I read and summarized all of Paul Graham's 200+ essays

Here's the summary on my site: https://www.jaakkoj.com/blog/graham

It's over 10,000 words long, so I also made a Google Docs version, in case that's easier to navigate: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16fj-veqvD7pQBWhdnM6REHl4zIe75z3bec0HIzTEtWM/edit?usp=sharing

It's all free - hope you find it useful!

Paul Graham has had a big influence on me so I hope this introduction/summary inspires folks to read his essays.

Let me know if there's something I can do to make the post more useful.

Jaakko Joutsenmeri

posted to

Startups

on November 13, 2021

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6

Recommend you change the wording from "Boring disclaimer stuff" and remove the negative sentiment. Here and anywhere else in your text. Your herculean effort deserves only positive sentiment. Great work!

uuid16

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2 years ago
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  Haha thanks! I didn't intend it as a negative thing - more like a "let's get this mandatory disclaimer thing over with, that's not what you're here for". But thanks for the positivity😂
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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    For what it's worth, I think it's fine and I understood what you meant by boring disclaimer stuff.
    
    satvikpendem
    
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      Haha honestly I'm just glad that seemingly the biggest point of debate is the disclaimer, not anything in the actual content 😂
      
      JaakkoJarviniemi
      
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    I didn't think otherwise! Just out of respect for your work. Bookmarking this 🤘
    
    uuid16
    
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    2 years ago
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      Thanks :)
      
      JaakkoJarviniemi
      
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Wow, mighty cool!
Thanks for sharing this Jaakko. This needs to get on top of HN :)

dSebastien

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2 years ago
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  Thanks Sébastien!
  I agree 100%. Not sure how to do that though - I post on HN and it drowns in the New page. Any tips?
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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    I think that the title and timing of the submission does 80% of the job.. :p
    
    dSebastien
    
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      Alright, I'll keep on trying. Catch me on the frontpage later this week ;)
      
      JaakkoJarviniemi
      
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Wow! Excellent stuff!

mkrunic

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2 years ago
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  Thank you!
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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This is great work. Kudos. Did you post this on Hacker News?

rockiger

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2 years ago
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  Thanks!
  I did try posting on HN - didn't take off though. I'll try again another time, hopefully with better luck.
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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Great synthesis

AndrewKirby

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a year ago
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Thanks @JaakkoJarviniemi! Imagine that took a ton of time. Appreciate you sharing.

yartyk

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2 years ago
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  Only nearly a year! And thanks :)
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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You seem to like very long articles... Is it for SEO? You'd get more readers with shorter ones. I tried to finish your article about 50 ideas... Too long for me. It would have been better to publish it in 2 posts I think.

technopreneur

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2 years ago
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  Thanks for the feedback, it's always appreciated.
  
  I try not to write for SEO. Instead, trying to satisfy my intellectual curiosity. So if there's room to discover something new about the topic, I'll write more about it.
  
  Some people dig shorter posts, some longer posts. Personally, I don't care, so I'm not trying to make long posts, they become long organically.
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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Impressive work!

hussam

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2 years ago
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  Thank you!
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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  2 years ago
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That's awesome dude, thanks for the content

alex_totolici

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2 years ago
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  Thank you!
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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This is great, thank you. It's refreshing to read a long-form piece so well formatted. Well played!

cuban_pete

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2 years ago
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  Thanks for the great feedback :)
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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Mad value. Thanks.

MRR-scaler

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2 years ago
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  Thanks for the support!
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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Thanks for putting this together

fajarsiddiq

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2 years ago
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  You're most welcome!
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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Congrats on the amazing effort! Agree w/ @uuid16 → don't sell yourself short and change the wording to "disclaimer"

Reminded me of this recent tweet from the former ProductHunt CTO: https://twitter.com/andreasklinger/status/1450138312606375938?s=20

Anyway, back to your write-up: I really enjoyed the condensed 13-idea list at the beginning. Nice touch + gives an exec summary if you don't have the time (yet) to work through the 10k word extravaganza.

Greets and good job 🙌

qnd

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2 years ago
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  Hahah that's a good tweet, and good advice from you. Thanks for taking the time.
  
  I do have news to tell you: that 13-point summary is from Graham, not me. But glad it resonated😂
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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Thank you for you hard work @JaakkoJarviniemi!

cbusquets

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2 years ago
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  My pleasure!
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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This is incredible! Thank you for sharing :)

insiteful

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2 years ago
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  My pleasure!
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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  2 years ago
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Hiya Jaakko,
Thanks very much for putting that together. It must've taken a while!
Also, bookmarked both the post and your blog - looking forward to browsing through them both in a bit more depth.

Janinah

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2 years ago
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  Hi Janinah, thanks for the support!
  I see in your profile that you're from Leamington - I just graduated from Warwick uni so it's a familiar place :)
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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    😄 No way it's a small world! I only moved here in February as my partner got a job here, however I absolutely love the area. Plus, I also graduated from Warwick Uni last year - level 5 Diploma in Coaching, so I could be a certified business coach.
    
    P.S Been spending the last few hours reading through Paul Graham 101 and loving it! My favourite insights so far are:
    
    See startups as a path to wealth over a small period of time. E.g 4x years, so need to work hard in 4 years, rather than work slowly in a 40 year job.
    
    Barries to entry must be hard/ technical at every touch point, so competitors can't compete.
    
    Look at job listings to see where your competitors are at in their business.
    
    The article about how a startup equates to your salary being a multiplier of three (Well potentially) e.g. Software engineer on $80k could make $3 million
    
    Janinah
    
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      Congrats on the graduation :) It's a nice area for sure
      
      Glad to see you engaging with Graham, though you better watch out - you may soon find yourself with 40,000 words of notes like I did😂
      
      JaakkoJarviniemi
      
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        Oh wow! Nice job
        
        Alexgkr
        
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        2 years ago
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        Thanks and yeah I'll be careful havent brought myself to read the 'Writing Well' one though yet as I know it will be a whopper! 😅
        
        Janinah
        
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        Good idea hahah
        
        JaakkoJarviniemi
        
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You've done an amazing job, thanks for sharing!

bornot

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2 years ago
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  Thanks for the support!
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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So much efforts. Congrats for completing it.

AtulGhorpade

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2 years ago
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  Thank you :)
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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    Welcome.
    
    AtulGhorpade
    
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Wow. That must have taken some time. Thanks for the summary. 👍

Checkify

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2 years ago
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  Only almost a year 😅 thanks for the support!
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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Great work !

ViceCaz

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2 years ago
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  Thanks!
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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Really enjoyed this. Thanks for putting it together! Would definitely read a PG 201 :)

lawrencehook

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2 years ago
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  Thanks for reading!
  It's been quite a journey putting this together, I may need a breather before doing a 201😂
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.
    
    dSebastien
    
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    2 years ago
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Thanks Jaakko!

This is super helpful for a perspective reset 👏🏽

chrisrobinson

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2 years ago
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  Yep! Glad you find it useful.
  
  JaakkoJarviniemi
  
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Thanks for sharing it, as I think it took some time to make it! I think you made it with pleasure, as a person like me who doesn't like to write, wouldn't have made this. I am quite bad at writing so it takes me a lot to put myself to writing something, but if I have some important essays I am using editing services. For example, I have used the best admission essay editing service from https://www.topessayediting.com/ to help me to write an outstanding essay to stand out from the crowd and I succeeded only thanks to them.

caraton

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2 years ago
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