How to Start Google
paulgraham.com
How to Start Google
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Re: How to Start Google
#2"If you look at the lists of the richest people that occasionally get published in the press, nearly all of them did it by starting their own companies."
"Of the 137 people in the global study who achieved billionaire status in the 12-month study period, 53 of them inherited $150.8 billion collectively, more than the $140.7 billion that was earned by the 84 new self-made billionaires in the same time period, the UBS study says.Nov 30, 2023"
Re: How to Start Google
#3He left out the part about starting your company at a unique point in history where a generational technology shift was taking place that also happens to be a time when antitrust laws had recently been enforced (making your main competitor wary) but were about to be completely ignored for the next 20 years, so you could exploit your initial market position and engage in anti-competitive behavior to grow huge.
Re: How to Start Google
#4> It's more exciting to work on your own project than someone else's. And you can also get a lot richer. In fact, this is the standard way to get really rich. If you look at the lists of the richest people that occasionally get published in the press, nearly all of them did it by starting their own companies.
People like Paul Graham telling 14-year-olds that basically getting rich is the most important thing is one of the reasons we got into this late-stage capitalism nightmare in the first place. Fuck this.
Edit: Sorry, to update after my rant. So many things wrong with this advice. For most people, starting a company is not the best path to happiness. Sure, if you have a job, there's a "boss" that tells you what to do as Graham notes, but if you think for a second you can do whatever the fuck you want when you start your own company, you're dead wrong. Of course, Graham knows this.
Re: How to Start Google
#5"If you look at the lists of the richest people that occasionally get published in the press, nearly all of them did it by starting their own companies." "Of the 137 people in the global study who achieved billionaire status in the 12-month study period, 53 of them inherited $150.8 billion collectively, more than the $140.7 billion that was earned by the 84 new self-made billionaires in the same time period, the UBS…
And still not taking into consideration that the majority of those "self-made" billionaires anyway inherited many privileges from their parents that helped them to "self make".
Re: How to Start Google
#6He left out the part about starting your company at a unique point in history where a generational technology shift was taking place that also happens to be a time when antitrust laws had recently been enforced (making your main competitor wary) but were about to be completely ignored for the next 20 years, so you could exploit your initial market position and engage in anti-competitive behavior to grow huge.
Or the part where your parents are professors and provide the educational opportunities and financial freedom to take risks that 99% of people don't have.
I don't mean that to even sound bitter or cynical, but it's just a fact if you look at most founders, even the ones that fail miserably.
Re: How to Start Google
#7> It's more exciting to work on your own project than someone else's. And you can also get a lot richer. In fact, this is the standard way to get really rich. If you look at the lists of the richest people that occasionally get published in the press, nearly all of them did it by starting their own companies. People like Paul Graham telling 14-year-olds that basically getting rich is the most important thing is one o…
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Re: How to Start Google
#8"If you look at the lists of the richest people that occasionally get published in the press, nearly all of them did it by starting their own companies." "Of the 137 people in the global study who achieved billionaire status in the 12-month study period, 53 of them inherited $150.8 billion collectively, more than the $140.7 billion that was earned by the 84 new self-made billionaires in the same time period, the UBS…
Maybe merely having a billion dollars isn't what pg was thinking of when talking about "the richest people". If you look at the top 100, like he quotes in his article, only 27 inherited their fortune.
Re: How to Start Google
#9> It's more exciting to work on your own project than someone else's. And you can also get a lot richer. In fact, this is the standard way to get really rich. If you look at the lists of the richest people that occasionally get published in the press, nearly all of them did it by starting their own companies. People like Paul Graham telling 14-year-olds that basically getting rich is the most important thing is one o…
He's telling kids that they don't have to get a job, and one of the key objections is obviously going to be "but how will I get money". The emphasis in the essay is not getting rich, it's that it's a much more interesting path. And it is.
Re: How to Start Google
#10> It's more exciting to work on your own project than someone else's. And you can also get a lot richer. In fact, this is the standard way to get really rich. If you look at the lists of the richest people that occasionally get published in the press, nearly all of them did it by starting their own companies. People like Paul Graham telling 14-year-olds that basically getting rich is the most important thing is one o…
It's even worse than that. Not only is he saying that, he's parroting the bullshit idea that "starting your own company" is the relevant skillset, rather than "absolutely ruthlessly exploiting every moral and legal grey area to hoard as much value for yourself as possible with extreme urgency."
But I mean this is the guy that foisted Sam Altman onto the world, so clearly he already knows that. Which makes an article like this understandable as the propaganda that it is.
You don't write an article like this to influence kids, you write it to rationalize the giant pile of money you find yourself sitting on.