Paul Graham Interview Highlights

I'm a regular reader of Paul Graham's (founder of Y Combinator) and find him to be one of the more thoughtful people writing things down these days. Here are a few highlights from an interview with the Brown Political Review that made on impact on me:

"What trait do you look for in founders and/or partners that is undervalued by most others?Earnestness. This seems a rather Victorian quality to care about, but the founders who end up doing the best are all earnest. They’re not starting a startup because it’s the cool thing to do, or to make a quick buck, but because it’s how they want to work.Ditto for partners. The best partners are the ones who genuinely want to help founders, not the ones who want to work for YC because it’s prestigious or because they can make a lot of money."

DBS: I find that while I am earnest in other parts of life, I don't know that I am necessarily earnest about my particular line of work. I see people around me that are and would do it for fun (and do) while I am a little bit more like his latter description, one that does it for the money. Not sure how to feel about that...

"Why did you study painting?I wanted to make something that would last, and that I could make a living doing. (I could make a much better living writing software of course, but it was demoralizing to think that it would all be discarded within a decade or two at the most.) And I really like looking at paintings, so I was doing what I always advise people to do, and making something I myself wanted."

DBS: This is writing for me. Even though I feel like I'm a couple decades late, I started writing things down and hope to do something with it someday.

"What do you think drives the variance in innovation between different countries? Why does it seem like Europe is worse at startups than America is? What do you think and/or know about the culture of startups in China?I’ve been thinking about this a lot, because we’ve been living in England since 2016. I don’t know about other countries, but I think the reasons startups are bigger in the US than in England are mostly cultural. In England, the worst social mistake is to brag. You can’t say anything that could even be interpreted as bragging. But being ambitious is perilously close to bragging, and it’s hard to start a startup without seeming ambitious.Plus the UK went much further to the left in the 20th century than the US. When Silicon Valley was getting going in the US, being rich was basically banned in the UK. The top tax rate was 98%. That’s what the Beatles’ song “Tax Man” is about. But although the UK is 10 or 20 years behind the US in startups, I have high hopes for this country in the future. People here are smart and hard-working, and political polarization is not as bad as in the US."

DBS: While I have plenty of criticism for the right, I also have plenty for the left (which makes me a centrist I suppose). One of which is the balance between taxation and innovation.