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Paul Graham
@paulg
, 3 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
@Noahpinion They could also solve this problem, without giving up their ambition, by trying to be more discerning about which projects actually help the world.
@Noahpinion For example, to the extent "the world" means its human population, Noora Health (noorahealth.org) literally saves the world. Surely it's good that optimistic people want to work for them rather than just giving up on the idea of a job making the world better.
@Noahpinion Or maybe it would be better to save the world in a physical sense (from global warming) by working on new energy sources, e.g. at Helion (helionenergy.com). There is no one best answer for everyone, but surely some answers are better than others.
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Paul Graham
@paulg
Projects that yield great results often wouldn't seem promising to a rational person. Fortunately some people have a compensating irrationality: they're so interested in the project that they'll work on it for its own sake.
One reason big companies can't do what startups can is that people in big companies aren't allowed to have this kind of irrationality. You can't work on something just because it seems cool. You have to explain what the benefits will be. A reasonable request. All too reasonable.
Y Combinator itself was an instance of this pattern. We had no idea if it would make money. But it seemed like a cool thing to try. And being an instance of this pattern helped us to see it in startups that applied.
Read 4 tweets
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Paul Graham
@paulg
Imagine the reaction on Twitter if Darwin published the Origin of Species today. It was bad enough for him at the time, but imagine what it would be like now. If he had an employer, there's a significant chance he'd be fired.
We think of social media as a way to exchange ideas, but although it's undoubtedly a way to exchange conventional ideas with people who already agree with them, I worry it might actually suppress some of the biggest ideas.
And by suppress, I don't mean just that Darwin would not have been actively tweeting about evolution. I mean he might have actually been less likely to follow up his initial ideas about it.
Read 3 tweets
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Paul Graham
@paulg
I bet I've heard 100 startups explain why they failed to raise money, and I don't think I've heard one say that the reason was that their company seemed unpromising. And yet that is almost always the reason in the investors' minds.
If investors think you're unlikely to succeed, they may well be wrong, but at least understand why they think that. If they're wrong, why are they wrong?
In fact, if you try this exercise in the middle of fundraising instead of waiting till the end, you may not fail after all.
Read 4 tweets

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Trying to make a list of all the Zcash-related presentations at DevCon4. Let's see… there are a lot of them! …
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Jeff McFadden
@homemadeguitars
👉Thought game👈
Let's pretend the rich people aren't lying. Let's pretend we can't solve global warming without blowing up the economy
So somebody is really proposing that we should drastically alter the entire world ecosystem because otherwise we'd have another Great Depression
2. Because I believe that their claim is at least partly true.
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We have to stop burning it.
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12 years to act, or lose the chance.
3. 10 years ago next month Barack Obama was elected President.
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Why Bill Russell is greater than Wilt Chamberlain and a top 5 player all time.
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Sizhao Yang
@zaoyang
1/ Everyone knows about "deliberate practice" "grit", but how do you apply these tactically. Physical sports like basketball have drills and habits that you can apply and idols like MJ or Lebron. Are there the equivalent? Meaning what habits do you need to unlearn and learn?
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Souvik Mukherjee
@svmke1
1/ Manu (The progenitor of Humankind)
All different races of Mankind are derived from Manu and Shradha. The current Manu is Vaivasvata Manu.
2/ The word Manu literary means man but it is a title given to the progenitor of mankind. According to Hindu Puranas there are many kalpas (One day of Lord Brahma the creator) and each Kalpa has 14 manvantara and each manvatara has one manu. So basically each Kalpa has 14 Manus.
3/ The current manu of the present manvantara is Shraddhadeva or Vaivasvata Manu of this current Kalpa. He is the son of Vivasvat (Probably Surya) and is therefore also known as Manu-vaivasvata.
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