when customers tell you why they won't buy your product, that you should listen to. They can occasionally be mistaken, but not as often, and there is… - Paul Graham

If you want to start a startup and don't know what to build, one way to get ideas is to ask if there's something you could create that would help your peers to make money. Any startup that helps people make money tends to (a) be popular and (b) make money itself.

Few smart kids can spare the attention that popularity requires. Unless they also happen to be good-looking, natural athletes, or siblings of popular kids, they’ll tend to become nerds.

Even though nerds are socially awkward, its actually easier to hang out with them than with smooth people, because standards are lower. You don't worry that you might be making social errors; all of you always are; so it stops mattering.