

Powerful Thoughts from Paul Graham (Notes from Hackers and Painters) - InfinityX0
http://www.rosshudgens.com/thoughts-from-paul-graham/

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tamarindo
Anyone else find the opening image reminiscent of Da Vinci's Last Supper?

[http://media.photobucket.com/image/last%20supper/thecathoder...](http://media.photobucket.com/image/last%20supper/thecathoderaychoob/Blog%2520Pics/last_supper_davinci.jpg)

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philelly
it's ironic that a blog post like this would use an image that appears to be
poking fun at the fervor with which people record and analyze paul graham's
teachings

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pg
_Inc_ isn't that sort of magazine.

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Groxx
_75\. The pointy-haired boss miraculous combines two qualities that are common
by themselves, but rarely seen together: (a) he knows nothing whatsoever about
technology, and (b) he has very strong opinions about it._

Not in my experience. In general, people who know the least are the most
vocal.

I'm about 90% in agreement with the thoughts as a whole. There are some
statements I find patently false / seen through rose-tinted glasses, like 48:

 _I think there are three reasons we treat making money as different: the
misleading model of wealth we learn as children; the disreputable way in
which, till recently, most fortunes were accumulated, and the worry that great
variations in income are somehow bad for society. As far as I can tell, the
first is mistake, the second outdated, and the third empirically false._

In what way is money accumulation today different than the past? Another quote
cites that spammers spam because _their_ cost is nothing, but it incurs a cost
of ~5 man-weeks per million emails on those they spam. Isn't that a perfect
example of accumulating money in a "disreputable way"? And how about all the
recent exposures of questionable banking practices? And pork-barrel
legislation? Bribery? Monopolistic practices?

Money-making today is no cleaner than yesterday. Just because _you_ (pg /
anyone believing this) may accumulate money and use it ethically _does not_
imply others do the same.

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kiba
_Money-making today is no cleaner than yesterday. Just because you (pg /
anyone believing this) may accumulate money and use it ethically does not
imply others do the same._

Modern civilization and its achievement is certainly not the result of lazy
bureaucracy accumulating money on the back of hardworking pleasant. It's
certainly a result of some amount of "rules of law".

For prosperity to be widespread, you need incentive to accumulate capitals,
build stuff that people actually want to buy, etc.

The world is pretty fair. Just that humans can be too unfair and short-
sighted.(Like caring more about relative status instead of total wealth)

Poor nations just have more corrupt bureaucracy, unethical businessmen, and
lawlessness than wealthy nations.

Yes, the bureaucracy in American and Europe aren't certainly helping matters,
but relatively speaking, they're still less corrupt than what you would find
in third world countries.

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Groxx
This rebuts my claim that there's still widespread unethical gains _how?_ You
just stated that the majority of Earth's population is more corrupt than
America / Europe.

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BrandonM
He is trying to say that accumulation of money is not automatically bad just
because some people attempt to do it in an unethical, nonproductive fashion.
As long as the attempt to become wealthy is also accompanied by basic morals
and decency, the pursuit of wealth is a noble venture.

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osivertsson
It is a good _book_. Far more enjoyable and memorable to read than only these
notes.

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endlessvoid94
I think taking his essays and making them bullet points loses quite a bit of
the enjoyment. He gives examples with some prose in his essays that just drive
the points further home.

Plus, lists of things suck.

EDIT: Does anyone else see the irony in the score of this comment?

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stcredzero
Don't you really mean --

Things that suck:

    
    
        * Lists of things
        ...

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Scott_MacGregor
This might be fun, and it could generate a little more industry coverage (free
advertising) for the book. Maybe there could be a small competition of some
sorts within the forum to win 3 copies of the book.

It could involve something that is not coding, and that the forum members can
judge (vote on). Like a best discussion topic / article submitted on Saturday
the 26th between 9am and 2pm PST. All votes must be in by 7pm PST. Ten
finalists could be selected, and the vote totals submitted to a separate
random number generated for each one--highest 3 numbers win books. 1 entry per
forum member who wants to participate.

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kunjaan
They were nice observations but in no way would I consider those thoughts
powerful. Maybe I should read the book instead.

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ssn
Amazing photo.

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BrandonM
How much material can you pull from a book without getting into copyright
issues? Is the post's author providing enough new ideas to warrant a
"commentary" argument?

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prewett
Copyright doesn't protect ideas so much as the expression of them. There are
also fair use provisions, which include the discussing the copyrighted
material. A list is given at <http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html> (there
is a link to the whole law, use the Chapter 1 link). Judging by those factors,
he was clearly summarizing, it was for non-profit use, he did not appear to be
quoting directly, and even if he was, the quotes comprise a very small part of
the whole work, and the summary does not diminish the value of the original
work, I would say he is on very safe legal grounds. (IANAL, though)

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BrandonM
Thanks. Yeah, I wasn't trying to accuse him of anything... He is obviously
providing value while also indirectly encouraging people to read the book.
Besides, pg had posted in this submission before I did without having a
negative attitude toward the article.

I was mainly curious just how much is allowed. In a time when multimedia
companies claim copyright infringement left and right, it's interesting to
note the difference between print and audio/video copyrighted materials.

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tjmaxal
Great advice as usual.

