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Oct. 24th, 2005 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vriad_leefavourite quotes from paul graham
...there is a great temptation to work on problems you can treat formally, rather than problems that are, say, important.
--http://paulgraham.com/hp.html
Prices are determined by supply and demand, and there is just not as much demand for things that are fun to work on as there is for things that solve the mundane problems of individual customers. Acting in off-Broadway plays just doesn't pay as well as wearing a gorilla suit in someone's booth at a trade show. Writing novels doesn't pay as well as writing ad copy for garbage disposals. And hacking programming languages doesn't pay as well as figuring out how to connect some company's legacy database to their Web server.
--http://paulgraham.com/hp.html
Yes, as you suspect, a lot of the stuff you learn in your classes is crap. And yes, as you suspect, the college admissions process is largely a charade. But like many fouls, this one was unintentional. So just keep playin
--http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html
A key ingredient in many projects, almost a project on its own, is to find good books. Most books are bad. Nearly all textbooks are bad. So don't assume a subject is to be learned from whatever book on it happens to be closest. You have to search actively for the tiny number of good books.
--http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html
Enthusiasm is contagious, and so is boredom
--http://www.paulgraham.com/raq.html
refer me to more wise reading
...there is a great temptation to work on problems you can treat formally, rather than problems that are, say, important.
--http://paulgraham.com/hp.html
Prices are determined by supply and demand, and there is just not as much demand for things that are fun to work on as there is for things that solve the mundane problems of individual customers. Acting in off-Broadway plays just doesn't pay as well as wearing a gorilla suit in someone's booth at a trade show. Writing novels doesn't pay as well as writing ad copy for garbage disposals. And hacking programming languages doesn't pay as well as figuring out how to connect some company's legacy database to their Web server.
--http://paulgraham.com/hp.html
Yes, as you suspect, a lot of the stuff you learn in your classes is crap. And yes, as you suspect, the college admissions process is largely a charade. But like many fouls, this one was unintentional. So just keep playin
--http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html
A key ingredient in many projects, almost a project on its own, is to find good books. Most books are bad. Nearly all textbooks are bad. So don't assume a subject is to be learned from whatever book on it happens to be closest. You have to search actively for the tiny number of good books.
--http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html
Enthusiasm is contagious, and so is boredom
--http://www.paulgraham.com/raq.html
refer me to more wise reading