Paul GrahamVerificeret konto

"You can make that a part of the tour of the house, how we made a hole in the ceiling with a Wii remote." — 9 yo hoping he's not in trouble

Something I explained to 13 yo: Recessions are like the times in traffic when you're at a standstill, even though the traffic is on average going 10 mph, and booms are the times when you're driving at 15 mph.

In places where individual performance is hard to measure, like government and big companies, people can get away with never admitting they're mistaken. But startup founders and investors have to do it in order to survive.

Generally this means you grow into your face. E.g. if your mouth turns down at the corners, you'll seem to be scowling, which will make people dislike you, which will make you scowl for real.

People's facial features can give them apparent facial expressions that they don't actually have, and they'll be treated accordingly. We see this most clearly in the case of animals. Dolphins aren't smiling, but seem to be, so we like them. But this happens with people too.

Thank God for that, because it means two of the best (if not the two best) novelists of the 20th century haven't been spoilt for you by being turned into work, and then clumsily mauled in class.

Asked myself which novelists have the highest ratio of quality to likelihood that you'll be assigned to read them in an English class. P. G. Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler.

The boys' school awards an attainment prize each term. Most of the younger kids think it's the "entertainment prize." It must just seem yet another of the arbitrary things adults do.

Lucas would have made more money if he'd given Jobs 99% of the company for free.https://twitter.com/JonErlichman/status/1489207739716968449 …

Serious question: Is it common for people to consider themselves incels, or are there just a tiny number who do, but the idea spread widely through memes?

Every idea sufficiently close to YC ends up as a YC clone. There's a sort of gravity well there. People in it are often in denial about this at first, but I know where they're going to end up.

In the past, such decisions often got made for people by external constraints. They had to do x for the money, or because they couldn't find a y teacher. As the world gets richer and more connected, such constraints decrease. So more people will have to decide for themselves.

But the result is that people who find themselves having to choose between several very different kinds of work feel that their life is uniquely messed up. Why can't they just make up their mind? Whereas in fact this "problem" is a common and natural one.