Paul GrahamVerified account

The willingness to look like an idiot and fail publicly is an advantage in today’s world.

Interesting read, and your blog has always been inspirational to me Paul. How do we balance that optimism, with cases such as Theranos, where people are talking about breaking fundamental laws of physics/probability? It seems to happen an awful lot in health tech.

Fascinating. Perhaps because my ballpark is early childhood it made me think how we can suspend judgement watching young children and invest in them knowing they can become terrific exponents... In whatever they choose. Could be applied more widely

Apart from what you described in your essay, the Dunning-Kruger effect disproportionately effects smart people into making them think they're lamer than they actually are, and stops them from making progress. As always, a great read, Paul! Thank you.

"I wouldn't claim that people in Silicon Valley overcome these impulses because they're morally better." But then you claim just that in a footnote... Why does the rest of the world consider SV types evil? Could it be that SV hype and success rest on exploitation and arbitrage.

@paulg The right way to deal with new ideas is to treat them as a challenge to your imagination

This essay is very very timely especially when switching from prototyping/stealth mode to production-ready.

Thanks! Sent to my kids.