“A city speaks to you mostly by accident—in things you see through windows, in conversations you overhear.”
http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html
Tag Archives: Paul Graham
When you choose technology you have to…
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“When you choose technology, you have to ignore what other people are doing, and consider only what will work the best.”
“…server-based applications magnify the effect of rapid development, because you can release software the minute it’s done.”
“In business, there is nothing more valuable than a technical advantage your competitors don’t understand. In business, as in war, surprise is worth as much as force.”
“Ordinarily technology changes fast. But programming languages are different: programming languages are not just technology, but what programmers think in. They’re half technology and half religion.[6] And so the median language, meaning whatever language the median programmer uses, moves as slow as an iceberg.”
“If you ever do find yourself working for a startup, here’s a handy tip for evaluating competitors. Read their job listings. Everything else on their site may be stock photos or the prose equivalent, but the job listings have to be specific about what they want, or they’ll get the wrong candidates.”
http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html
I suspect the biggest source of moral…
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“I suspect the biggest source of moral taboos will turn out to be power struggles in which one side only barely has the upper hand. That’s where you’ll find a group powerful enough to enforce taboos, but weak enough to need them.”
“Great work tends to grow out of ideas that others have overlooked, and no idea is so overlooked as one that’s unthinkable.”
“Whatever the reason, there seems a clear correlation between intelligence and willingness to consider shocking ideas. This isn’t just because smart people actively work to find holes in conventional thinking. I think conventions also have less hold over them to start with. You can see that in the way they dress.”
“The most important thing is to be able to think what you want, not to say what you want. ”
“When people are bad at math, they know it, because they get the wrong answers on tests. But when people are bad at open-mindedness they don’t know it. In fact they tend to think the opposite.”
“Instead of being part of the mob, stand as far away from it as you can and watch what it’s doing. And pay especially close attention whenever an idea is being suppressed. ”
“How can you see the wave, when you’re the water? Always be questioning. That’s the only defence. What can’t you say? And why?”
http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html