Paul Graham Essays

Paul Graham is now at the top of Mahalanobis' "What Current or Historical Figure Would You Most Like to Have Dinner With?" list.

Every May, speakers all over the country fire up the Standard Graduation Speech, the theme of which is: don't give up on your dreams.  I know what they mean, but this is a bad way to put it, because it implies you're supposed to be bound by some plan you made early on.  The computer world has a name for this: premature optimization.  And it is synonymous with disaster.  These speakers would do better to say simply, don't give up.

What they really mean is, don't get demoralized.

Don't: give up, prematurely optimize, or associate with anything that demoralizes you.

Comments

[Robert]

Thanks for reminding me that I still had some Paul Graham essays I needed to read. And it resulted in a post and a h/t to you, again. I should just put up a link that says "Most good ideas on this blog stolen from G and H."

(hehe)