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How to Start Google

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Start Google

#231

Post by awesomeMilou »

bronco21016 wrote: post #173
awesomeMilou wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Their success story is imo one of the most blatant examples on how privilege really does give you a boost in life. I am not arguing that anyone could have done it, but I do wonder how the world would look like if we were all kids of academics with a successful career, with a relatively safe, secure and stable childhood home and a family background that really incentivizes learning and academic success over succumbi…

> I recently read something that played out a thought experiment

With all due respect, the world isn't a thought experiment and the dynamics of a system with 10.000 people is not comparable to that of 7 billion.

My argument was pointing at the fact that it may be pointless to compare your own plans to success against someone elses success story, when they had completely different starting variables in life and people who refuse to at least consider this are either trapped in the Silicon Valley hustle culture or are, sorry, completely ignorant, bordering on idiotic.

With that same logic ala "Not everyone can be X" I can justify almost all of human suffering in the world. I refuse to believe that you follow an ideology like this if you're on this site, because if you did, you were already rich by means of some criminal enterprise exploiting humans far beyond what tech startups are capable of.

This isn't some appeal to idk, introducing communism and making everyone equal but this argument is as dumb as making a healthy runner compete in the paralympics.

Re: How to Start Google

#232

Post by secstate »

importantbrian wrote: post #228
namdnay wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ?

The real problem with those lists is that they only include people whose wealth is known and can be reasonably valued based on public sources. It's often not easy to trace the net worth of old-money families. It also means you won't find people from countries with very low transparency or dictators on the list. For example, you won't find Putin or any of the Saudi royals on the Forbes list even though they are among…

Which makes one feel even shittier when you realize that even with that skewing, the list STILL contains a lot of inherited-wealth or comfortable-highly-educated-wealth people.

Re: How to Start Google

#233

Post by lokimedes »

Mr-Frog wrote: post #195
keiferski wrote: post #182

“Learn to code and surround yourself with smart people” is good advice, but it’s kind of funny that Google was used as the example of peak success for a group of 15 year olds. I’m fairly willing to bet that most of them think of Google as boring and old, and not exciting or innovative. How to start TikTok or Minecraft would have probably been a more inspiring example.

The story of Minecraft was an awesome inspiration for my peers and me, much more relatable than Google or any SV startup. Markus Persson did not come from a family of academics or engineers; he was just a poor blue-collar kid who liked videogames and coding (unfortunately his political views have stained his image).

I literally remember following his progress as he posted on Reddit. I imagine following Linus Torvald’s posts on Usenet must bring similar memories to the slightly more matured people around here.

With fully 2 datapoints, I conjecture that this odd Scandinavian combination of being highly advanced nations yet isolated from the action in and around Silicon Valley increases the probability of public social Communication, as we (Scandis) are used to not having peers physically around us. The chi^2 is good with this one.

Re: How to Start Google

#234

Post by ornornor »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #219

Totally insane. 99% or more of the people who enable Google to do what Google does are employees of Google. Same with every other company. The odds of being the founder of a successful company are probably worse than being a professional sportsball player (if only because they turn over more frequently). Does anything good come from encouraging kids to think that they will manage to sail through life as a successful…

If you’re a prominent VC that’s exactly what you want to happen though, it will let you spread your bets even more.

But like you said, this is peak SV. Luckily there is a whole world outside of SV where the rest of us operate :)

Re: How to Start Google

#235

Post by Aunche »

namdnay wrote: post #203
petesergeant wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ?

> Would Bezos have made it without 200k from mum&dad ?

Bezos was already the youngest Senior Vice President at DE Shaw before he started Amazon, so he wouldn't have any problem finding other investors. His mom had Bezos as a teenager, and his adoptive dad was a young Cuban refugee. His grandfather was rich though.

Re: How to Start Google

#236

Post by volkk »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #219

Totally insane. 99% or more of the people who enable Google to do what Google does are employees of Google. Same with every other company. The odds of being the founder of a successful company are probably worse than being a professional sportsball player (if only because they turn over more frequently). Does anything good come from encouraging kids to think that they will manage to sail through life as a successful…

> Does anything good come from encouraging kids to think that they will manage to sail through life as a successful business founder rather than an employee?

I would imagine dreaming big is pretty good for children.

A big reason for why I'm optimistic in life is because I have hope for achieving something. I truly can't imagine a life where my father/mother would only hammer in the fact that I am just an average joe and should stick to climbing the corporate ladder. Such an uninspiring take, this one. Depressing.

Re: How to Start Google

#237

Post by duggan »

duggan wrote: post #76
eddieroger wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was sad to search for the word "luck" and come up empty. You can do everything right and still fail. You can do everything wrong and win. Sometimes you're just in the right place at the right time, and that external factor is completely out of your control and can be the difference you need.

I don't disagree that luck is a factor, but what can you do with that information other than console yourself when it doesn't work out?

Just to follow up, we’re discussing advice to young teenagers here.

I think it’s reasonable to inspire more than hedge. They’ll presumably already hear lots about what the least risky things to do are from many, many sources — that’s the default.

Re: How to Start Google

#238

Post by awesomeMilou »

dekhn wrote: post #170
awesomeMilou wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I don't think larry or sergey got their phd - larry got a masters and I think sergey left before he got any degree. Don't forget that Larry's older brother Carl went through the whole VC process with egroups and gained extreme experience with how to maximize his position in negotiation. But yes, I agree completely that kids of academics raised in an environment that incentivzes learning is a reliable way to transform…

So to correct my original statement: Both have a masters degree and both were pursuing PhD's before they focused on Google. But I consider them more than halfway there, afaik both have published papers separate from the paper that eventually lead to Google. This is taken from their own testimonials from their paper [0]

The rest of my statement is true.

[0] http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf

Re: How to Start Google

#239

Post by duderific »

smokel wrote: post #220
mattlondon wrote: post #215

I dislike this sort of advice for teenagers. You may as well tell them to be rock stars or professional sports people. Tell the kids to study, don't sell them an unobtainable dream

The amount of survivorship bias ignored in the article is appalling. Why?

Because PG is a survivor, and he's biased.

Re: How to Start Google

#240

Post by duderific »

mattlondon wrote: post #215

I dislike this sort of advice for teenagers. You may as well tell them to be rock stars or professional sports people. Tell the kids to study, don't sell them an unobtainable dream

To be fair, he does tell them to study. But only because you have to get into a good college to find other people to found startups with.
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