Despite Y Combinator Growth, Paul Graham Still Coding • Hacker News Board

Sorry to sound blunt but why is it a given that if a person is successful, it is surprising that he/she is doing "lesser" things? I never understood that notion.

If I was successful/rich/etc, I will still be coding on my free time. Heck, I will be washing my own dishes, buying my own groceries, driving myself and so on. And I know many other "rich/successful/etc" people who are exactly like that.

Re: Despite Y Combinator Growth, Paul Graham Still Coding

#15

Post by sliverstorm » Fri, Aug 26, 2011, 1:43 AM UTC

kinkora wrote: post #14

Sorry to sound blunt but why is it a given that if a person is successful, it is surprising that he/she is doing "lesser" things? I never understood that notion. If I was successful/rich/etc, I will still be coding on my free time. Heck, I will be washing my own dishes, buying my own groceries, driving myself and so on. And I know many other "rich/successful/etc" people who are exactly like that.

There does come a point where you make more money hiring someone else to do your laundry and focusing on your job, so as I understand it rich people sometimes only do select mundane things they like doing.

Re: Despite Y Combinator Growth, Paul Graham Still Coding

#16

Post by pg » Fri, Aug 26, 2011, 2:01 AM UTC

katem wrote: post #13

Is there a list of common problems Y founders make?

There's a general list of common mistakes here:

http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html

Re: Despite Y Combinator Growth, Paul Graham Still Coding

#17

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 26, 2011, 2:02 AM UTC

boyter wrote: post #11

[deleted] wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

You were being down voted for not adding anything to the conversation. The following will help you avoid it in the future http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[deleted]

Re: Despite Y Combinator Growth, Paul Graham Still Coding

#18

Post by pg » Fri, Aug 26, 2011, 2:03 AM UTC

onan_barbarian wrote: post #8

This article makes me wonder: status-of-arc-p?

I hack a fair amount in it, less on it. I'd hoped to release a new version of News soon, and thus also a new version of Arc. But I am pretty busy with YC.

Re: Despite Y Combinator Growth, Paul Graham Still Coding

#19

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 26, 2011, 2:05 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #6

michaeldhopkins wrote: post #4

It's true that one of the most productive things to do during a large meeting is program.

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: Despite Y Combinator Growth, Paul Graham Still Coding

#20

Post by jseliger » Fri, Aug 26, 2011, 2:10 AM UTC

kinkora wrote: post #14

Sorry to sound blunt but why is it a given that if a person is successful, it is surprising that he/she is doing "lesser" things? I never understood that notion. If I was successful/rich/etc, I will still be coding on my free time. Heck, I will be washing my own dishes, buying my own groceries, driving myself and so on. And I know many other "rich/successful/etc" people who are exactly like that.

I think this answers your question: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2926948 : "I think the implication is that pg would be too busy running YC to code. Even if it doesn't happen to him, it happens to a lot of founders."

To me, the implication was, "Lots of somewhat famous / successful people become too 'busy' to do the thing that made them famous / successful," with code being one of them. (Or think of all the actors who are famous but now appear in maybe one movie every three years: what are they doing with their time?).