"I couldn't really learn Erlang, 'cos it didn't exist, so I invented it"

Re:"I couldn't really learn Erlang, 'cos it didn't exist, so... by emmett on Friday January 25, 2013 @02:49PM (#5117268)

Generally really like your post, but I have to correct you about PG's essay.

It's people who work at normal jobs that he calls caged animals, and founders are the wild animals.

"In fact, getting a normal job may actually make you less able to start a startup, by turning you into a tame animal who thinks he needs an office to work in and a product manager to tell him what software to write."

http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.html

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:"I couldn't really learn Erlang, 'cos it didn't exist, so... by nostrademons on Friday January 25, 2013 @04:46PM (#5117856)

I was thinking of a different essay:

http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html

"One of the best tricks I learned during our startup was a rule for deciding who to hire. Could you describe the person as an animal? It might be hard to translate that into another language, but I think everyone in the US knows what it means. It means someone who takes their work a little too seriously; someone who does what they do so well that they pass right through professional and cross over into obsessive."

[ Parent | on HN ]