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How to Start Google

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Start Google

#71

Post by nkjnlknlk »

memset wrote: post #55

I am baffled by the criticisms of this essay. I can't identify any statements here which are false. We're on hacker news, which is a site about programming and startups and capitalism. There theoretically couldn't be a better audience. I suppose the strongest criticism would be that pg's advice outlines necessary conditions to start the next Google but are not sufficient. Yes, the stuff you "make" needs to feel like…

It's misleading and poor advice to children. You see this issue a lot in certain immigrant communities where the equivalent "talk" might be: "How to become a Doctor [and be rich and successful]". Becoming a doctor is orders of magnitudes more in an individual's control but even _then_ we observe the plethora of issues that occur.

Re: How to Start Google

#72

Post by lnxg33k1 »

verelo wrote: post #38
Scubabear68 wrote: post #23

This essay glosses over the fact that most startups die a horrible death and earn little to no money for the founders. Somewhere in this essay it needs to say “99% of you who try this will fail”.

if i had a 1 in 100 shot of becoming google I'd just do it 100 times. I'm pretty sure its more like 99.99999%

I always wondered why people would ask to analyse the chances of a coinflip during logical interviews, according to you, after 2 flips you have both result happening? Its not like that, if you have 1 in 100 chances of making it, each time you re try you have a 1 in 100 chances

Re: How to Start Google

#73

Post by scarface_74 »

noufalibrahim wrote: post #11
shafyy wrote: post #4

> It's more exciting to work on your own project than someone else's. And you can also get a lot richer. In fact, this is the standard way to get really rich. 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. People like Paul Graham telling 14-year-olds that basically getting rich is the most important thing is one o…

I think you're being overly harsh. 14 year old need good role models (preferably from their trusted social circles). These people should, ideally before the child turns 14, give him or her a strong moral framework to judge advice that they might come across. On the topic of being rich (which can be a good goal if pursued along with a strong moral compass), it's much better to take advice from a Paul Graham rather fro…

So in that case he might as well show lottery winners as good role models.

He could tell the truth instead about how most startups fail miserably and the founders see nothing.

Not to mention that the only way this works is if you have parents as a financial back stop.

Re: How to Start Google

#74

Post by beedeebeedee »

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.

> 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.

That is exceedingly doubtful

Re: How to Start Google

#75

Post by bombcar »

jamil7 wrote: post #50
verelo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if i had a 1 in 100 shot of becoming google I'd just do it 100 times. I'm pretty sure its more like 99.99999%

That’s… not how that works.

Even if you can "try to be Google" once a year you'll still be over 80 on average when you hit ...

Re: How to Start Google

#76

Post by duggan »

eddieroger wrote: post #52
Scubabear68 wrote: post #23

This essay glosses over the fact that most startups die a horrible death and earn little to no money for the founders. Somewhere in this essay it needs to say “99% of you who try this will fail”.

I was sad to search for the word "luck" and come up empty. You can do everything right and still fail. You can do everything wrong and win. Sometimes you're just in the right place at the right time, and that external factor is completely out of your control and can be the difference you need.

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?

Re: How to Start Google

#77

Post by codingdave »

confoundcofound wrote: post #35

It’s so deflating to see both YC & PG focus their content almost solely on the younger generations. As someone who came to tech later in their mid-30s, it’s not hard to feel like expired goods when the “thought leaders” of tech are unabashedly gunning for younger minds with little to no acknowledgement of those who may want to start ventures during later stages of life. The more I try to plug myself in, the more it s…

Don't be deflated - it is not a negative statement on you. For most people, going the startup route is bad advice. Older people know that and take much more care to set up safety nets for themselves before going into the VC world. I don't want to go so far to say that YC & PC are exploiting the naivety of youth... but they certainly know which demographics will embrace the risk vs. which will not, and they speak accordingly.

Re: How to Start Google

#78

Post by ToValueFunfetti »

JR1427 wrote: post #26
ToValueFunfetti wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said "more exciting" at the beginning of your quote. And if the 14-year-olds somehow don't already want to be rich, how is Paul Graham telling them how to do it going to teach them that it is the most important thing?

If people often give advice about how to do a certain thing, pretty soon you are going to think that the thing is important.

Many people seem to survive 7 hours of advice on how to write properly, solve math problems, and understand history and science for 175 days a year over 12 of their most impressionable years without thinking any of those things are important. That doesn't give me a lot of cause for alarm over a 15 minute Paul Graham talk

Re: How to Start Google

#79

Post by [deleted] »

Scubabear68 wrote: post #23

This essay glosses over the fact that most startups die a horrible death and earn little to no money for the founders. Somewhere in this essay it needs to say “99% of you who try this will fail”.

[deleted]

Re: How to Start Google

#80

Post by brigadier132 »

vehemenz wrote: post #6
CPLX wrote: post #3

He left out the part about starting your company at a unique point in history where a generational technology shift was taking place that also happens to be a time when antitrust laws had recently been enforced (making your main competitor wary) but were about to be completely ignored for the next 20 years, so you could exploit your initial market position and engage in anti-competitive behavior to grow huge.

Or the part where your parents are professors and provide the educational opportunities and financial freedom to take risks that 99% of people don't have. I don't mean that to even sound bitter or cynical, but it's just a fact if you look at most founders, even the ones that fail miserably.

> where your parents are professors

There is always an excuse. The parents are professors, or upper middle class dentists, or your mom does charity for United Way and managed to become the leader of the charitable organization and managed to meet some exec from IBM. Given how diverse these professions are and that they basically describe a slightly upper middle class family, im gonna guess their children account for more than 1%.

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