Paul Graham convinced me to drop out of school / quit my job [Vote up if true] • Hacker News Board

Re: Paul Graham convinced me to drop out of school / quit my job [Vote up if true]

#51

Post by Alex3917 » Fri, Mar 30, 2007, 2:06 PM UTC

create_account wrote: post #44

pg wrote: post #40

This just freaks me out. I can't wait for this one to slide down the frontpage...

Wait until you get groupies camping outside your house, just to get glimpse of you. You could be the next David Koresh or Jim Jones.

This thread started as a poll, and ended as a revolution.

Re: Paul Graham convinced me to drop out of school / quit my job [Vote up if true]

#52

Post by ClintonKarr » Fri, Mar 30, 2007, 3:56 PM UTC

AurSaraf wrote: post #21

ClintonKarr wrote: post #18

I can't say that I've quit my job, but Paul Graham does make some interesting points. The question that is stuck in my head is "what should I do if I have an idea for a Web service, but have no technical 'know-how?'" Is it worth approaching YCombinator?

Hello. I am Aur Saraf. Simply put, no. Start ups are about work, not ideas. Ideas flow freely with some people (like me) that just have about one idea per day worth implementation. The skill to bring a product to life is the critical part. Still, since you shouldn't drop the idea of starting a start up, you should either find someone with the technical know how (track down my email and email me for help in that) or g…

Aur, thank you for your insight. Currently I would say I fall more into a marketing/sales/negotiation "box," which I believe is an important aspect for start-ups.

If I were to begin a start-up it would be as a co-founder. Yes, I would need to find someone with the technical know how - fortunately I'm living with a software engineer. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure he is happy with his job...but maybe I can convince him to give me 20% of his time if I develop my plan further.

Again, I appreciate your response.

Best wishes,

Clinton

Re: Paul Graham convinced me to drop out of school / quit my job [Vote up if true]

#53

Post by ced » Fri, Mar 30, 2007, 6:29 PM UTC

RyanGWU82 wrote: post #47

pg wrote: post #40

This just freaks me out. I can't wait for this one to slide down the frontpage...

Paul, on Saturday, you discussed YC's 100% satisfaction rating from the founders you've sponsored. I can't imagine that's true for all (non-YC) startups, but I bet it's still extremely high. I hope you do become more comfortable with this, because there are a bunch of us that are living much more inspired lives, and trace part of that inspiration back to you. I'd hate to see you shy away from this because you're nerv…

I don't think that the failures will report here...

We should start a "Paul Graham convinced me to drop Java / C++" poll to cheer him up.

Re: Paul Graham convinced me to drop out of school / quit my job [Vote up if true]

#54

Post by jganetsk » Thu, Apr 05, 2007, 2:25 AM UTC

chmike wrote: post #33

Hi, I'm 50. I tried to apply PG advices to become rich. I left my job and went back to grad to find a cofounder. I also divorced to get rid of wife and kids. I applied for rejuvenation camps, plastic surgery and many othere expensive treatments because PG said we better start young. Since Cobol and Fortran are useless, I had intensive courses to learn lisp, visual basic, php, .net and ruby. There are still a few deta…

It's all fake except for the part where you say "Cobol and Fortran are useless." That, of course, is real.

Re: Paul Graham convinced me to drop out of school / quit my job [Vote up if true]

#55

Post by mukund » Thu, Apr 05, 2007, 2:26 AM UTC

Well if one has heard of this "I was born Intelligent but Education made me Dumb" ... then PG is right in advising "dropping out of school" :D So i agree with the first part... No idea about quitting the job part as i dont have a job :D

Re: Paul Graham convinced me to drop out of school / quit my job [Vote up if true]

#56

Post by sumantra2 » Thu, Apr 05, 2007, 2:59 AM UTC

In general although creativity and school dropouts might have a non-linear correlation, it is wrong to say that formal education limits creativity and vice versa for that matter. Do you think that Google PageRank would have come from a ragamuffin?

Re: Paul Graham convinced me to drop out of school / quit my job [Vote up if true]

#57

Post by BrandonM » Mon, Apr 09, 2007, 8:54 AM UTC

dfranke wrote: post #2

Alex, polls are lame on Reddit. They're even lamer here since there's no down arrow. Please use Pollground or something similar.

Of course, the best way to counter this is to go around downvoting Alex's comments that aren't particularly interesting or insightful. I wouldn't normally do something like this, but in order to make up for 74 (!) upvotes, it might be necessary.