Favorite PG essay?
22 comments
Beating The Averages
http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html
That's the one that cured me of trying to evangelize Lisp. If the combination of pg's success and pg's essays wasn't going to win people over, nothing was.
http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html - What You'll Wish You'd Known
http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html my all time fav.
While I'd pick Hackers and Painters, my favorite few paragraphs come from "Why to not not start a startup."
http://paulgraham.com/notnot.html
I find the comparison of a job to serfdom to be unsettling. Of course, a modern day cubicle dweller isn't living the kind of life of a medieval serf, but that won't necessarily stop people in the future from looking back on the lives of most people in the early 21st century with pity, wondering how they could have lived with so little personal freedom.
It's not just the analogy, it's the optimism. One reason I'm so behind the new tech economy is that it's about more than business and money - this is about changing the rules. Even if you don't start a startup, or work for one, the way you work and live may be changed, much for the better, if startups prove that people who work freely and own their results dramatically outperform the serfdom of the cubicle dweller. I hope that we can prove that there's no hope in running a cubicle dwelling company - you will simply be thrashed and outperformed by more nimble startups.
http://paulgraham.com/notnot.html
I find the comparison of a job to serfdom to be unsettling. Of course, a modern day cubicle dweller isn't living the kind of life of a medieval serf, but that won't necessarily stop people in the future from looking back on the lives of most people in the early 21st century with pity, wondering how they could have lived with so little personal freedom.
It's not just the analogy, it's the optimism. One reason I'm so behind the new tech economy is that it's about more than business and money - this is about changing the rules. Even if you don't start a startup, or work for one, the way you work and live may be changed, much for the better, if startups prove that people who work freely and own their results dramatically outperform the serfdom of the cubicle dweller. I hope that we can prove that there's no hope in running a cubicle dwelling company - you will simply be thrashed and outperformed by more nimble startups.
Forced to choose one, I'd say What Business Can Learn From Open Source (http://paulgraham.com/opensource.html). I've felt that stuff for a long time but I was never able to articulate it like PG did. Now I just give people that essay and tell them "This will help explain where I'm coming from."
Wow... I somehow managed to skip this one. Great read.
I, however, cannot get rid of the feeling that in open source world there is always one or two "few" who get all the credit (money, fame) for work of many.
Working on something you love is a wonderful thing, but in a realm of all acitivtes required to build something, not everything is a subject of someone's love. In other words, someone will always have to get paid to clean the restrooms.
I, however, cannot get rid of the feeling that in open source world there is always one or two "few" who get all the credit (money, fame) for work of many.
Working on something you love is a wonderful thing, but in a realm of all acitivtes required to build something, not everything is a subject of someone's love. In other words, someone will always have to get paid to clean the restrooms.
ditto
Succinctness is power -- http://www.paulgraham.com/power.html -- probably the best article for a language designer. Not only succinctness is power, it turns out to be the most important quality of a good programming language. The rest is a matter of taste, I think.
Hackers and Painters
http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html
See also my view on this here: http://weblog.fortnow.com/2006/07/science-and-art-of-computa...
See also my view on this here: http://weblog.fortnow.com/2006/07/science-and-art-of-computa...
I don't think I would have survived high school if I hadn't read "Why Nerds Are Unpopular".
My favorite one is:
http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html
And this one really inspired me. http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.html
And this one really inspired me. http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.html
What You'll Wish You'd Known: http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html
Beating the Averages and The Python Paradox
"What you can't say" is definitely one that struck a chord. In fact, my paraphrasing the article online is the way I met my husband, so thanks Paul :)
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The Power of the Marginal
My fellow friends and I identify :)