Paul Graham Keynote
Posted by Kevin Mon, 26 Jun 2006 08:05:00 GMT
- “The Power of the Marginal”
- It’s cool if people have never heard of your programming language.
- Many of the best companies started in garages.
- Don’t major in what you like unless the thing you like happens to have a great teacher (and business classes typically don’t have good teachers, because most good businesspeople are too busy being good businesspeople to teach).
- Big companies make bad people filter up to the top, since thoughtful people wouldn’t manage to play the politics as much as is necessary.
- Outsiders have a big advantage in the extent to which they can take risks; if they fail, who cares.
- Stupid ideas don’t make you stupid. Not risking enough to have stupid ideas probably means you’re not taking enough risks.
- Eminent people just don’t have enough time to come up with earth-shattering ideas.
- One way to make sure things are done right is to not delegate. Do everything yourself.
- Since outsiders haven’t specialized and become known for one thing, they have the opportunity to work on a wider variety of things.
- Eminent people refer to things they’re scared of as “not ready yet.” If someone refers to a programming language as “not ready yet,” jump on it.
- Small projects have the potential to be perfect. They can have a personality. They can be done tonight!
- Most people care more about the opinions of the ten people they care about most more than the rest put together.
- If you end up being eminent, you may find that the best part is having an audience. (At this point he glances at the audience and smirks).
- Since the marginal do have so much potential, people will try to dismiss you before you can get your act together: You’re on the right track if people say you’re 1. “Unqualified” or 2. “Inappropriate.” These are just other ways of saying, “we don’t like your type around here.” So if they say 1 or 2, keep rolling and they’re busted.
I definitely don’t like this guy less after having heard him speak. Check him out – his essays are all chilling.
