Paul Graham

Paul Graham is best known for founding the startup accelerator Y Combinator, creating the forum Hacker News, and for essays he has written and hosts on his website: https://paulgraham.com/articles.html

Graham has written several essays on the importance of using writing as tool for thinking. I largely agree with him. For years now I have kept a private daily journal which now forms the base content of this website. It works for my own benefit as processing my private writing into more presentable form gives me opportunities to recall and adjust my old ideas. I also keep extensive private technical notes for my computer work and other topics.

Here is one of Graham’s articles you might read first. He has also collected some of his best essays in a book called “Hackers & Painters”.

When I was in grad school I used to hang around the MIT AI Lab occasionally. It was kind of intimidating at first. Everyone there spoke so fast. But after a while I learned the trick of speaking fast. You don’t have to think any faster; just use twice as many words to say everything.