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paulg's profile
Paul Graham
Paul Graham
Paul Graham
Verified account
@paulg

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Paul GrahamVerified account

@paulg

paulgraham.com
Joined August 2010

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    1. Paul Graham‏Verified account @paulg 15 May 2019

      A surprisingly large proportion of the best ideas seem to result from a thought of the form "What if you just...?" When you face a complicated problem, it might be worth explicitly asking "What is the what-if-you-just of this problem?" in case there is one.

      35 replies 211 retweets 1,244 likes
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      Paul Graham‏Verified account @paulg 15 May 2019

      What if you just asked what is the what-if-you-just every time?

      6:56 AM - 15 May 2019
      • 27 Retweets
      • 374 Likes
      • Adit Peter Brack Setu Saurabh Galois Capital Yannick Laclau Coopérathon 🚀 Rostislav Achilov S E N Z I G H E ™ Katrina Razon
      14 replies 27 retweets 374 likes
        1. This Tweet is unavailable.
        2. Levetrage‏ @levetrage 15 May 2019
          Replying to @__anoop @paulg

          The privilege dripping in these statement.... probably 10,000 times I ask myself "what if we just" but, well - time /money /real world obligations

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. End of conversation
        1. Chaitanya Mehta‏ @cmehta85 15 May 2019
          Replying to @paulg

          Paul can you please illustrate 1-2 examples. This is a bit confusing.

          0 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
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        1. David‏ @dscoughlin 15 May 2019
          Replying to @paulg

          The answer to this question depends on if you can afford to experiment on real things. There is a Jalopnik article, relating someone else's tweets about the new Supra. BMW makes build decisions based on simulations, Toyota needs to build actual prototypes.

          0 replies 1 retweet 2 likes
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        1. New conversation
        2. Jason‏ @peregrine 15 May 2019
          Replying to @paulg

          Only danger with this is that the 'just' implies that its easy. Which can be offensive to people who work really hard on hard problems. So in my experience I try and keep this to myself until I figure out what I'm missing or if its valuable.

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Jason‏ @peregrine 15 May 2019
          Replying to @peregrine @paulg

          "What if you just destroy all the street parking and add protected bike lanes?" -> is a route to angry business owners and boomers.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. End of conversation
        1. santa cruz craig  🏄🏻‍♂️ 🌊 🌊 🌊‏ @CraigsHead 15 May 2019
          Replying to @paulg

          “What if you just had an auditable trail for electronic voting machines in the U.S.?”

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        2. Ryan‏ @RyanAvenue 15 May 2019
          Replying to @paulg

          Ha I feel like I’m doing this. As I go further down the hole, just find a what if solution.

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Ryan‏ @RyanAvenue 15 May 2019
          Replying to @RyanAvenue @paulg

          It’s just a bunch of hacks almost. Hack every what if with a better solution it seems.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. End of conversation
        1. Zanele Abraham‏ @zanele_matome 15 May 2019
          Replying to @paulg

          Uber was born from asking the same what if..so you're spot on Paul what-if-you-just can lead you to a billio dollar IPO💰

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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