Paul Graham Quotes

One of the more subtle pitfalls of starting a startup when you're too young is that you can't hire well, because you haven't had enough experience to be a good judge of people. You can judge technical ability but not character, so you end up hiring smart jerks.

I think a society in which people can do and say what they want will also tend to be one in which the most efficient solutions win, rather than those sponsored by the most influential people.

and for the same reason, as a bunch of guys who get together to go hunting. They don’t actually hate you. They just need something to chase.

The customer is always right, but different customers are right about different things; the least sophisticated users show you what you need to simplify and clarify, and the most sophisticated tell you what features you need to add.

One of Y Combinator's most important traditions is conciseness. There is so much vague blather in business. It wastes people's time and, worse still, is a sign of unclear thinking.

The test of character is how you treat the powerless.

It's a rough combination when people are simultaneously overreaching and uninformed. They want the best of everything, but they don't know what the best is, so their demands are simultaneously strident and random, like a set of vectors with large magnitudes and random directions.

When you tread water, you lift yourself up by pushing water down. Likewise, in any social hierarchy, people unsure of their own position will try to emphasize it by maltreating those they think rank below. I've read that this is why poor whites in the United States are the group most hostile to blacks.

Some of the most successful founders start out tentative and lukewarm. Especially the young ones, who are often far from certain they want to run a startup. As they should be, because it's not for everyone, and they don't know yet what they like.

if the hacker is a creator, we have to take inspiration into account.

When writing, don't mention people who've criticized you. It doesn't age well. If you're right, no one will have heard of them in the future, and the reference to them will be a distraction. And if you're wrong no one will read your writing in the future, so it won't matter.

But here there is another layer that tends to obscure the underlying reality. In a company, the work you do is averaged together with a lot of other people’s.

Focus, as Steve Jobs said, is about saying no.

The only dangerous competitors are focused ones.

Ergo there are things that even the most dangerous competitors say no to, and it would be worth thinking explicitly about what those are.

A math problem with a built-in dad joke: if a circular cake a foot in diameter is shared equally between 36 people, how big a slice does each one get?

Programmers tend to be divided into tribes by the languages they use. More even than by the kinds of programs they write.