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How to Start Google

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Start Google

#201

Post by jdthedisciple »

berkes wrote: post #162
jameshart wrote: post #139

The blindness to privilege that’s tied up in the part about why you ‘need’ to go to a good (by which he means highly selective) school… > if you want to start a startup you should try to get into the best university you can, because that's where the best cofounders are... > The empirical evidence is clear on this. If you look at where the largest numbers of successful startups come from, it's pretty much the same as…

In "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America" Barbara Ehrenreich poses that universities are (in my words) merely a fictional moat, "invented" by the new class that became rich through education and work, rather then before through ownership and capital. "Education" nor "work" can be passed through generations. If I am a very gifted lawyer, this is not something I can pass on to my daughters or suns (but a ca…

I like your poetic metaphor of sons as bright stars ...

Re: How to Start Google

#202

Post by nostrademons »

romeros wrote: post #185
gordon_freeman wrote: post #164

> "But you will avoid many of the annoying things that come with a job, including a boss telling you what to do." Isn't this a bit misleading and can only be true for companies that don't take VC money or never go public (ex: Basecamp/37 Signals)? For VC funded or public companies, ultimately you'd have to be responsible to answer to your shareholders.

Yes, but the VCs trust you to a large extent and they can't delve into the nitty-gritty of daily operations. If they do they will develop a bad reputation. Your boss's job is to oversee the minutiae of your day-to-day activities. Like in most workplaces, you can't choose to just chill for a few days, work only at night, or choose to avoid meetings for a few days, etc. You will have a level autonomy and the ability to…

A good manager is going to trust you to a large extent and not delve into the nitty-gritty of daily operations. With typical reporting loads in knowledge industries, they can’t - a manager with 10 reports realistically has 1-2 hours/week to spend on their projects once all the team overhead is taken care of.

My reports absolutely can chill for a couple days, work only at night, or skip meetings. My job is to get them promoted, which can’t happen until they land projects that demonstrate business impact.

Re: How to Start Google

#203

Post by namdnay »

petesergeant wrote: post #193
gumby wrote: post #188

> 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. Actaally if you look at those lists, the largest number made it by choosing their parents correctly.

Certainly a few, but a quick scan of lists makes it look more like 25% inherited in the top 20 or so

I think it depends where you set the limit between “self made” and “inherited”. I don’t think it’s black or white

Would Gates have made it if Mum wasn’t on the board of IBM? Would Bezos have made it without 200k from mum&dad ?

Re: How to Start Google

#204

Post by ilrwbwrkhv »

jameshart wrote: post #139

The blindness to privilege that’s tied up in the part about why you ‘need’ to go to a good (by which he means highly selective) school… > if you want to start a startup you should try to get into the best university you can, because that's where the best cofounders are... > The empirical evidence is clear on this. If you look at where the largest numbers of successful startups come from, it's pretty much the same as…

Ya that is the main one. If you are born in midwest usa or god forbid, nigeria, please forget starting google.

Re: How to Start Google

#205

Post by mempko »

jameshart wrote: post #139

The blindness to privilege that’s tied up in the part about why you ‘need’ to go to a good (by which he means highly selective) school… > if you want to start a startup you should try to get into the best university you can, because that's where the best cofounders are... > The empirical evidence is clear on this. If you look at where the largest numbers of successful startups come from, it's pretty much the same as…

Exactly, it's not that good technology gets funding, it's that technology that gets funding gets good.

People often get this the wrong way around. They believe you just need a good idea. No, you need social circles that can invest in your idea. Investment improves things over time.

Alan Kay talks about this. That the quality of the project is the quality of the funders.

You can have good ideas, but if you don't have access to funders, your good idea will not have the resources to become a great idea.

Re: How to Start Google

#206

Post by ilrwbwrkhv »

awesomeMilou wrote: post #158
dekhn wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my source is larry himself- I used to work there and volunteered at SciFoo, which he attended and I chatted with him about it. The digital library is basically building a corpus for training AGI. His dad was a computer scientist and larry read a lot of AGI sci fi as a kid, so it's not really that hard to extrapolate 1980s technology to 2040s outcomes.

His dad wasn't "just" a computer scientist, he was a professor for computer science and artificial intelligence at Michigan State. Sergey Brin's father was equally a professor in mathematics at the University of Maryland. > It's obvious in retrospect that this was a great idea for a startup. It wasn't obvious at the time. It may not have been obvious, but the decision was damn well near as engineered with data as it…

This is what all these blogs don't really mention and I have seen this over and over and over again. You need a fundamental place in society: really high up to attempt to do any of this.

Re: How to Start Google

#207

Post by LarsDu88 »

gumby wrote: post #188

> 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. Actaally if you look at those lists, the largest number made it by choosing their parents correctly.

Parents who started companies. Lookin' at you Walton kids!

Re: How to Start Google

#208

Post by wilshiredetroit »

gumby wrote: post #188

> 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. Actaally if you look at those lists, the largest number made it by choosing their parents correctly.

"choosing their parents correctly" - yes.. having great parents doing their best is probably one of the main indicators of success. (mileage definitely varies) A child can learn a lot from their parents.. things like prudence, patience, work ethic.. a lot of folks think its about "inheritance". imho

Re: How to Start Google

#209

Post by d--b »

petesergeant wrote: post #198
d--b wrote: post #191

Inspirational talk for 14 year old to engage into extremely risky ventures for the sake of becoming the richest person in the world. How irresponsible.

The actual advice given is “learn to program and then pursue projects that interest you”, which is great advice for a 14 year old.

Yeah right that’s definitely what 14 year olds will take away from this.

Re: How to Start Google

#210

Post by martinohansen »

petesergeant wrote: post #193
gumby wrote: post #188

> 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. Actaally if you look at those lists, the largest number made it by choosing their parents correctly.

Certainly a few, but a quick scan of lists makes it look more like 25% inherited in the top 20 or so

> […] you need to do well in your classes to get into a good university.

Isn’t this also mostly inherited: do most get into the good universities because of their grades or their connections? Can most get good grades without an “inherited” support system?

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