"Keep discouraging venture debt." — email from a founder - Paul Graham

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.

One of the best presents you can get for a cook is a new spice they didn't know about. You're not just buying them the spice, but the knowledge that it exists, and what it's like.

There are now so many "accelerators" that I get spam from people making products for them. Very weird. I wrote all YC's original software, so every spam is either offering something I wrote, or something I didn't think was worth writing.