Mastodawn

davekarpf Sep 13, 2024

I have some thoughts on Paul Graham's latest essay, "Founder Mode."

Paul Graham founded YCombinator. His singular influence has been to drive Silicon Valley toward producing endless Sam Altmans and zero Aaron Swartzs.

Every time he speaks, we are all worse off.

https://open.substack.com/pub/davekarpf/p/paul-graham-and-the-cult-of-the-founder?r=eeyg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Paul Graham and the Cult of the Founder

"Founder Mode" is such garbage.

The Future, Now and Then

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Long Live Moonjoy

@davekarpf

"Did Paul Graham impart genuinely original knowledge to them, or just fete them with stories about what special boys they all were, while open the doors to copious amounts of seed funding?"

Graham's posts (ahem "essays") are clever sounding assertions mixed with a special kind of reader flattery intended to appeal to a specific set of young, naive, ambitious men with the larger goal of driving them into YC to work them long hours below minimum wage.