Top all-time · #450
Paul Buchheit
Personal blog · paulbuchheit.blogspot.com · on HN as paulstartupsprogramming
Paul Buchheit's personal blog at paulbuchheit.blogspot.com covers startups and programming. Since 2007, 125 different Hacker News readers have linked it 216 times, most often “If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good.”. The last post was in 2014, but the archive is still widely read.
Sometimes recommended · 8 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Paul Buchheit's posts as a stock reference on serendipity, luck, ego, doing what you love, and handling failure and loss. Commenters say his posts help them think through hard personal and startup problems.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good.13 people · 14 mentions · first linked 2010-02-09
- I am nothing6 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2011-08-20
- What To Do With Your Millions6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2010-05-28
- Paul Buchheit: Communicating with code6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2009-01-22
- Paul Buchheit: How to be right 90% of the time, and why I'd rather be wrong.5 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2007-03-22
- Paul Buchheit: Serendipity finds you5 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2010-10-24
- Eight years today5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2012-03-10
- Paul Buchheit: Is there more to life than money?4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2007-12-10
- Paul Buchheit: Open as in water, the fluid necessary for life4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-11-20
- 10 predictions for the world of January 1, 20204 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2010-01-03
What Hacker News says?
It's often said that you should "Do what you love", but that's mostly bad advice. It encourages people to grind away their lives in pursuit of some mostly unattainable goal, such as being a movie star or a billionaire startup founder. And even if they do make it, often the reality is nothing like they imagined it would be, so they're still unhappy. Do what you love is in the future. Love what you do is right now. As…
Comment linking /2014/07/the-technology.html
on “Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help”Submitted A Third Solution as a story · 673 points
HN discussionI met Nikki while I lived at a Hacker House in Mountain View for a few weeks in January 2012, having recently moved to the Bay Area. I remember being impressed at the time by her intensity, and by the fact that she actually had a real product with real users that solved a real problem. An audible "oh no" came out of my lips when I clicked this link and realized I was reading about someone I had shared a few dinners…
Comment linking /2012/03/eight-years-today.html
on “My startup failed, and this is what it feels like”Submitted The Gift as a story · 669 points
HN discussionPaul Buchheit wrote a wonderful post, after similar circumstances, that I often re-read: > On a more practical level, what matters most in our day-to-day lives is that we're good to ourselves and to each other. It's actually not possible to only do one or the other -- we must do both or neither, but that's a topic for another time. Sometimes, when I write about startups or other interests of mine, I worry that perha…
Comment linking /2012/03/eight-years-today.html?m=1
on “Today is the end of sheloshim for my beloved husband”Submitted Eight years today as a story · 639 points
HN discussionI was among the naysayers. I first met Drew at pg's house just before Dropbox did YC. I listened as he explained Dropbox, and I immediately thought of a dozen reasons why it would be very difficult and probably fail (I'd recently worked on something very similar for a month or so just to figure out whether it was a direction I wanted to go with my own company, so had some familiarity with the scale of the problem...…
Comment linking /2007/03/how-to-be-right-90-of-time-and-why-id.html
on “April 5, 2007: "Show HN, Dropbox"”Submitted I am nothing as a story · 520 points
HN discussion>Well, I mean, given that most new product launches and most new business ventures fail, of course the naysayers will be right more often. That doesn't mean they actually have insight into why products fail. Here's a great article on that subject "How to be right 90% of the time, and why I'd rather be wrong": http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-to-be-right-90-...
Comment linking /2007/03/how-to-be-right-90-of-time-and-why-id.html
on “The Chromebook Pixel”Submitted Paul Buchheit: Serendipity finds you as a story · 421 points
HN discussionI like this because it resonates with Paul Buchheit's earlier blogpost about not letting ego fear rule your life: http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010/10/serendipity-finds-y... Yes, this guy got superbly lucky. He also put himself into a position where it was possible to get superbly lucky, and then capitalized on that luck as well as possible.
Comment linking /2010/10/serendipity-finds-you.html
on “Steve's story - Google employee #13”Submitted Paul Buchheit: Four Reasons Google is still Awesome as a story · 325 points
HN discussionStripe likely has pick of the cream for open positions. It has been public knowledge for a while that they're a rocket ship, and that attracts top talent by definition (in addition to sharks and wolves [0] I'd presume). [0] https://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2007/06/great-story-from-s...
Comment linking /2007/06/great-story-from-steve-yegge.html
on “What Working At Stripe Has Been Like”Submitted The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 to YesOn19 as a story · 311 points
HN discussionI used to believe this as well. Experience is the toughest teacher because of the method -- you're given the test before the lesson. When you're young, you are bulletproof and ten feet tall and can run through walls and you have no concept of your own limitations. What seems obvious to those of us who have gone through the cycle of a startup is the greenfield learning experience for starry-eyed newbies. Paul Buchhei…
Comment linking /2014/07/the-technology.html
on “Lessons I learned from the failure of my first startup, Dinnr”Submitted Paul Buchheit: The two paths to success as a story · 294 points
HN discussionThe article handles the case of people who derive a meaning from outside of their work and the people who are looking for financial success and power/status within a corporation. As I've mentioned in a previous comment, the article doesn't take into account the fact that there are people who a) look for a meaning that isn't centered around money or power b) derive it from their work If you're an engineer working for…
Comment linking /2007/12/is-there-more-to-life-than-money.html
on “The Gervais Principle, or The Office According to "The Office"”Submitted What To Do With Your Millions as a story · 291 points
HN discussionPaul's thoughts after his first three years angel investing (2011): http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2011/01/angel-investing-my-...
Comment linking /2011/01/angel-investing-my-first-three-years.html?m=1
on “Paul Buchheit on Lessons Learned from Investing in 200 Startups”Submitted Eight years today (2012) as a story · 270 points
HN discussionFrom the man himself - http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2009/01/communicating-with-...
Comment linking /2009/01/communicating-with-code.html
on “Paul Buchheit on Lessons Learned from Investing in 200 Startups”Submitted If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good. as a story · 265 points
HN discussionThis is close to what you want, since a hack is inherently creative: http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2009/10/applied-philosophy-...
Comment linking /2009/10/applied-philosophy-aka-hacking.html
on “Paul Buchheit: The two paths to success”Submitted My Startup School Europe talk: The Technology as a story · 245 points
HN discussionhttp://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2007/12/is-there-more-to-li...
Comment linking /2007/12/is-there-more-to-life-than-money.html
on “ Facebook Acquires FriendFeed ”Submitted Paul Buchheit: Applied Philosophy, a.k.a. "Hacking" as a story · 233 points
HN discussionYou're probably right. http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-to-be-right-90-...
Comment linking /2007/03/how-to-be-right-90-of-time-and-why-id.html
on “Squareup”Submitted Paul Buchheit: Angel investing, my first three years as a story · 227 points
HN discussionI should turn this into a FAQ, but PowerShell is natural on Windows, where the OS provides objects (either via the .NET VM, or COM and .DLLs, etc.) A Unix shell like bash or Oil is natural on Unix, where the OS uses text files. And in distributed systems where data is JSON, YAML, XML, protobuf, msgpack, etc. not objects. So basically shell is a "situated" language, and the easy of accomplishing any given task depend…
Comment linking /2009/01/communicating-with-code.html
on “Four features that justify a new Unix shell”Submitted Help me distribute $100,000 to new entrepreneurs in Africa as a story · 220 points
HN discussion
