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.
-- Paul Graham
It's hard to say exactly what constitutes research in the computer world, but as a first approximation, it's software that doesn't have users.
-- Paul Graham
... VCs are mistaken to look for the next Microsoft, because no startup can be the next Microsoft unless some other company is prepared to bend over at just the right moment and be the next IBM.
-- Paul Graham
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.
-- Paul Graham
Nothing is more powerful than a community of talented people working on related problems.
-- Paul Graham
Like a politician who wants to distract voters from bad times at home, you can create an enemy if there isn't a real one.
-- Paul Graham
The world seemed cruel and boring, and I'm not sure which was worse.
-- Paul Graham
A programming language is for thinking of programs, not for expressing programs you've already thought of.
-- Paul Graham
What hackers and painters have in common is that they're both makers. Along with composers, architects, and writers, what hackers and painters are trying to do is make good things. They're not doing research per se, though if in the course of trying to make good things they discover some new technique, so much the better.
-- Paul Graham
Sometimes what the hackers do is called "software engineering," but this term is just as misleading. Good software designers are no more engineers than architects are. The border between architecture and engineering is not sharply defined, but it's there. It falls between what and how: architects decide what to do, and engineers figure out how to do it.
-- Paul Graham
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