Paul Graham

Overview

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

• “Architects know that some kinds of design problems are more personal than others. One of the cleanest, most abstract design problems is designing bridges. There your job is largely a matter of spanning a given distance with the least material. The other end of the spectrum is designing chairs. Chair designers have to spend their time thinking about human butts.”

• “At every period of history, people have believed things that were just ridiculous, and believed them so strongly that you risked ostracism or even violence by saying otherwise. If our own time were any different, that would be remarkable. As far as I can tell it isn't.”

• “A programming language is for thinking of programs, not for expressing programs you've already thought of.”

• “I've seen occasional articles about how to manage programmers. Really there should be two articles: one about what to do if you are yourself a programmer, and one about what to do if you're not. And the second could probably be condensed into two words: give up.”

• “Google never did any advertising. They're like dealers; they sell the stuff, but they know better than to use it themselves.”

• “European public opinion will apparently tolerate people being fired in industries where they really care about performance. Unfortunately the only industry they care enough about so far is soccer.”

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Paul Graham across IJR