Paul Graham(@paulg)

To historians in the future, the question "Is that Photoshop?" will seem seem like a preliminary ver...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 13:51:31 GMT

To historians in the future, the question "Is that Photoshop?" will seem seem like a preliminary version of "Is that AI?" that people asked for a brief period.

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Staying in a house without gutters really brings the term "drip line" to life.

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 21:45:13 GMT

Staying in a house without gutters really brings the term "drip line" to life.

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Startups valued in the billions now do rounds in the hundreds of millions on safes. The unexpected v...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 21:25:51 GMT

Startups valued in the billions now do rounds in the hundreds of millions on safes. The unexpected versatility of this instrument shows what a good job Carolynn Levy did when she designed it.

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Anyone sufficiently old knows what's happening here. This is what happens when you know there's a wo...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 21:01:35 GMT

Anyone sufficiently old knows what's happening here. This is what happens when you know there's a word for something, but you can't call it to mind. It must happen all the time to our ancient politicians. Presumably the others are just better at hiding it.

Acyn@Acyn

Trump: Venezuela is a very happy place. They had a tragic event that took place a couple of days ago, a couple of weeks ago. They had a they had a movement, a shifting of earth that was unbelievable. I guess you would call it an earthquake.

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Founder mode means running a company the way a founder can and a hired CEO can't. We don't yet know ...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 20:56:47 GMT

Founder mode means running a company the way a founder can and a hired CEO can't. We don't yet know all the things only a founder can do. But it's not an imprecise term. It's like the definition of a Mersenne prime. We know exactly what one is, but we only know 52 so far.

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A startup doesn't have to be your life's work, but if it is, you become much harder to defeat. You p...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 20:33:11 GMT

A startup doesn't have to be your life's work, but if it is, you become much harder to defeat. You play the long game and you outlast everyone. Because practically everyone else is an opportunist by comparison.

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One way you can recognize AI slop is when the ideas and the diction don't match — when the ideas are...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 10:32:31 GMT

One way you can recognize AI slop is when the ideas and the diction don't match — when the ideas are completely ordinary, but the diction is that of someone announcing a brilliant discovery that they're really excited about.

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Why you need high-res images of vintage watches. Nice looking watch, right? Let's zoom in.

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 22:24:56 GMT

Why you need high-res images of vintage watches. Nice looking watch, right? Let's zoom in.

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I just got an investor update from a nuclear reactor startup that measures their LOIs in gigawatts. ...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 18:17:47 GMT

I just got an investor update from a nuclear reactor startup that measures their LOIs in gigawatts. That's a new one.

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I still occasionally phrase tweets so that they're hard for right-wing mobs to rally round, but much...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:32:03 GMT

I still occasionally phrase tweets so that they're hard for right-wing mobs to rally round, but much less often than I used to.

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How I used to break up tweets to make them hard for mobs to attack at the peak of the woke era. Stra...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:27:21 GMT

How I used to break up tweets to make them hard for mobs to attack at the peak of the woke era. Strange to think this was only 6 years ago.

Paul Graham@paulg

One trick for avoiding Twitter mobs is to try to arrange that no individual tweet is exciting as the subject of a quote-tweet. E.g. mention the topic in one tweet, then say the dangerous thing about it in the succeeding tweet, but merely using a pronoun.

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Jessica modeling the rarest YC shirt of all. I wondered why I'd never seen these in the wild. It's b...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 19:21:19 GMT

Jessica modeling the rarest YC shirt of all. I wondered why I'd never seen these in the wild. It's because she had them made just for her in various colors in 2006.

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This is a scatterplot of the accuracies (sec/day, dial up) of 20 watches I own vs the year made. Not...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:09:20 GMT

This is a scatterplot of the accuracies (sec/day, dial up) of 20 watches I own vs the year made. Notice the lack of a trend. This doesn't mean watches didn't get better, just that accurate watches were made all through the golden age.

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Trial lawyers are lobbying against self-driving cars because they're too safe. They need people to b...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 11:41:00 GMT

Trial lawyers are lobbying against self-driving cars because they're too safe. They need people to be killed and injured so that they have material for lawsuits.

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Jessica: Imagine what it was like when there were no ATMs. 17 yo: I've never used an ATM in my life...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 17:22:08 GMT

Jessica: Imagine what it was like when there were no ATMs.

17 yo: I've never used an ATM in my life.

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If your startup's revenue is affected by seasonality, adjust for it in the graphs you look at. It's ...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 10:13:16 GMT

If your startup's revenue is affected by seasonality, adjust for it in the graphs you look at. It's straightforward to do, even the first year, and until you do it you don't really know how you're doing.

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How do you solve this problem? 1. Learn to be a better judge of character. 2. Find someone who is a ...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 22:04:39 GMT

How do you solve this problem? 1. Learn to be a better judge of character. 2. Find someone who is a good judge of character, and have them vet potential hires. I'd never hire someone Jessica disapproved of, for example.

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One of the more subtle pitfalls of starting a startup when you're too young is that you can't hire w...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 22:02:23 GMT

One of the more subtle pitfalls of starting a startup when you're too young is that you can't hire well, because you haven't had enough experience to be a good judge of people. You can judge technical ability but not character, so you end up hiring smart jerks.

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After going on three campus tours in three days, Jessica has started to slip unknowingly into uptalk...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 20:45:58 GMT

After going on three campus tours in three days, Jessica has started to slip unknowingly into uptalking.

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No matter which party is power, they can't stop spending.

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 23:02:18 GMT

No matter which party is power, they can't stop spending.

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17 yo says I am his second favorite Cornell alum after Andy Bernard. I'll take that actually. IY(hav...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 22:49:59 GMT

17 yo says I am his second favorite Cornell alum after Andy Bernard. I'll take that actually. IY(have a 17 yo)YK.

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Visiting Cornell. One of the biggest surprises was the view. I don't think I ever once stopped to lo...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 17:52:20 GMT

Visiting Cornell. One of the biggest surprises was the view. I don't think I ever once stopped to look at it when I was a student here. I was always on my way to do something. It was like how New Yorkers never look up at the tall buildings.

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Finally, sudo make me a sandwich is reality.

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 22:35:39 GMT

Finally, sudo make me a sandwich is reality.

Andy Fang@andyfang

Today we're opening up the DoorDash CLI in limited beta.

`dd-cli` lets you order DoorDash directly from your agent: search stores, find the best deals, check out, and more.

Early access for US/Canadian macOS developers by waitlist. Excited to see what folks build!

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The danger of continuing to act like a third world country is that you might actually become one.

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 13:02:49 GMT

The danger of continuing to act like a third world country is that you might actually become one.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent@SecScottBessent

As America commemorates 250 years of independence, the @usmint will begin striking this new $1 gold coin to honor the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism. Featuring President Trump, it celebrates the strength of American values, and the promise of a nation dedicated to preserving freedom for all.

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Getting dressed: Me: How do I look? Jessica: You look like PG.

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 12:55:47 GMT

Getting dressed:

Me: How do I look?

Jessica: You look like PG.

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Since no one likes "hydration breaks," let's boycott any advertiser that sponsors them, starting wit...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 11:20:12 GMT

Since no one likes "hydration breaks," let's boycott any advertiser that sponsors them, starting with Powerade.

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Went to see Spain vs France with 17 yo. About 10 minutes in I asked who seemed to him to have the up...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 03:38:59 GMT

Went to see Spain vs France with 17 yo. About 10 minutes in I asked who seemed to him to have the upper hand so far, because it wasn't who we'd been expecting. They kept it the whole match.

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This often happens with technology. Probably more often than not. It's as if the system as a whole h...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:10:11 GMT

This often happens with technology. Probably more often than not. It's as if the system as a whole has some kind of foresight that individual participants in it don't have.

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It's interesting in this case how well AI fits into existing trends. Programming wasn't evolving in ...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:06:07 GMT

It's interesting in this case how well AI fits into existing trends. Programming wasn't evolving in this direction because AI was coming. No one knew it was. And yet we end up with what looks like a smooth acceleration along much the same path.

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Before vibe coding became a thing, programming was already evolving in that direction. It already in...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:53:04 GMT

Before vibe coding became a thing, programming was already evolving in that direction. It already increasingly consisted of installing and configuring stuff other people wrote, without reading the source.

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@heysamir_ There's a simple explanation. I form my opinions on issues individually instead of accept...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 23:33:08 GMT

@heysamir_ There's a simple explanation. I form my opinions on issues individually instead of accepting the entire left- or right-wing set of opinions en bloc.

I wrote about it here: paulgraham.com/mod.html

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This is yet another reason it's good for young founders, especially, to start by building something ...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 21:44:19 GMT

This is yet another reason it's good for young founders, especially, to start by building something they themselves want. If you're the intended user, you're not going to be satisfied with vague. (Nor is any user, but at least this way you're forced to see it.)

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An initial startup idea can't usually be both grand and precise. In practice they're usually either ...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 21:42:40 GMT

An initial startup idea can't usually be both grand and precise. In practice they're usually either grand and vague or precise and small. Precise and small is better. You know who your initial users are, and you expand outward. With grand and vague you can't even get started.

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We ran into Amit from the winter 2007 batch. We still remember him vividly, because after I told him...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 19:37:34 GMT

We ran into Amit from the winter 2007 batch. We still remember him vividly, because after I told him in rehearsals that he had to speak louder, the first sentence of his Demo Day presentation was probably the most emphatic ever delivered.

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The reason people think premonitions are meaningful is that they don't remember the false ones. So w...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 18:25:08 GMT

The reason people think premonitions are meaningful is that they don't remember the false ones. So when I have a premonition I make a point of remembering it. And not surprisingly, they all turn out to be false.

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This is presumably one reason people can succeed at starting startups so young, when you have to be ...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 18:09:01 GMT

This is presumably one reason people can succeed at starting startups so young, when you have to be older to do well at most other similarly complicated things. In startups the usually fatal solipsism of the young can be turned to your advantage.

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This would not ordinarily work, but it happens to work with technology because the young are also th...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 18:06:22 GMT

This would not ordinarily work, but it happens to work with technology because the young are also the bellwethers. So if you make something you want, other people will magically turn out to want it too.

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The biggest mistake young founders make is a variant of this: to build something you imagine people ...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 18:04:56 GMT

The biggest mistake young founders make is a variant of this: to build something you imagine people want, instead of studying them and figuring out what they actually do want. But the hack for beating this is to roll with your solipsism and make something for yourself.

Robin Hanson@robinhanson

My guess is that the biggest mistake that young adults make is to be overly self-focused. It is fine to be selfish, most folks are, but a mistake to think you serve yourself best by focusing that much on how you feel, look, etc.

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The graph is from "The Political Economy of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" by McCarty and Steel. ...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 17:31:51 GMT

The graph is from "The Political Economy of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" by McCarty and Steel.

osf.io/preprints/soca…

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The rise and fall of wokeness: DEI commitments in corporate securities disclosures filed with the SE...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 17:29:52 GMT

The rise and fall of wokeness: DEI commitments in corporate securities disclosures filed with the SEC. To me this seems a trailing indicator; most other measures of wokeness take off well before 2019 and peak in 2020 or 2021. But the shape! That's what a moral fashion looks like.

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Today in investor updates: Startup apologizes for growing a mere 36% in June, because they were focu...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 16:56:14 GMT

Today in investor updates: Startup apologizes for growing a mere 36% in June, because they were focused mostly on fundraising.

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It slows down between 1890 and 1940 as industry concentrates in what is now the rust belt, then afte...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 16:29:18 GMT

It slows down between 1890 and 1940 as industry concentrates in what is now the rust belt, then after World War II, bang, it shoots westward.

Civixplorer@Civixplorer

📍 Mean center of population in the US over the years.

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One of the weird constants about YC is that the disses are always the same. Investors always claim ...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 16:23:29 GMT

One of the weird constants about YC is that the disses are always the same.  Investors always claim valuations have become impossibly high. Competitors always claim we've jumped the shark because the batch sizes are now too big. Historically both have always been mistaken.

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Explained derivatives to 14 yo on the way back from breakfast, but before I could do integrals he di...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 16:17:28 GMT

Explained derivatives to 14 yo on the way back from breakfast, but before I could do integrals he diverted the conversation by asking about the Denver Nuggets.

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Robert Scoble interviews me outside YC after the summer 2010 Demo Day. By that point we'd funded wha...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 05:20:17 GMT

Robert Scoble interviews me outside YC after the summer 2010 Demo Day. By that point we'd funded what seemed the enormous number of 208 startups, including 36 in that batch.

youtube.com/watch?v=UacbJ7…

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It's so strange reading people saying that soccer is boring when I feel worn out from the stress of ...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 14:32:00 GMT

It's so strange reading people saying that soccer is boring when I feel worn out from the stress of watching the last two England matches. Frankly I would have preferred them to be a bit more boring.

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@masonictemple4 More like we can tell from that comment that math is not your strong point. Benching...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:08:58 GMT

@masonictemple4 More like we can tell from that comment that math is not your strong point. Benching 600 is roughly as rare as being a billionaire. If Tate has 50m, that's equivalent to benching 30. Sure, you'd need a light bar, but that only makes the comparison more damning.

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My son asked what my first tweet was. It was me thanking Avi Bryant for getting me paulg. This is my...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 19:08:41 GMT

My son asked what my first tweet was. It was me thanking Avi Bryant for getting me paulg. This is my second, a day later, complaining about the inability to edit tweets after I got his username wrong in the first.

Paul Graham@paulg

Drat.  Make that @avibryant.  I wonder if it's necessary that you can't edit tweets?  I.e. would Twitter have worked without that?

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This is like someone who can bench press 30 pounds writing about what it takes to bench press 600.

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 16:37:58 GMT

This is like someone who can bench press 30 pounds writing about what it takes to bench press 600.

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The people who still read won't just be better informed. They'll be (with a couple exceptions) the o...

Paul Graham (@paulg) — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 16:29:38 GMT

The people who still read won't just be better informed. They'll be (with a couple exceptions) the only ones who can think well. You can't think well without writing well, and you can't write well without reading well.

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