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How to Start Google

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Start Google

#641

Post by gcr »

mkoubaa wrote: post #407
gcr wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a teen, I had a strong aversion for being talked down to, and was resistant to attempts to patronize even if they were well-intended and even if they benefited me. Paul's leaving a significant fraction of the intended audience on the table here IMO: teens who are resistant to being told what to do and how to do it. :)

That sounds like a disability to me

Well keep in mind that that's explicitly the audience pg's targeting with the article:

  > But you will avoid many of the annoying things
  > that come with a job, including a boss telling
  > you what to do.
I happen to think that a healthy resistance to authority and sensitivity to condescension is a long-lasting tradition of being a teenager, but to each their own. :)

Re: How to Start Google

#642

Post by neilv »

applied_heat wrote: post #494
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And Google obviously worked much better than the existing crawler-based search indexes and curated directories. Funny thing is I recall using Google from the very day I first saw it come across Slashdot -- probably late 1997 -- before they were incorporated even... but I also recall that at some point around 1999 I actually switched back to using AltaVista or something similar for a bit. Because I preferred the sea…

I recall once google came on the scene I ditched altavista and never looked back. I was a teen but my recollection was that Google included the relevant paragraph of text from the page shown in in the search results whereas altavista showed one line that was often indecipherable gobbledygook - perhaps the page title matched a keyword - and it made it so much easier to scroll through ten results and identify the one t…

I switched to using Google as soon as I saw it in the late '90s, because of much more relevant hits ranked at/near top.

Maybe AltaVista improved after that, which could explain how the parent commenter could go back to it.

Re: How to Start Google

#643

Post by happytiger »

kamaal wrote: post #632
happytiger wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, the older I get the more ambitious I get about what to build. A lot of the companies I created in my 20s and 30s I wouldn’t waste my time on in my 40s. I’m so the exact opposite it’s kinda funny. Go big or go home, it’s no fun to chew bones.

That Steve Jobs advice of saying no to a lot of things seems such a natural thing to do as you age. As years that remain shrink, you have to pick and choose the battles you want to fight.

That’s interesting. Aging hasn’t been limiting my thinking about time remaining. Maybe it should. It’s been pouring on the gas about enjoying the ride as much as possible instead. Worry less, lean in more, focus on defining a success that is yours in a way that’s deeply meaningful.

Re: How to Start Google

#644

Post by ninkendo »

eastbound wrote: post #391
neilv wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hopefully 2 Stanford CS PhD students hacking on their project would be funded by YC today :) Around the dawn of YC, IIRC, when PG did the "summer founders" or something like that, a group of 4 of us Lisp hackers applied as a team. No response. We were mostly in grad student-like lifestyle modes, and not tied down, were energetic, and already had various applicable experience. But I think PG was mostly looking for b…

I always wonder about the success rate of advice . Do we have any student from this talk of PG who succeeded later in life? Joined an ivy league school? Proceeded to create a startup? Had success with it? Don’t get me wrong. This folklore is extremely important, if not just to raise the grades of one student. But as a founder, when I give advice, out of inflated ego generally, I also have vertigo from the height of e…

> Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

(Excerpt from the “wear sunscreen” speech: http://plodplod.blogspot.com/2006/07/advice-like-youth-proba...)

Re: How to Start Google

#645

Post by alexsereno »

dekhn wrote: post #398
alexsereno wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know I remember hearing this way back in the early 2000s but forgot about it, Carl is pretty low key, no Wikipedia / etc

I chatted with him several times. One thing I've noticed is that Larry and Carl both have some behaviors that are consistent with ... inflexible thinking ... that I recognize in myself and have worked to correct. Anyway ,we chatted about his latest company, which I can't find now. The idea was this: industrial facilities often return really noisy signals on the electrical supply lines, and the electrical company has…

That’s a super thoughtful response, thanks. Also my armchair understanding is that HVDC electric is superior and our electrical grid needs the rework anyways haha

Re: How to Start Google

#646

Post by ascorbic »

batshit_beaver wrote: post #433
etothepii wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This advice is for 14/15 year olds. I think the advice would be different for 22-year-olds. It would be different still for 35-year-olds. 22-year-olds have a hard time selling to enterprises, 14-year-olds will find it impossible. Whereas if they build something cool that they and their friends love they will gain many of the skills that might be useful later on. PG has made the point many times that the superpower 22…

What's the super power of 35-year-olds? Arthritis?

Experience. Contacts. Money.

Re: How to Start Google

#647

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

"It really matters to do well in your classes, even the ones that are just memorization or blathering about literature, because you need to do well in your classes to get into a good university. And 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. It's also where the best employees are. When Larry and Sergey started Google, they began by just hiring all the smartest people they knew out of Stanford, and this was a real advantage for them."

Opinions may differ but to me this sounds really pathetic. "[B]lathering about literature." Maybe he is addressing a room full of social outcasts.

Yes, there is so much money that has flowed through Google, it's truly astounding, but nevertheless, beyond fortuitous circumstances, this has only persisted because of dissemination of online ads and anti-competitive conduct. Is there is any kid who is thinking, "My dream is to put ads on every screen and collect more data about peoples' lives that has ever before been collected. Settle all the lawsuits against us for violating peoples' privacy, pay off all the regulators, fire people by the thousands, let harassment run rampant amongst our managers, and destroy eveidence so the government cannot catch us breaking the law." All they see is the money and hype and, during ZIRP, lack of comparable alternatives in terms of opportunity and compensation.

Silicon Valley VC telling kids that learning how to program is more important than getting an education, advising them to go to university not for the education but to find "cofounders" and employees. Hard to rationalise how this would be healthy advice for anyone.

Re: How to Start Google

#648

Post by walteweiss »

autonomousErwin wrote: post #83
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.

That makes them sound a bit more predatory than the reality of it but I get what you mean. When you're younger, by definition, you've got more shots on goal, you don't have other responsibilities (mortgage, kids, partners etc.) so you can take more riskier decisions, and you more have to rely on first principle thinking instead of experience (because you don't have any). Saying that, I would like to see the advice fo…

As someone of a higher age, I would suggest that we don’t really need any advice.

I read all his essays long ago, when I was young, and it sounded persuading to me. I think it even influenced me here and there. Now, somewhat a decade or two later, I take it with a grain of salt, and don’t get it as it is. Some things are just quite manipulative. I can read them as someone’s point of view, but not as someone I would even listen to, not to say follow the advice. I know much better for myself and what’s around me.

E.g. a man like me would never go to a VC, it’s a waste of my time and energy, and I can easily earn all the money I need to run my idea till the production. Why would I want anyone like him, to give me money and help grow my idea infinitely? People like him are interested in Unicorns, that’s how he multiplies his money, that’s how the system works. People like me are interested in steady, reliable businesses that actually deliver.

Personally, I’m very disappointed with most of the unicorns I used before. They’re non-existent to me. Hence, I wouldn’t listen to people who follow the Unicorns. I think that’s why we don’t have any advice for a higher age.

Re: How to Start Google

#649

Post by TFYS »

paulddraper wrote: post #635
TFYS wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting people to pay for something isn't the same thing as making the world a better place. You'd need to figure out all the effects and costs of the service to know if you're doing good or bad. Tobacco companies sell things that a lot of people desire, but the effect on society is surely negative. Same could be true for social media and many other types of services, but we don't know because we're not really trying…

It's not the same and there are plenty of counterexamples, but it's aligned more often than not. People want to stay in touch with those they love. People want to have medicines to improve their stress. Etc.

I'm not so sure about that. How many of the services and products we consume today actually increase our quality of life instead of just giving a small dopamine boost that before you would've gotten from simpler things?

Re: How to Start Google

#650

Post by walteweiss »

benreesman wrote: post #555

I have mixed feelings about this, mostly because the stakes on giving people persuasive advice with an enviable track record in hand might be at its highest in a room full of 14/15-year olds. This is exactly the kind of thing that made me dramatically more ambitious and harder working when I started reading pg essays (pushing 20 years ago now), so I have a huge soft spot for the feeling/nostalgia that I got when I ju…

It’s a nice write-up, thank you. But I didn’t get the YouTube Premium thing in this context. Does it allow watching something that is hidden from non-premium plebs? I thought it’s a no-advertising thing, the premium, isn’t it?
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