Paul Graham

@metapreston How can you claim it's YC dogma not to have kids when I wrote an essay about why people should? paulgraham.com/kids.html Do you just make this stuff up?

Ignore the YC dogma. Get married and have kids And work with the people who have something to lose

If you really want to hold yourself to a high standard, graph the growth rate of the number you care about instead of the number itself. Then you're winning if you can even keep it flat.

Pretty astonishing. In Texas, between 10:00 am and 4:00 p.m., 80-90% of electricity comes from carbon free sources. And storage is already a significant contributor in the early morning and evening

@formby1971 @Stepmark_Jay It's not too late. Buy one used on Chrono24.

@paulg @Stepmark_Jay The JLC Reverso is essentially an Art Deco design. They also released a couple of sector dial watches, like the Omega above a few years back. Regret not buying one now.

There's a vintage watch dealer in London (Somlo) that always has watches in amazing condition. 60 year old watches that seem unworn. I asked the owner how he does it. He said they've been around a long time and always pay promptly, so they get first look.

@MehtabKarta Golden age (1945 - 1970), though in practice the gold seeps around the edges and it's more like 1936 - 1980.

@paulg Oh wow, mega vintage !

Helion has taken the #1 spot on the @geekwire 200 🎉

I'm glad she chose this excerpt about how to make a convincing Demo Day presentation. Founders would be so much more effective at fundraising if they gave their pitches YC-style "vertebrae".

@Marcus_J_W You look for people writing programs to do bad things. Do you also look for people writing programs to write programs to do bad things?

Sharing some of the work I’ve been doing at OpenAI: we now monitor 99.9% of internal coding traffic for misalignment using our most powerful models, reviewing full trajectories to catch suspicious behavior, escalate serious cases quickly, and strengthen our safeguards over time.

@vidigoat2011 @AdilMouja You're 14 and you're buying vintage watches from dealers in Japan? We both know what's actually going on here. I usually block accounts when I notice it. But if you stop I won't.

@paulg @AdilMouja Japanese dealers are the best for authentic vintage pieces. The quality and history they bring is unmatched — worth every extra step.

@MehtabKarta Most of their stuff is too new for me.

@paulg Watch Brothers in London has good stuff too, a little overpriced but probably not an issue for Paul G lol

@pitdesi It's harder for people of e.g. Indian descent than for people of Chinese descent? That's surprising. I thought admissions officers discriminated most against the latter.

It is harder for Asians to get into top colleges than other races, but it is much harder for South Asians than East Asians.

@galeluka If you put a watch on a timegrapher it's not going to perform well unless it has a genuinely good movement inside.

@paulg How can you trust anyone these days abt orginals vs fakes

@Stepmark_Jay Feats of complication like this are a brand age phenomenon. If you like art deco you can still get actual art deco watches.

@paulg I think you'd love this vintage AP with an art deco design. Hard to find a timeless design like this.

@AdilMouja Oh, I know. I've bought several things from Japanese dealers.

@paulg If you're looking for vintage watches in great condition, there is no better place than Japan.

@Brutal_Realist_ Ugh, endless pseudo-wise AI replies. Save me @nikitabier!

@paulg Sharp point — but growth rate can mislead if you’re not careful. You can grow fast on something that doesn’t retain or monetise. Early spikes look great… then fall apart. Growth matters, but quality of growth matters more.

Another advantage of focusing on growth rate rather than absolute numbers is that it makes it easier to switch to a new variant of the product if you discover one. It makes it easier to see tails that will eventually wag the dog.

It takes a while of course to be sure that the 10% weekly growth rate is real. But if it turns out to be real, and in a market that won't top out, that new revenue source is the one that matters. 10% a week is 142x a year!

Example: Your startup is already making millions a year. You discover some new mutation that only makes a couple thousand a week but that's growing by 10% per week. If you focus on growth rates, it will get the attention it should sooner.

@rickasaurus People used to ask if my sister and I were twin brothers. (There was a period in the mid 70s when the default haircuts merged.) She didn't like that.

@paulg People frequently ask me if my son and daughter (5 and 7) are twins. I think the half-race thing confuses people's brains though.

If you have multiple kids you might be surprised by how different they look.