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How to Start Google

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Start Google

#331

Post by user_7832 »

pylua wrote: post #85
mbgerring wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average age of successful startup founders is 35-45. YC likes young founders because they’re impressionable and exploitable.

Can you elaborate on this — or any evidence?

I think it’s partially because of the nature of VCs (which is partially why I’d never use a vc but rather bootstrap and fail). If your parent organisation’s goal is a 100x return you don’t mind 9/10 startups burning up in an attempt.

YC in that sense is a full “all guns blazing” thing. It’s generally younger folks who don’t mind eating ramen and don’t have to take care of a large family, and hence are more likely to go into a startup full time. Combine these two and I think you see what I mean.

Btw this isn’t a new criticism of YC/VCs, it’s something that’s been around for a while.

Re: How to Start Google

#332

Post by user_7832 »

feedforward wrote: post #271
gist wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. And actually it's a stupid point to begin with; making a point by choosing the absolute top percentage as if there is nothing other than 'really' rich (forget whether that is even a good thing I'd argue it's not a plus to have that much money and notoriety). There i…

Of course you're correct, but forget about that - two thirds of the team that started Viaweb and then Y-Combinator crashed, according to then contemporary reports, 10% of the machines on the Internet for the fun of vandalism or a prank or whatever. The one who was charged did no jail time - Graham wasn't even charged. He then goes on to exploit young techies to put himself in a very prime position in the relations of…

> Nowadays he tweets minimally veiled racist tweets about the supposed biological superiority of his brain compared to the rest of us, especially other races.

I’m curious, what are you referring to?

Re: How to Start Google

#333

Post by pepve »

echelon wrote: post #324
babl-yc wrote: post #317

I couldnt finish reading the essay because I was distracted by the generally smug tone of it. 99.99% of people who read this article are not going to start the next Google. Being a successful entrepreneur requires an incredible amount of luck, timing, skill, and risk taking. If you choose that path, great, but that in no way devalues the skill building, network building, and predictable income of working for someone…

Perhaps you're not the intended audience. There are certain people that deeply desire this and that understand their chances of success are low. Nevertheless, these people want to try and find encouragement in these types of essays. You don't need to be upset that this isn't for you. There are all sorts of shapes of people in the world. We benefit by having curious people at all strata of society, exploring various s…

> You don't need to be upset that this isn't for you.

The person you're responding to does not seem upset to me.

You add an interesting perspective that some people want to find encouragement in these types of essays. And the personal jab just isn't necessary.

Re: How to Start Google

#334

Post by [deleted] »

rvnx wrote: post #181
Kwpolska wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly: instead of a boss, you get venture capitalists, plus you probably don’t have that pesky work-life balance either.

Not a problem. You don't need work-life balance when you are living in a garage in San Francisco eating ramen on debt that you got from vulture capital.

[deleted]

Re: How to Start Google

#335

Post by gizmo »

babl-yc wrote: post #317

I couldnt finish reading the essay because I was distracted by the generally smug tone of it. 99.99% of people who read this article are not going to start the next Google. Being a successful entrepreneur requires an incredible amount of luck, timing, skill, and risk taking. If you choose that path, great, but that in no way devalues the skill building, network building, and predictable income of working for someone…

The tone isn’t smug. pg simplified his language for a teenage audience. Simple arguments made simply can come across as smug because they lack caveats and polite hedging, but I don’t think the accusation of smugness sticks in this case.

I also disagree about the incredible qualities entrepreneurs need and hardships they have to endure. Many incredible businesses are just good product + good distribution. Many kids think starting a startup is practically impossible, and pg correctly points out that it isn’t.

Re: How to Start Google

#336

Post by swader999 »

hbn wrote: post #298
smokel wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's like all the successful rappers who go on about how "I wanted to be a rapper when I was a teenager, and my guidance counsellor told me it's not realistic, and that I should settle down with a safe, normal job. Now look where I am!" Your guidance counsellor told hundreds of kids the same thing, and it was good advice for basically all of them. For every guy who made it rich with some crazy risky stock trade, ther…

Shooting for the google Star and falling short into a mid programming career is a lot better than missing the NBA with not much more than busted knees to show for it.

Re: How to Start Google

#337

Post by swader999 »

elektrontamer wrote: post #289

> But you will avoid many of the annoying things that come with a job, including a boss telling you what to do. I hear things like this a lot and I'm sick of it. There's nothing wrong with working for someone, in fact it's the best way to improve your skills as a beginner since you're going to be mentored by people much more experienced than you. I still call my first boss to this day.

In fact most knowledge work that's above average really feels like you are working 'with' someone. Self leading teams etc.

Re: How to Start Google

#338

Post by swader999 »

sarora27 wrote: post #285
a_n wrote: post #244

lol why do so many people here have such a loser/average mindset, you can literally achieve anything, literally anything, just because you don’t want to work hard, you don’t gotta be so discouraging to other people, well I guess people who wanna achieve great things probably don’t care about the stupid lazy people, so it’s whatever But the fact is you can literally do anything, you just gotta give it your all…

IMO most folks find it easier to point to the million reasons why something wont work/why someone is speaking from a point of affluence/how luck/finances/etc play a role in success than to just do the thing, learn from their mistakes, and grow. It's probably because doing the latter is hard and forces you to face ambiguity & hard personal growth on a daily basis.

I suffer from this at times. To be fair though, that's sort of my day job. Find holes and flaws in ideas and make them stronger. I don't do it with people anymore at least, I try hard to assume they have the best intent.

Re: How to Start Google

#339

Post by jordanpg »

elektrontamer wrote: post #289

> But you will avoid many of the annoying things that come with a job, including a boss telling you what to do. I hear things like this a lot and I'm sick of it. There's nothing wrong with working for someone, in fact it's the best way to improve your skills as a beginner since you're going to be mentored by people much more experienced than you. I still call my first boss to this day.

People like PG are at the apex of this weird fawning worship of entrepreneurs and getting rich that particularly affects the tech world. This culture places great intrinsic real value on not having a boss.

But of course this is all made up. Nothing has any real value in this sense. We just each get 100 years on Earth and we each get to decide how to spend that time. Those are the facts.

The entrepreneur worship culture is simply about making people who make those choices feel better about those choices. And as another commenter has observed, most of us are no more likely to make it as an entrepreneur than we are likely to play for the Lakers.

So, yeah, "a boss telling you what to do" is fine if it works for you and gets you what you want out of life. Some of us just don't give a shit and don't want to spend a lot of time thinking about things like market fit and business transactions and valuation blah blah blah.

Re: How to Start Google

#340

Post by [deleted] »

gizmo wrote: post #335
babl-yc wrote: post #317

I couldnt finish reading the essay because I was distracted by the generally smug tone of it. 99.99% of people who read this article are not going to start the next Google. Being a successful entrepreneur requires an incredible amount of luck, timing, skill, and risk taking. If you choose that path, great, but that in no way devalues the skill building, network building, and predictable income of working for someone…

The tone isn’t smug. pg simplified his language for a teenage audience. Simple arguments made simply can come across as smug because they lack caveats and polite hedging, but I don’t think the accusation of smugness sticks in this case. I also disagree about the incredible qualities entrepreneurs need and hardships they have to endure. Many incredible businesses are just good product + good distribution. Many kids th…

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