“If Apple were to grow the iPod into a cell phone with a web browser, Microsoft would be in big trouble.” — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower.” — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
If you really understand something, you can say it in the fewest words, instead of thrashing about. — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“If you can’t find ten Lisp hackers, then your company is probably based in the wrong city for developing software” — Paul Graham Cybersecurity Copy Share Image
You know your business model is broken when you're suing your customers. — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“To be happy I think you have to be doing something you not only enjoy, but admire.” — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“Don't ignore your dreams; don't work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy.” — Paul Graham Dream Copy Share Image
One startup I dream of funding is the one that kills the record companies. — Paul Graham Business Copy Share Image
It's hard to say exactly what it is about face-to-face contact that makes deals happen, but whatever it is, it hasn't yet… — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to… — Paul Graham Customer Copy Share Image
When Facebook first started, and it was just a social directory for undergrads at Harvard, it would have seemed like such a… — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“So although there may be, in certain specific moments (like your family, this month) a fixed amount of money available to trade… — Paul Graham Family Copy Share Image
What I tell founders is not to sweat the business model too much at first. The most important task at first is… — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“And the reason everyone doesn’t use Listp is that programming languages are not merely technologies, but habits of mind as well, and… — Paul Graham Habits Copy Share Image
A programming language is for thinking about programs, not for expressing programs you've already thought of. It should be a pencil, not… — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“If you can keep hope and worry balanced, they will drive a project forward the same way your two legs drive a… — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“Paying attention is more important to reliability than moving slowly. Because he pays close attention, a Navy pilot can land a 40,000… — Paul Graham Advice Copy Share Image
“When Bauhaus designers adopted Sullivan's "form follows function," what they meant was, form should follow function. And if function is hard enough,… — Paul Graham Ed sullivan Copy Share Image
“If you want to make money at some point, remember this, because this is one of the reasons startups win. Big companies… — Paul Graham Big companies Copy Share Image
“A great programmer, on a roll, could create a million dollars worth of wealth in a couple weeks. A mediocre programmer over… — Paul Graham Money Copy Share Image
“The people most likely to grasp that wealth can be created are the ones who are good at making things, the craftsmen.… — Paul Graham Computer programmers Copy Share Image
“Users are a double-edged sword. They can help you improve your language, but they can also deter you from improving. So choose… — Paul Graham Irony Copy Share Image
“There is all the more reason for startups to write Web-based software now, because writing desktop software has become a lot less… — Paul Graham Entrepreneurship Copy Share Image
If you imagine someone with 100 percent determination and 100 percent intelligence, you can discard a lot of intelligence before they stop… — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“The difference between design and research seems to be a question of new versus good. Design doesn't have to be new, but… — Paul Graham Different directions Copy Share Image
Small-business customers are very conservative and very cheap. We don't have to explain ourselves for the most part. — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“The stated purpose of schools is to educate the kids. But there is no external pressure to do this well.” — Paul Graham Education Copy Share Image
Like having a child, running a startup is the sort of experience that's hard to imagine unless you've done it yourself. — Paul Graham Child Copy Share Image
“If you want to make money, you tend to be forced to work on problems that are too nasty for anyone to… — Paul Graham Money Copy Share Image
“Just fix things that seem broken, regardless of whether it seems likes the problem is important enough to build a company on.” — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“Few smart kids can spare the attention that popularity requires. Unless they also happen to be good-looking, natural athletes, or siblings of… — Paul Graham Nerds Copy Share Image
“Being strong-willed is not enough, however. You also have to be hard on yourself. Someone who was strong-willed but self-indulgent would not… — Paul Graham Determination Copy Share Image
“In practice I think it’s easier to see ugliness than to imagine beauty. Most of the people who’ve made beautiful things seem… — Paul Graham Beauty Copy Share Image
“Object-oriented programming offers a sustainable way to write spaghetti code. It lets you accrete programs as a series of patches.” — Paul Graham Programming Copy Share Image
“If a writer rewrites an essay, people who read the new version are unlikely to complain that their thoughts have been broken… — Paul Graham Humor Copy Share Image
“Cobol, for all its sometime popularity, does not seem to have any intellectual descendants. It is an evolutionary dead- end a Neanderthal… — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“Unknowing imitation is almost a recipe for bad design. If you don’t know where your ideas are coming from, you’re probably imitating… — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“We need a language that lets us scribble and smudge and smear, not a language where you have to sit with a… — Paul Graham Communication Copy Share Image
We don't have to go that far to sell our beer because our immediate accounts sell so much. Places that sold 10… — Paul Graham Copy Share Image
“The phrase “personal computer” is part of the language now, but when it was first used it had a deliberately audacious sound,… — Paul Graham Computers Copy Share Image
