Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Think for Yourself

paulgraham.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

841–850 of 874 posts

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#841

Post by cutemonster »

anovikov wrote: post #804
rdslw wrote: post #794

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is even worse. This article is (yet another) attemp to romanticize and put to pedestal 'startup with a novel idea'. It is worth to mention that trying to trick/persuade/convince (choose freely) thousands (literaly) of people to go this path, benefits tremendously ycombinator - not the persuaded founders. Because for YC if only few are (hugely) successfull they win. Not so for the other thousands. The fact that few…

But what is the problem for those for who it doesn't work? How much do they get to lose? If they don't get accepted to the YC, they lose very little and it's just a short detour in their lives, certainly not the most boring or frustrating one, something to remember. If they get accepted to the YC, they clearly win vs the average folk because they get to know so many influential people and see how the world-class stuf…

> detour in their lives, certainly not the most boring or frustrating one, something to remember

Yes, and something one could regret for a lifetime if one never tried, a dream that one never gave the chance

But of course it depends

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#842

Post by yellowapple »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #695
yellowapple wrote: post #642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At the basic level, a farmer who sows a field and harvests a crop is making the world one harvest richer, and no one poorer. Not quite true; the farmer using that land to grow crops is externalizing an opportunity cost onto those who might use that land for something else, e.g. for the carpenter's workshop or the mechanic's garage. Same with the water consumed by those crops. With these natural and finite resources…

> Same with the water consumed by those crops. Every drop of water on Earth has been "consumed" many, many times over. It doesn't just get used once and then disappear. There may be localized shortages of water (e.g., in California), but that doesn't mean that the Earth's water overall gets "used up", in any meaningful sense.

That ain't what I'm saying. Every inch of land on Earth has been "reused" many times over, too. That doesn't change the fact that there's a finite amount of it, and the possession of any quantity of it is at the expense of everyone else needing it. Same goes for water; yes, the water itself doesn't magically disappear, but of the 1,386,000,000 cubic kilometers of water on this planet, if you're storing a trillion of those km³ for yourself in water tanks, that's a lot less that other people can use.

That is: as defined above, consumption ≠ destruction, but rather consumption = possession.

(This ain't even mentioning the distinction between actual potable water v. water contaminated with salt or outright toxins - and the resulting labor and energy costs of converting the latter back into the former. It also ain't even mentioning the labor and energy costs of moving water from where it's abundant to where it's scarce.)

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#843

Post by RickHull »

jacques_chester wrote: post #502
RickHull wrote: post #214

For those railing against this essay, who feel that PG is fluffing himself up and patting himself on the back like a nerdy middleschooler -- you've missed the big point, badly. PG writes unapologetically, directly, and simply, and this may pattern match to a naive middleschooler, but you are letting your base instincts cover up the fact that PG is wise, has earned his stripes, and is sharing his wisdom, unapologetica…

> For those railing against this essay, who feel that PG is fluffing himself up and patting himself on the back like a nerdy middleschooler -- you've missed the big point, badly. PG writes unapologetically, directly, and simply, and this may pattern match to a naive middleschooler, but you are letting your base instincts cover up the fact that PG is wise, has earned his stripes, and is sharing his wisdom, unapologeti…

Which section of the essay reads "only I and my buddies should run Athens"?

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#844

Post by kelvin0 »

We all have the capacity to think for ourselves, once we start trusting our 'instinct/little voice/intuition' and not doubting ourselves into oblivion. We need to unlearn our bad habits, not necessarily search for some sacred pearl of wisdom in Nirvana somewhere...

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#845

Post by yawaramin »

username90 wrote: post #829
webdev93 wrote: post #810

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it not hard to get into Google? Sounds more like survivorship bias.

I'm really good at math so I knew that learning the algorithmic thinking wouldn't be hard. All I needed to do was learn to program and learn algorithms. For people with a different skillset it wouldn't be as easy, but reading about it online made me realize that it wouldn't be hard for me. I mean, when you read about interviews and the problems people struggle with you get a sense of what it is. When I read those I t…

What you are describing is exactly survivorship bias.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#846

Post by mtrower »

davidivadavid wrote: post #763
nicholast wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over time there has been a shift in theme from essays on startups to essays on parenting. I believe this example strongly falls in the latter.

That's my sentiment as well. I read it, then started skimming, thinking: was this written for 8 year old boys?

Is that because you believe the contents obvious to all, or because the explanations and presentation of concepts would not impact those who might stand to benefit?

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#847

Post by fakedang »

rdslw wrote: post #794
ryeguy_24 wrote: post #615

Am I the only one is getting pretty bored of "formula for success" content? This essay and other's like it, without evidence or data, implies that some of us know the formula for success. I get it, the things that change convention are unconventional at first. This is the definition of unconventional. I agree with the general vector of his essay but this is just boring to me. Here is my formula for success (in case a…

It is even worse. This article is (yet another) attemp to romanticize and put to pedestal 'startup with a novel idea'. It is worth to mention that trying to trick/persuade/convince (choose freely) thousands (literaly) of people to go this path, benefits tremendously ycombinator - not the persuaded founders. Because for YC if only few are (hugely) successfull they win. Not so for the other thousands. The fact that few…

At this point, honestly the only YC startup they seem to be romanticizing is Airbnb. I've only heard of a few casual mentions (from Michael Siebel I think) of Brex or Segment or any of the other startups.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#849

Post by tdevito »

fakedang wrote: post #847
rdslw wrote: post #794

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is even worse. This article is (yet another) attemp to romanticize and put to pedestal 'startup with a novel idea'. It is worth to mention that trying to trick/persuade/convince (choose freely) thousands (literaly) of people to go this path, benefits tremendously ycombinator - not the persuaded founders. Because for YC if only few are (hugely) successfull they win. Not so for the other thousands. The fact that few…

At this point, honestly the only YC startup they seem to be romanticizing is Airbnb. I've only heard of a few casual mentions (from Michael Siebel I think) of Brex or Segment or any of the other startups.

It does appear that YC is no longer relevant the way they were 10 years ago.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#850

Post by dTal »

I feel a certain sense of irony from the title.

It's rather reminiscent of the scene from Life of Brian - "You're all individuals!" "We're all individuals!"

Post reply on HN