Like having a child, running a startup is the sort of experience that's hard to imagine unless you've done it yourself. Paul Graham More Quotes by Paul Graham More Quotes From Paul Graham An ideal world is left as an exercise to the reader. Paul Graham It can be interesting to study ancient philosophy, but more as a kind of accident report than to teach you anything useful. Paul Graham The @NYSenate is trying to quietly rush through a bill banning Airbnb. If you'd like the decision to be more democratic, tell them. Paul Graham business When Facebook first started, and it was just a social directory for undergrads at Harvard, it would have seemed like such a bad startup idea, like some student side project. Paul Graham studentsomebadlike Startups often have to do dubious things. Paul Graham startupsoftenthingsdubious It's hard to say exactly what it is about face-to-face contact that makes deals happen, but whatever it is, it hasn't yet been duplicated by technology. Paul Graham whateversayhardtechnology I suppose I should learn Lisp, but it seems so foreign. Paul Graham foreignlearnshouldseems A programming language is for thinking about programs, not for expressing programs you've already thought of. It should be a pencil, not a pen. Paul Graham penyoulanguagethinking Dressing up is inevitably a substitute for good ideas. It is no coincidence that technically inept business types are known as 'suits'. Paul Graham goodsuitsbusinessideas Everyone by now presumably knows about the danger of premature optimization. I think we should be just as worried about premature design - designing too early what a program should do. Paul Graham everyonejustthinkdesign For the most ambitious young people, the corporate ladder is obsolete. Paul Graham young-peopleladderyoungpeople Small-business customers are very conservative and very cheap. We don't have to explain ourselves for the most part. Paul Graham cheapexplainveryconservative We don't have to go that far to sell our beer because our immediate accounts sell so much. Places that sold 10 cases before, now they're selling 30. Paul Graham placesnowgobeer In the startup world, 'not working' is normal. Paul Graham startupworkingnormalworld If you imagine someone with 100 percent determination and 100 percent intelligence, you can discard a lot of intelligence before they stop succeeding. But if you start discarding determination, you very quickly get an ineffectual and perpetual grad student. Paul Graham startyouintelligencedetermination If you really understand something, you can say it in the fewest words, instead of thrashing about. Paul Graham wordssayunderstandyou There are plenty of smart people who get nowhere. Paul Graham whosmart-peoplesmartpeople Some people just get what they want in the world. Paul Graham some-peoplewantpeopleworld Empirically the way you get a product visionary as CEO is for him to found the company and not get fired. Paul Graham productyoucompanyway What I tell founders is not to sweat the business model too much at first. The most important task at first is to build something people want. If you don't do that, it won't matter how clever your business model is. Paul Graham youbusinessmatterpeople
