
Paul Graham's Talk at Startup School 2007 - larrykubin
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8113251929727785438&hl=en
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Alex3917
Great speech. My only comment is on the idea that we will look back on
professionals as being like serfs. As Paul mentioned earlier, what is driving
people into the service of others is a combination of social status, risk
avoidance, and the need for "structure."

I don't think risk avoidance and need for structure will ever change. The real
question is whether our conceptions of social status will change. So I've been
writing a lot recently about how organizations and institutions exploit
people's need for social status in order to secure cheap labor and make money.

The most obvious example is how WoW literally allows you to "level up." Even
though objectively you are just spending 12 hours a day clicking on pictures
of digital rats on a computer screen, qualitatively it's designed to make you
feel like a hero. Everyone wants to be a hero in real life, but most people
are just too lazy or untalented or risk adverse. It's not fair, but that's the
way it is. Organizations have figured out how to tap into people's need to "be
the hero" while extracting cheap labor (or purchases) from them.

A good example is when I was learning to play the trumpet. Learning to play a
musical instrument is a very slow and continuous process. If my trumpet
teacher were to have said, "ok, today you are level one trumpet. ok, now
you're level two trumpet. etc." I think most people could figure out it's a
scam. Improving at trumpet is a continuous function, not something that
happens in levels.

The thing is, when people say, "ok, you're level one at education, you're
level three at business." then no one realizes they are being exploited. In
general, reality is very continuous. Whenever someone tries to represent a
phenomena as something you can "level up" in, chances are they are trying to
fuck you, take your money, or both.

Until people realize this is happening, professionalism will never go away.
Instead people are obsessed with "climbing the ladder." Thing is, climbing the
ladder benefits the people at the top, not the bottom. The average person
doesn't even realize this.

I think in order for this mentality to end, two things are needed:

1) People currently view social status as a function of what people with money
and power think of you. People need to instead view social status a function
of your ability to MSPW.

2) We need new forms of social signaling that take this into account.
Currently people identify themselves through college credentials, brand name
clothes, etc. I think social signaling DOES have an important economic role to
play, however, we need new forms of social signaling based around MSPW.

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davidw
"what is driving people into the service of others is a combination of ..."

Capital has historically been a big factor in that equation as well. A factory
worker couldn't very well take his machine around to different factories,
whereas a mechanic probably has his own set of tools. Those of us in the
computer field are fortunate that, at this point in time, capital requirements
are very, very low. In other fields, though, large amounts of money are needed
to be able to get off the ground. Who knows what the future will bring... less
capital needs or more?

Incidentally, as much as I would have liked to see it, I couldn't take
watching a bouncy image of some guy's ear next to a tiny Paul Graham. It would
be great if they provided video of the whole thing for those of us not able to
be there.

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larrykubin
There is definitely video of all of the speeches. As a matter of fact, there
are videos of _everything_, including random lunch conversations, given that
justin.tv was there. This video was taken on my digital camera, hence the
crappy quality. The useful part is the audio.

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joshwa
justin.tv's audio was pretty useless...

I do wish that the organizers had an 'official' video guy, with a tap into the
house audio system, and uploaded the videos afterwards. maybe next year?

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Elfan
Wasn't there someone in the back with a professional looking camera?

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danielha
Paul uses presentation slides for once so it's a shame it doesn't show up in
the video. One of the better moments was him losing an expected slide and
blaming the Zenter guys. Okay, the rest of the slides were just text on blank
backgrounds, but still.

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rwalker
If you want to see the slides, they're online at:
<http://www.zenter.com/ed/view.html?id=226> (FireFox only at the moment)

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rms
Doesn't load for me.

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rwalker
Sorry about that. It should be fixed now.

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volida
No02: Too inexperienced

No03: 08:16: Not determined enough

No04: 08:52: Not smart enough

No05: 10:08: Don't understand business

No06: 12:12: No co-founder

No07: 13:01: You have no idea

No08: 15:07: No room for more startups ( A fallacy)

No09: 16:06: Family to support

No10: 17:35: Need for structure

No13: 18:45: Fear and uncertain

No14: 19:24 You don't realize what you are waiting

No15: 21:17: You parents...

No16: 23:16: Job the default thing to do

thanks too!

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mynameishere
You might want to hire a real videographer. The production quality was just
too low to tolerate. Sorry.

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jwecker
"I feel kind of like Spock here, watching people laugh at a joke..." (:

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staunch
Thank you very much.

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andreyf
avi version:

<http://tinyurl.com/ytdw3m>

(215 MB)

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bootload
200Mb download

