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19 Comments

How to work hard

  1. 9

    I see the point of the message but be wary of people like PG. He has a vested interest on pushing startup founders to work to their limits since he will make a lot of money if the company was founded by YC, this is a numbers game for him. At the same time he tweets constantly about spending lots of time with his children so you will be playing by 2 different set of rules.

    If you are going to work hard, work hard for you and your family. If you have a job or take VC money, put you,, your money, your health and your family first.

    This is a comment that belong more to HN but you will be shadow-banned there pretty quickly if you say anything critical of them.

    1. 1

      He has a vested interest on pushing startup founders to work to their limits since he will make a lot of money if the company was founded by YC, this is a numbers game for him.

      This.

      He often dishes out advice that makes founders investable for YC, not necessarily advice that's in the founders' best interest.

    2. 1

      Imagine thinking a billionaire who has no more passion for making more projects wanting to make money.

      HN doesn't shadow-ban if you post critical things. In fact, one of the top-most posts last month was about Repl.it's CEO threatening an intern. Repl.it is backed by YC so they could've made the post disappear but instead, it stayed on the top page for the whole day.

      The essay makes a point that you can't work hard if you don't have a passion for something for more than 5 hours which is true, at least for me. You should probably re-read the essay keeping biases aside & thinking your own mentor (or someone you admire) wrote it. Then think critically.

      1. 1

        Imagine thinking a billionaire who has no more passion for making more projects wanting to make money.

        I didnt understand what you meant here, sorry.

        HN doesn't shadow-ban if you post critical things. In fact, one of the top-most posts last month was about Repl.it's CEO threatening an intern. Repl.it is backed by YC so they could've made the post disappear but instead, it stayed on the top page for the whole day.

        I was banned for criticizing YC. I was not technically shadow banned. But when dang announces your ban several days later in a comment buried 6 levels deep and you get no notification it is exactly the same as a shadow ban. It took me months! to notice this was the case.

        I dont need a mentor at this point of my life, I have lived plenty of years to know about vested interests. Perhaps the years will teach you that too, or perhaps you will continue to believe naively in the good-will of people who will earn a lot if you keep working 110 h/week for them.

        With this I consider this discusion closed. I will not read nor answer to any further message here.

        1. 1

          I didnt understand what you meant here, sorry.

          I meant he already has billions. He spends most of his time writing essays now. He doesn't have a goal other than writing essays & raising kids now like the other billionaires like Elon, Zuck, Branson, or Bezos.

          I dont need a mentor at this point of my life, I have lived plenty of years to know about vested interests. Perhaps the years will teach you that too, or perhaps you will continue to believe naively in the good-will of people who will earn a lot if you keep working 110 h/week for them.

          Yes, you can do that too or read books to not make the same mistakes again. It's not naively believing in the good-will of people but rather the media portrays the world as more bad than good. News are meant to make you outrage. I believe the world is generally more good than bad.

          The point of that essay was that if you work on stuff that you are passionate about, then 110 hrs/week doesn't sound like work. It's play for you. Like the streamers on Twitch playing games for 12+ hrs every day. They don't see it as work but rather play.

          If it feels like work to you, then you're gonna get capped at 5 hr/day (at least that's how it is for me), that's it.

  2. 3

    Paul Graham's is the only blog where I read every piece that comes out.

  3. 2

    Paul Graham's blog is a perfect example of how the value given to his followers/users is more important than the packaging.

    The blog looks like the ones from the 2000s and yet hundreds of thousands if not millions of people consume it every year.

    1. 1

      It looks like it's from the 2000s because it is.

  4. 2

    I liked this quote from the essay enough to make a graphic of it:

    I can't be sure I'm getting anywhere when I'm working hard, but I can be sure I'm getting nowhere when I'm not.

  5. 1

    oof - doesn't even use https.

  6. 1

    Thanks for sharing!

  7. 1

    I love the websites that are not fancy and are full of knowledge and insghits. Thank you Channing

      1. 1

        haha my mistake :)

  8. 1

    Very well written, thanks for sharing!

  9. 1

    Great article thank you for sharing

  10. 1

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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