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How to Start Google

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Start Google

#531

Post by radicalriddler »

radicalriddler wrote: post #520

Wanting to read PG articles while working was one of the reasons I started up a project called WebToSpeech[0]. It's not a startup, it's more just a project I created so I could listen to articles while working. I thought about making it a startup, hence the dicky landing page, but didn't have time. It's not open to sign ups or anything (blocked in Supabase), so this isn't really trying to be a marketing exercise, the…

Funnily enough, the fact that PG's website is archaic actually pushed me to parse a lot of legacy tags that I'd never had to use in that way.

Re: How to Start Google

#533

Post by llm_trw »

nicoburns wrote: post #519
llm_trw wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today if I were to write a cgi script it would have to send json payloads to the JS front end because round trip latency on phones is between 100 to 500ms to hit a dns server. I was getting lower latency on dialup in 1996. On my desktop it's 2ms on a bad day. You can't just use HTML because browsers have mutated to fat clients for a X like protocol which is a mishmash of html, css, js, and whatever else someone's dec…

You absolutely can just use HTML. You're writing this on HN that just uses HTML and is one of the more responsive websites on mobile connections. You can't make as rich an interavtive experience as you can with JS, but you never could.

Just because a site is responsive doesn't mean it's HTML. The fact that a lot of people assume that you can't have a responsive site with JS is all the indictment of $current_year front end development you need.

These are some of the JS functions HN runs in the background, on top of the CSS:

    function $ (id) { return document.getElementById(id); }
    function byClass (el, cl) { return el ? el.getElementsByClassName(cl) : [] }
    function byTag (el, tg) { return el ? el.getElementsByTagName(tg) : [] }
    function allof (cl) { return byClass(document, cl) }
    ...

Re: How to Start Google

#534

Post by ojbyrne »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #462
rguzman wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it really depends on what you mean by rich: the surest path to end up with $2-5M over ~10 years is job at ~FAANG, do it well to get promoted, and manage your savings/investments well. that path is very unlikely to get you to $10-100M in the same 10 years, and starting a startup seems to be one of the best ways to do that.

Senior engineer (E5) is enough to get you $2-5M over 10 years. That's terminal cog level.

According to levels.fyi, E5 at Google gets you $385k TC annually. If you save a third of that (which is not easy) for 10 years you get to approximately $1.3 million. Maybe your investments get you above $2 million, but it would really depend on what decade that was. If you had the Great Recession in the middle of that, not so great.

If you think it is easy to save more than a third of your income, remember you’ll have a federal marginal tax rate of 35% or higher, will probably have to work onsite in a HCOL state, and unless you’re lucky enough to live in WA, a high state income tax. Yes you can shield some of your income via 401ks and Roths, but for the former you’re going to get taxed on withdrawal, and for the latter you get penalized if you touch it before you’re 59.5.

Now if you’re dual cogs with no kids, maybe. If you do have kids, you’re not retiring until long after ten years.

Re: How to Start Google

#536

Post by int_19h »

duggan wrote: post #237
duggan wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They are also much more prone to making risky decisions at that age, though, which is why that is the default.

Re: How to Start Google

#537

Post by Karrot_Kream »

int_19h wrote: post #530
paulddraper wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting rich and making the world better are not incompatible, or even unaligned in general. You get rich by offering a good or service that society desires.

No, that only makes you well-off. You get filthy rich by capturing as much of the market as possible by whatever means necessary and killing off competition - including user lock-in, artificial bundling, using successful past products to subsidize non-profitable new ones just to screw competitors etc.

Now this is going to be a fruitful conversation.

Re: How to Start Google

#538

Post by anigbrowl »

lupire wrote: post #377
93po wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The overwhelming influential factor of people who start successful businesses is that they have a tremendous amount of resources relative to the average person. I would guess that easily over half of all successful medium to large size businesses started with someone who had a big leg-up.

That's what he said. "Resourcefulness". Money is a resource as much as brainpower or grit or creativity.

'Resourcefulness' generally means the personal quality of being good at problem-solving, improvisation, or whatever in situations where you don't have resources. I've never heard it associated with someone who was well supplied with external resources.

Re: How to Start Google

#539

Post by ehnto »

emseetech wrote: post #437
codethatwerks wrote: post #416

What is the parallel advice for a 40 year old? I guess the programming and tinkering stuff still applies. But university cannot be redone. Sure I can study but I wont have any connection to most young people. I’ll be the old guy. And this assumes I can afford the loss of income. I assume a lot of start ups are started by older people too. I think for older people an advantage is to solve older people problems. Like h…

Less startup, more starting a business. The older I get the less I want to build a startup and more I want to start a business. Something that takes a little bit of capital, lots of hard work, gets some customers and provides goods or services, without venture capital firms and 100x returns and everything that comes with that, just a standard business. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI1SLHEC98I

You have a much better idea of what demand is tangible and grounded, which means you are in a great position to start a bootstrapped small business. Some people have been calling them boring businesses which is actually pretty exciting to me, since they are tangible machines you can put work into.

All my attempts at starting a SaaS when I was younger were basically me building a cool thing and then yelling into the wind. I am looking for a more concrete market for my next venture, and it doesn't have to be cool or cutting edge.

Re: How to Start Google

#540

Post by kaptainscarlet »

dools wrote: post #499

YMMV The happiest entrepreneurs I know got advanced degrees, had a solid career, developed plenty of contacts, then launched something in their 30s or 40s with substantially less risk than taking a punt on knowing what problems were worth solving while at University, or taking a punt on finding the right person to start a company with while at University, or taking a punt on having the wide range of skills required t…

You really nailed the last part. The luck part is the funniest. It's a gamble with very low odds that pays out after a couple of years if not decades.
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