Lecture 3 - Before the Startup (Paul Graham)

less than 1m read

·Nov 5, 2024

That short. Like, long introductions are no good. Sam knows. Alright, ready, everybody? I'm not gonna ask if the mic is working like in every talk so far. I'll just assume it's working.

No!

No, fuck!

All right, well make it work somebody.

It works, it works

All right, this is like some kinda class tradition. All right, all right. I wrote out my talk and afterwards in a couple days I will like turn it from a talk into an essay and put it online. So, you don't have to take notes, just, just listen.

All right. So, one of the advantages of having kids is that when you have to give advice to people, you can ask yourself, what would I tell my own kids? And actually, you find this really focuses you. So, even though my kids are little. My two-year-old today, when I asked what he was gonna be after two? He said a bat. The correct answer was three. But a bat is so much more interesting.

So even though my kids are little, I already know what I would tell them about startups if they were in college. And so that is what I am gonna tell you. So, you're literally getting what I would give my own kids, since most of you are young enough to be my own kids.

All right. So, startups are very counterintuitive. And I'm not sure exactly why, it could be simply

How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years

Natural rights, social contract, democracy, republicanism and limited government

View All

Overview of the Roman Empire | World History | Khan Academy

When you hear of Ancient Rome or the Roman Empire, the Roman Republic, immediately images of the Roman legions come to mind. These conquering armies conquered much of the Mediterranean. You might have images of the Roman Senate; names like Julius Caesar a…

2017 AP Calculus AB/BC 4a | AP Calculus AB solved exams | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy

We are now going to cover the famous, or perhaps infamous, potato problem from the 2017 AP Calculus exam. At time ( T ) equals zero, a boiled potato is taken from a pot on a stove and left to cool in a kitchen. The internal temperature of the potato is 91…

Revolutions 101 | National Geographic

[Narrator] Politics are a powerful and dynamic human creation, a truth most evident in revolutions around the world. A revolution, in a political sense, is a sudden and seismic shift from one form of government to another. While revolutions come in many…

Short, medium and long term financial goals | Financial goals | Financial literacy | Khan Academy

So it’s very likely that you have different financial goals over different amounts of time. For example, you are likely, or maybe you should have, long-term financial goals. Long-term financial goals are like: I want to make sure I have enough money for r…

'Big Short' Investor Reveals His Biggest Bet for 2024.

I’m always a little bit hesitant to try to ask you for Big Picture top down analysis, ‘cause a lot of times you don’t really want to go there. I actually have an opinion on this one. Good! If you don’t know that man, his name is Steve Eisan. He’s the seni…

Why I have an airplane fuselage in my showroom window!

This is a Airbus 319, Airbus 320 actual cross-section of the aircraft. I didn’t really build this thing in here and put it in the front window really to sell air buses or Boeings. The real reason was a marketing gimmick to catch the people’s eyes in the w…

Lecture 3 - Before the Startup (Paul Graham)

More Articles