility to BRs points. One essay by a egocentric multimillionaire, and the other by a man of knowledge and people err on the relative value of the people who make money because that’s what they’re taught to do.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#104

Post by streetcat1 »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #9

I once wrote that "My dream is to, one day, work for free." I am now living that dream. When I left my last company, in 2017, I looked at working for someone else, but was almost immediately told that no one wants old men. It was pretty crushing. But I went and set up a corporation that allows me to get equipment and testing kit, and started to write my own stuff. I explored surveillance cameras and ONVIF, as well as…

Social media apps are very hard to monetize, since consumer only want free, and hence you would need traffic, which is very hard to get.

Why not do B2B. The market is much more fragmented and thus you can always find a niche.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#105

Post by splithalf »

“ the mere expression "work/life" embodies a mistake: it assumes work and life are distinct”

Going to have to meditate on that one for awhile. It seems “privileged.” For many work amounts to a set of indignities required for survival. A 2 hour daily commute to pay Bay Area rent prices doesn’t feel like “life” at all. Sort of Marie Antoinette vibes to the featured essay. I’m actually ok with that. Not everyone needs to be a slave, and the more people who can forego work and just tinker the better. But acknowledge it. Paul’s not talking to the proles here, but to other gentlemen of leisure who had mathematician dads, or those who had Paul graham type rich celebrity dads. Most people are in essence slaves to debt. Retirement is when work stops and life starts, for most of us in the second class.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#106

Post by [deleted] »

jacksonkmarley wrote: post #94
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically, the latter, but I'd like to get back to making money. It just hasn't been an option. I'm not kidding. The door was slammed on me, quite hard (I think part of it was because I live in New York. New York's ageism problem is much worse than Silicon Valley's). I'm very fortunate, in being able to work on my own. I can't imagine what it must be like for the folks that don't have that option.

That does suck. I guess there are different approaches you could take to work around it, e.g. spamming more companies or filtering out certain types of company, what kind of numbers did you put in? Do you think an early, unpleasant rejection could have discouraged you prematurely?

[deleted]

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#107

Post by jeffreyrogers »

crispyambulance wrote: post #78

Read also a much better essay by a vastly more skilled writer with quite a different view, Bertrand Russell, "In Praise of Idleness." https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/ Russell would say that people of the age to be tech start-up fodder should instead DO NOTHING. It's better for them and for society. > I hope that after reading the following pages the leaders of the YMCA will start a campaign…

Russell had the benefit of being born into the highest classes of English society and succeeding at everything he undertook. I don't think his advice is generally applicable, and he didn't seem to follow it himself.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#108

Post by not_jd_salinger »

johnwheeler wrote: post #97
crispyambulance wrote: post #78

Read also a much better essay by a vastly more skilled writer with quite a different view, Bertrand Russell, "In Praise of Idleness." https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/ Russell would say that people of the age to be tech start-up fodder should instead DO NOTHING. It's better for them and for society. > I hope that after reading the following pages the leaders of the YMCA will start a campaign…

I read it and I don’t think it’s a “much better essay by a vastly more skilled writer”. It’s not practical, but PGs essay is. Peculiarly, I think your opinion and the difference between the two essays gives credibility to PGs points. One essay by an academic, and the other by a creator and people err on the relative value of the academic’s because that’s what they’re taught to do.

> One essay by an academic, and the other by a creator

It's a bit unfair to paint PG as just an "academic". Sure he basically rushed from academia straight into the business world, but he's created things as well. I mean being an investment capitalist will hardly compete with creating ambitious works like Principia Mathematica, but PG has written a few books on the side. Some of his earlier stuff, like On Lisp isn't half bad.

PG has also done his fair share to influence other creators, of course his influence will never be near as great as Russel's, I mean you don't run into a Wittgenstein more than once a generation. While most of PGs influence has been mostly to help other capitalist acquire more wealthy by any means necessary, he was able to help a few very interesting people like Aaron Swartz.

And while PG will never stick is neck out for anyone but himself, worried endlessly about this "intellectual" reputation, you can't expect all creators to be willing get themselves thrown in prison at the age of 89 to fight for what they believe is right.

tl;dr sure PG will never be as powerful of a creative and inspirational force as Russell, but it's unfair to say he's "just an academic"

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#109

Post by chubot »

rossdavidh wrote: post #41

Jared Diamond, in his book "The Day Before Yesterday", talks about how children in Papua New Guinea when he was an anthropologist there would play at making a garden or raising pigs. The kid would have a toy, wooden pig, and then eventually be given a piglet, and then gradually their "play" would become more realistic until it shaded into adult work. My daughter, as a youngun', wanted to play "coffeeshop" where she w…

Yeah I'm pretty sure that Christopher Alexander makes this point in one of his books, maybe A Pattern Language

He says that suburbs are configured "wrong", in a way that's antithetical to life.

Because the children go to school somewhere nearby, where they are babysat, and the fathers (at that time) commute to work in the city.

And the children have no idea what their parents do, and that is alienating. The configuration of space diminishes people and relationships. They don't see their parents enough and they don't learn from them.

Children want to learn from "real" work, not the fake work of school, which is why so many of them can't sit still in class, and get poor grades despite being smart, etc.

That work/suburb split definitely describes how I grew up, so I remember that point very distinctly. You are supposed to jump through hoops for 12 years, and then apply to a place where you jump through 4 more years of hoops, etc. But you are confused about how the world actually works. It's not a good way of teaching people to be adaptable to the world.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#110

Post by ryandrake »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #60
TeMPOraL wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the immortal words of 'nostromo, which I still have printed on a t-shirt: No job is the goal. No money is the problem. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8987008

That's a keeper! Thanks!

I love it. I think I'll print it out on a big banner above my home office.

I wake up every day dreaming of retirement: when I will be free to do (or not do) my best work.

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