11–20 of 478 posts
> paulgraham.com Oh. All I know to expect from seeing that is a weird kind of popularity, agreement and participation you don't see for other blogs posted on HN, sometimes with the other half-or-so of comments being annoyed with Paul Graham. Does HN covertly promote all links to that blog or is there something more substantial to it?
> paulgraham.com Oh. All I know to expect from seeing that is a weird kind of popularity, agreement and participation you don't see for other blogs posted on HN, sometimes with the other half-or-so of comments being annoyed with Paul Graham. Does HN covertly promote all links to that blog or is there something more substantial to it?
Earnest people are always the first to say “I don’t know”
> paulgraham.com Oh. All I know to expect from seeing that is a weird kind of popularity, agreement and participation you don't see for other blogs posted on HN, sometimes with the other half-or-so of comments being annoyed with Paul Graham. Does HN covertly promote all links to that blog or is there something more substantial to it?
I find this funny. I'll bite. Paul Graham created Hacker News. And is a founder of Y Combinator.
My perception is that one drawback of earnestness is that it often comes off as just being boring. The most earnest people I know are not popular. The most popular people I know are more like twinkle-in-the-eye-kind-of-BS-but-not-pathological-liars. I don't mean to say "grr, why aren't nerds more popular!". I mean more that this specific kind of earnestness seems to preclude the playing of certain conversational game…
> It's a bigger social error to seem naive in most European countries than it is in America, and this may be one of subtler reasons startups are less commmon there. Founder culture is completely at odds with sophisticated cynicism. I have a high opinion of pg, but mocking an entire continent for non-earnestness because it doesn't make as much money as the US (because they have more startups because, supposedly, the A…
You're interpreting the blog essay unfairly. PG isn't looking at everything (such as "earnestness") only through the prism of money. It's a blog post with deliberately limited scope.
His first sentence sets the context for the rest of the essay: "Jessica and I have certain words that have special significance when we're talking about _startups_."
Yes, we all know there can be other activities to also express earnestness such as creating art paintings, music, parenting, volunteering, teaching, etc. but he omits those and discusses it in relation to startups because... startups is what he often specializes in writing about. It doesn't look like mocking Europe to me.
I understand you want a more universal essay (measures of earnestness beyond startups) but that's not necessary for PG's blog audience.
My perception is that one drawback of earnestness is that it often comes off as just being boring. The most earnest people I know are not popular. The most popular people I know are more like twinkle-in-the-eye-kind-of-BS-but-not-pathological-liars. I don't mean to say "grr, why aren't nerds more popular!". I mean more that this specific kind of earnestness seems to preclude the playing of certain conversational game…