

Paul Graham, Just Shut Your Face Already - qhoxie
http://uncov.com/paul-graham-shut-your-face

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jayliew
Ted Dziuba is just bitter that his startup is a complete failure.

[http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/19/pressflip-is-a-belly-
fl...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/19/pressflip-is-a-belly-flop/)

Boo hoo hoo.

Also, in addition .. his startup's traffic (according to Alexa) matches the
web site of .. oh right. Nobody.

Ha.

Ted is just bitter his startup failed, so he's trying to spread his joy. How
generous.

~~~
asdflkj
All the more pathetic in light of this:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=66842>

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jayliew
PG is actually out there, and doing something meaningful. No portfolio has a
success rate of 100%, but we can agree that PG's success rate is > 0%. Ted
should shut the fuck up and succeed even a little, before talking smack.

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mattmaroon
Why is this here? It isn't insightful, doesn't have any discernible point, and
isn't even humorous.

I feel like stuff gets a pass here just for saying bad stuff about YC. It
doesn't get deleted because that might look too self-promotional.

This is actually one of the few sites I'd be in favor of blanket banning, and
I spoke out against doing so for Valleywag.

~~~
gleb
While stupid, it's highly relevant. It's worthwhile to read contradicting
opinions, even if just to understand why they are wrong. Same reason I have
KFPA (a communist radio station in Berkeley) programmed into my car radio.

~~~
mattmaroon
But this isn't really an opinion, it's just name-calling. I'd have no problem
with it if he had any logic as to why PG is wrong. I guess that would first
require understanding PG's essay, which he clearly didn't. In fact, nothing he
said even seems to contradict PG's thesis, which was (as I read it) that even
though now isn't the best time in history, it's still +EV, and waiting is -EV.

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maxklein
Seriously, what's up with people on the internet always seeming to say the
same thing. It's like this:

\- One guy says that the financial crisis is the terriblest thing to happen to
us since 1939. Then a bunch of blogs come up saying the same thing

\- Then someone says that all the startup apps that just try to gain users
should suddenly all buckle down and start making money. Then a bunch of blogs
suddenly pop up saying the same thing.

These are just thought trends. Wake up sheeple and think for yourselves. If
the media starts panicking, there is one thing you know for sure - everyone
will start panicking too. Now, once you know that, you are now well positioned
to take advantage of the other peoples panic.

If people are telling you to start making money now, and you observe your
competitors following that advise and avoiding to grow, it's exactly the right
time to grow quickly - because others are doing the opposite, implying that
growth is cheaper. Later, you can monetize your userbase even better, because
you can see what worked and what did not work for the competition.

~~~
jlouis
It is because the human brain tends to be wired in a certain way. One guy says
something and other people begin to reflect on what he has said. Since their
entry barrier to publishing has been lowered by magnitude via blogs, it is
easy to put these reflections up for others to grab and reflect on. The ball
is now rolling.

Some times, when reading blog posts like these, I wonder if the point of the
post is to disagree for the sole purpose of driving traffic and gossip. The
problem is not that these people publish. The problem rather is that they get
upvoted on a site like this one. The article lacks a number of compelling
arguments as to why his viewpoint is true. On the contrary, Grahams article
backs the statements up by history.

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gm
For me it's simple. Paul Graham is the guy with the money, the one that is
"making it." I love Ted Dziuva, and for all of his humorous, scathingly
accurate (most of the time) insight, he Ain't all that good a businessman.

So when it comes to picking apart shitty, business concept-less startups,
Dziuva is THE man.

For all things business and big picture-ness PG is THE man.

The way I see it, people should rejoice because Ted says he will never seek
funding from PG or anyone that looks like him. So one less person chasing
those funds.

A true businessman and startup guy would never say "no" to funds. Ted did look
a little naive right there.

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lupin_sansei
PG's killer point is that Apple and MS were founded in the awful economy of
the mid 70s.

~~~
jodrellblank
PG's killer point is that the success of your startup depends on whether _you
can make it a success_ more than any other factor.

More than your technical skills, more than the economy, more than your
education, more than other people's belief in you, it's your determination to
overcome that makes it.

To learn what you don't know, to break down difficult obstacles and go around
impassable ones, to raise investment where there was none, to build confidence
where there was fear, to adjust to new conditions when existing ones change,
to think of any other breakfast cereal motivational slogans that you can, eat
Frosties and win.

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qhoxie
The entire write up is just ridiculous. His main point is that VC is going to
be too hard to come by and PG is too optimistic.

He is probably just confused because his startup failed before the downturn,
and thus things must be impossible after the fact. It is such a shame that
well-founded optimism backed by helpful actions on the part of PG is attacked,
however poorly.

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cmars232
+1 for the hilarious picture, beer just shot out my nose.

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lst
PG (or simply _anybody_ _else_ ) should simply do the following:

Try to say what you wanted to say in 1 (one) sentence only.

If you're not capable of that, you _actually_ _don't_ _have_ _anything_ _to_
_say_ , and you really would do better just...

~~~
theoneill
You just used 3 sentences to say that.

~~~
lst
PG has nothing really new to say.

