Paul Graham convinced me to drop out of school / quit my job [Vote up if true] - Alex3917
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chmike
Hi, I'm 50. I tried to apply PG advices to become rich. I left my job and went
back to grad to find a cofounder. I also divorced to get rid of wife and kids.
I applied for rejuvenation camps, plastic surgery and many othere expensive
treatments because PG said we better start young. Since Cobol and Fortran are
useless, I had intensive courses to learn lisp, visual basic, php, .net and
ruby.

There are still a few details left to smooth, but I think I am very close to
be able to apply to YC. I still have no idea of what my startup would do, but
PG said this was not important...

Could there be something I misunderstood in PG talks ?

PS: This is all fake, of course, and ment to be humorous. There is only one
thing that matters and PG was very clear on this. It is to come up with
something that people will want and will be ready to pay for in some way
(accept to view ads for instance). Wether you'r old, married & dad, have no
technical skills in CS, etc. won't stop you from succeeding if you found a
gold vein. It will just be a little bit more difficult to start, that's all...
and maybe YC is not the VC to go for. ;-)

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create_account
Here's another naysayer on Paul Graham and the YC experience, in a bit more
serious tone: <http://www.raydeck.com/2006/10/paul-graham-is-hurting-the-
children/>

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pg
This just freaks me out. I can't wait for this one to slide down the
frontpage...

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RyanGWU82
Paul, on Saturday, you discussed YC's 100% satisfaction rating from the
founders you've sponsored. I can't imagine that's true for _all_ (non-YC)
startups, but I bet it's still extremely high. I hope you do become more
comfortable with this, because there are a bunch of us that are living much
more inspired lives, and trace part of that inspiration back to you. I'd hate
to see you shy away from this because you're nervous about the outcome.

(Fortunately, I don't see any signs that you're actually too concerned. "Why
to Not Not Start a Startup" couldn't have come from someone who's wavering!)

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ced
I don't think that the failures will report here...

We should start a "Paul Graham convinced me to drop Java / C++" poll to cheer
him up.

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dfranke
Alex, polls are lame on Reddit. They're even lamer here since there's no down
arrow. Please use Pollground or something similar.

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pg
I'm going to add explicit support for polls. As soon as I get done reading
hundreds of YC applications :(

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bootload
is there any way you could filter applications before reading them?

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pg
We do, in a sense: some people who apply we already know, because people we've
funded recommended them. If you can impress the founders of a YC startup, that
counts for a lot.

This site was designed partly as an additional filter. It works too. When I
met danielha I knew his name because he was #1 on News.YC.

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e1ven
I do have to agree with dfranke.

While I certainly understand the concept, and I agree it's fun to get a gauge
of people's reactions, I think you'll learn more reading the comments than you
would with any simple poll..

There's also just that things like that are never so simple- I'm sure that pg
has been one of many influences on people. I doubt very many people would go
through their life, happily working at their job, read an essay, and drop
everything ;)

While pg is persuasive, I would like to think (hope) that anything he writes
is one factor among many.

(And again, Please- No polls like this. )

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imp
I agree. The people that would be most affected by a pg essay are those that
already aren't happy with their job (or potential job).

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python_kiss
I was in love with Electrical Engineering. But reading Paul's essays upset me
because it was so true: After four years of banging my head on the books, I
would be expected to get a job in a cubicle for the rest of my life. While
designing circuits and solving mathematical equations is quite orgasmic, it
has its down sides too.

Inspired by Joel Spolsky and Paul Graham, I decided to leave University to
develop a microISV product. I realized that selling microISV products is fun,
but not very scalable...and it almost felt like doing a job. That's when I
decided to tackle something big; a social network for geeks.

I would like to some day go back to University and study Neurology or
Mathematics. But for now, pursuing my startup is much more enjoyable. Thanks
Paul, Joel!

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python_kiss
Not everything, though, is as blissful as it sounds. There are times when I
wish I had taken the beating and went along with the standard template. I
haven't told my parents that I have left university to pursue the startup
dream...it wouldn't be wise to tell them unless _they_ felt the opportunity
cost of pursuing a startup is greater than getting a job. So every other day,
they believe I leave off to study at my University when really I just go sit
in the library and code Shuzak (our startup) :p This way, they will be really
happy if I got accepted into YC but not disappointed if I didn't.

The consequence of having left University is that I am now super determined to
make this successful; I have burned the ships behind me...so if our startup
drowns, so will we.

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zaidf
You are worse than I am:)

My parents pestered me every weekend about my GPA until past few months.
Slowly they have come to terms with the idea that I don't care much about
school - and that my GPA probably sucks.

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python_kiss
lol, thanks zaid...I take it that wasn't a compliment? I learned quite a lot
of lab work simply from building a solar car (
<http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~hec/pictures.html> ) as a side project. So , in
University, I was able to maintain an okayish GPA because I managed to do good
in labs.

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zaidf
While I've been dreaming of dropping out of college before I even entered it,
I have to admit much of my ideas have come directly from my college
experience. If I dropped out, sat at the apartment trying to think of the next
big idea I doubt I would have too many.

I do think the case to drop out becomes much stronger once you have an idea
launched and showing potential.

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RyanGWU82
I quit my job and went to grad school because of Paul Graham. At the first
Startup School (Cambridge), Paul's speech casually mentioned that grad school
was a good way to meet co-founders. I wasn't specifically looking for co-
founders (although like he predicted, I found some here) but decided that it
was the right time to get a master's. In the next nine months, I quit my job,
moved to Silicon Valley and started full-time grad school in CS. So far it's
been one of the best decisions of my life. Thanks, Paul!

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brent
May I ask what grad school you attend? Why has it been one of the best
decisions? People? Projects?

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RyanGWU82
Well, I'm at Stanford, which is a good part of why it's been so great. Before
Startup School, I hadn't had the balls to apply to particulary competitive
schools. (I was previously thinking of getting a master's in IT management
from a local school. It's a good program if I wanted to be a contractor, but
not when I really wanted to be in the software industry.)

Stanford is in the heart of Silicon Valley, which is a big part of why this
has been so great. There are an unusual number of opportunities related to
tech business because of that. The other schools in this area, like Santa
Clara U. and San Jose State, also have great access to the tech industry. And
even if I wasn't in school, it would have been wise just to move to this area.

At Stanford, I've also met a lot of smart and motivated people, both
professors and students. I'm learning a TON in my classes, honestly they're
far more interesting and useful than I would have guessed. I stumbled upon co-
founders for a startup, and I've gotten the opportunity to TA for a great
professor. It's all been a _ton_ of work, and I'm honestly kinda burnt out,
but nonetheless I'm really glad I'm here.

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sumantra2
In general although creativity and school dropouts might have a non-linear
correlation, it is wrong to say that formal education limits creativity and
vice versa for that matter. Do you think that Google PageRank would have come
from a ragamuffin?

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ClintonKarr
I can't say that I've quit my job, but Paul Graham does make some interesting
points.

The question that is stuck in my head is "what should I do if I have an idea
for a Web service, but have no technical 'know-how?'" Is it worth approaching
YCombinator?

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AurSaraf
Hello. I am Aur Saraf.

Simply put, no.

Start ups are about work, not ideas. Ideas flow freely with some people (like
me) that just have about one idea per day worth implementation.

The skill to bring a product to life is the critical part.

Still, since you shouldn't drop the idea of starting a start up, you should
either find someone with the technical know how (track down my email and email
me for help in that) or go for an idea where you can contribute 100%.

Just my opinion, of course, though I highly doubt anyone would disagree (yes,
this is a challenge).

Aur Saraf

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abossy
I agree.

I remember reading a chapter of Hackers & Painters in which PG states that he
was able to implement new features so quickly, that it seemed to his
competitors as though he possessed some kind of secret weapon. Instead, he was
simply using Lisp, a powerful and highly abstract language.

What he doesn't explicitly mention is that he is an expert at Lisp, having
published two books on the language -- not to mention having a PhD from
Harvard in Computer Science, where he probably became an expert using the
language (although, admittedly, I have never been able to track down PGs
graduate research work...).

This is what gave ViaWeb their competitive edge in the section of the
e-commerce market and led to their success. As a startup, you're unlikely to
succeed. You'll want all the advantages you can possibly attain.

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Goladus
I haven't quit my job, but I'm going to leave it as soon as I reasonably can.
It's really hard to say whether Paul Graham had anything to do with it. I'd
read inspirational stuff from Kathy Sierra (Creating Passionate Users) and
Pamela Slim (Escape from Cubicle Nation) first, which I think is where I
started getting the idea to start my own company.

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sabhishek
Hi, Is there anybody from India(preferably from HYD) or even US who can work
with me as a co founder ? I am from India and unfortunately we don't have a
PG/YC equivalent here, but still startupping from India has got its own
advantages. I got the idea , am a software engineer and manage most of the
things right. Reply back if sounds good.

-Saurabh

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mukund
Well if one has heard of this "I was born Intelligent but Education made me
Dumb" ... then PG is right in advising "dropping out of school" :D So i agree
with the first part... No idea about quitting the job part as i dont have a
job :D

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richcollins
Yep - if I end up homeless I am coming to his house to beg :P

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somethingorange
If Paul Graham's conviction comes with seed funding, I'll do that.

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joelselvadurai
Count me in!

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extantproject
dot dot dot

