Paul Graham: What does it mean to do things that don't scale?

less than 1m read

·Nov 3, 2024

Processing might take a few minutes. Refresh later.

What doing things that don't scale means specifically is doing things in a sort of handmade, artisanal, painstaking way that you feel like, yeah, it would be great if you could do things that way forever. But you, in the back of your mind, think to yourself, well, there's no way we can keep doing this and become giant.

What doing things that don't scale means is do those things early on anyway, because you know if you don't do them, you'll never be big. You've got nothing to lose, and also you learn a lot from it. You learn a lot.

So, I discovered a lot of these things that we teach startups at Y Combinator, or you teach startups at Y Combinator. I'm retired; I don't know if you know that. But a lot of the things you guys teach startups are things that I hit myself and didn't realize that they were actually common startup lessons.

One of them is doing things very manually for your early customers. Like, it's so important to get early customers that if you have to do a ton of manual stuff, that's okay. You'll learn a lot from it.

Senate filibusters and cloture

The Worth of Water | National Geographic

View All

What kind of levers does the Speaker have? | US Government and Civics | Khan Academy

What kind of levers does the Speaker have in relation to the other House representatives? The Speaker has all kinds of levers, both formal and informal. In fact, a lot of them are informal. The Speaker can name a lot of people to the committees, particul…

Set an Aspirational Hourly Rate

So we covered the skills that you need to get rich: specific knowledge, accountability, leverage, judgment, and lifelong learning. Let’s talk a little bit about the importance of working hard and valuing your time. No one is going to value you more than …

In the Same Boat | Port Protection

Yeah, let’s put the bow right up against her. Port protection main state Timothy Curly leech and newest resident Amanda Ma are getting Curly’s vessel, the little Pelican, ready to go hbit fishing. “My boat is one of the most important things that I own. …

Ray Dalio & Bill Belichick on Learning from Failure

So another thing about us we were talking about is uh uh failure. Like I had my big failure in 1982. Like in my case, I um made a terrible call in the markets, and whatever it is, and I went broke. I uh lost money, and I had to borrow $4,000 from my dad t…

What's Driving Tigers Toward Extinction? | National Geographic

[Music] The tiger, the largest of the big cats, is also the most endangered. The population of wild tigers has declined more than 95% in the past century. What’s driving tigers toward extinction, and can we save them? Fewer than 4,000 tigers remain in th…

New Zealand's Stunning Landscapes | National Geographic

First thing you’re struck by is the landscape, like it’s absolutely stunning the entire way. The landscape changes so quickly from one amazing vista to the next. As a photographer, like you can’t really ask for anything else. There’s a lot of inspiring pl…

Paul Graham: What does it mean to do things that don't scale?

More Articles