Molson Hart

different people are from how they act. I suspect quite different. I’m not too different inside and out and while many don’t like me I’m sure there does seem to be demand for “my services” as a crazy sometimes entertaining contrarian.

I don't know why tbh. It just seems to me a recently tried and failed method. Maybe one reason is that we need our "entertainers" to be a small number of people. We can connect if we all like idk Beyonce but not if we all listen to a different obscure band.

I’d argue that many of the people who apparently tried and failed at being themselves are just conforming to some nonsense. Also, being you doesn’t necessarily mean you get a billion dollars or become famous. The outcome depends on who you are. For many, non-famous non-rich is

Their best life.

Yeah i'm not saying it's bad to incorporate this in your everyday life but it's rare to get money _because_ of it. If i write a software that is "totally me" and nobody wants it i'm poor. I can act like myself when i email/talk at work but my output has to please others.

How do you reconcile that with Paul Graham’s advice to build something you yourself want?

You yourself want to use, not to build. It's kind of how the more relaxed work hours in Germany were annoying to me as a customer but nice as a worker.

PG also made the point that the best stuff is often very annoying to build. But that's how you deliver the most value and also makes it hard for your competition to follow. He also said building something just cos it's "cool" is a bad advise.