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How to Start Google

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Start Google

#661

Post by Tabular-Iceberg »

suyash wrote: post #18

Ok, so I am having a hard time buying the idea that just make a fun project if you want to create a something like 'Google'. Startup 101 teaches us that you need to solve a painful problem that lot of people have, that is the best way to create 'Google', so isn't the advise contradictory?

Trying to solve people’s painful problems is an exercise in futility unless you’re already very good at solving problems. And you don’t get good at solving problems by sitting and twiddling your thumbs until a sufficiently worthy problem drops into your lap.

Re: How to Start Google

#662

Post by swah »

epolanski wrote: post #587
GeneralMayhem wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true if you require the same amount of income to maintain your lifestyle, but if you've been working in tech for 20 years, you have savings. I'm not in my 40s yet, but it's much more viable for me to take a risk now than it was when I was just starting out because I can afford to fail for a couple years without, you know, becoming homeless.

This so much. I'm 36 and I can afford to not work for many years with my savings. It's definitely easier now for me.

I wish we had an online space for talking to people with these concerns. Its much different for a single guy - he can make his 100k savings last years, specially if allowed to go back living with family.

Re: How to Start Google

#663

Post by halienm »

xhrpost wrote: post #443
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…

https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-succes...

H

Re: How to Start Google

#664

Post by necovek »

mettamage wrote: post #619
freediver wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a way, it became a pivot from "organize the world's information" to "organize the world's ads".

Ads pay. Anything that gets eyeballs will be paid for by ad placement. I think that's the "dirty" (open) "secret". Many industries are paid for by ads, not just tech companies. Though, tech companies have taken a huge chunk out of the entertainment industry as YouTubers, Instagrammers and TikTokkers (etc.) are now creating that entertaining content for the tech companies. All in an effort to capture eye balls. And Ha…

I never disputed that (I think I actually said "ads are money" ;).

Google story is peculiar because their founders started with "ads are evil" mantra. If it wasn't for that (and support for free software communities), us geeks would not have recommended Google to everyone and their dog over Altavista, Yahoo or whatever else was there at the time. We certainly would not have gotten our non-techy pops and grandmas to use the Google of today.

At some point, I was proud to wear a Google shirt I got from them during the early days.

Re: How to Start Google

#665

Post by necovek »

ArunRaja wrote: post #573
necovek wrote: post #541

I don't see any mention of being ready to completely pivot from your original, lofty mission ("best search with no ads") to exactly the opposite ("ads are money"). Google was a successful, unsustainable search engine before it was a successful business. Facebook was a successful social network waay before it was a successful business. Reddit was... You can see where I am going with this.

But topic is "how to start your own Google" not "how to run your own Google". Still pivoting for monetisation is important.

"Fool your users while you smother the competition with good tech" is an important part to Google's success: as PaulG mentions, Google is a good example because everyone knows about them.

People partially flocked to them (me included) because of their public stance on ads, and then they played me.

Without claiming things they did the opposite from, one can't help but wonder if they would have ever succeeded? And would that have made them a story to tell at all?

Re: How to Start Google

#666

Post by dennis_jeeves2 »

rgmerk wrote: post #544
codelord wrote: post #445

How to start Google? You can't. That holds for 99.999999% of the people. The rest 0.000001% aren't wasting their time reading Paul Graham's essays.

You're overestimating the importance of talent and underestimating the importance of luck. Not saying Larry Page and Sergey page aren't talented - clearly they were/are very talented people. But they were also extraordinarily lucky. To take another example, if Gary Kildall had been a slightly more ruthless businessman and IBM had had a little more foresight, Bill Gates would not be a billionaire.

Agreed, BG actually come across as fellow less smarter than several people I know, he does not have profound insights, and keeps repeating trite stuff.

Re: How to Start Google

#667

Post by dennis_jeeves2 »

etothepii wrote: post #382
suyash wrote: post #18

Ok, so I am having a hard time buying the idea that just make a fun project if you want to create a something like 'Google'. Startup 101 teaches us that you need to solve a painful problem that lot of people have, that is the best way to create 'Google', so isn't the advise contradictory?

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…

>they can live on ramen and work 16 hours a day.

And the fact that most people don't see a problem with a statement like this a _big_ problem.

Re: How to Start Google

#668

Post by wepple »

anigbrowl wrote: post #529
zerr wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the UX was the main reason people flocked to Google - an empty white page with a single search text entry and a button.

No, that was a gimmick, it actually turned most people off the first time they saw it, along with the name and the clown color letters. It was the quality of the search results using pagerank being way ahead of the best curated alternatives. Then the quirky UX suddenly became a great brand for a product that Just Worked. For their first 5-10 years they hardly put a foot wrong, everything they did was something nobody…

IIRC a copyright notice was added to the bottom of the site, because in early user testing, people thought the page was still loading because it was so barren

Re: How to Start Google

#669

Post by wepple »

suyash wrote: post #18

Ok, so I am having a hard time buying the idea that just make a fun project if you want to create a something like 'Google'. Startup 101 teaches us that you need to solve a painful problem that lot of people have, that is the best way to create 'Google', so isn't the advise contradictory?

He never uses “fun”

He says you have to be interested in it, it should excite you, and it should be your own project.

That’s absolutely not at odds with solving a problem. In fact, there’s a good chance that people are interested in solving a problem, likely one that is painful to you.

Re: How to Start Google

#670

Post by joshuahutt »

bombcar wrote: post #61
joshuahutt wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are very different definitions of "rich." Take the old comparison between Gates and Jordan. "If Jordan saves 100% of his income for the next 450 years, he'll still have less than Bill Gates has today." You can become wealthy and comfortable working for a salary. But, the canonical way to get "FU money" is to win the lottery.

It's all about managing yourself and expectations. Can a janitor save enough money to rival Gates? No. Not even close. But the same janitor could save enough money to have "FU money" later in life, and only continue working as a janitor if he chose to do so.

I would love to do the math on this.

The average Janitor I salary in the United States is $34,623 as of February 26, 2024.

Average home price in the United States: $417,700.

Monthly payment for 30-year mortgage is $2,950.

Monthly gross pay is $34,623 / 12 = $2885.25...

Hm...it's literally not doable.

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