What to Do

Is Paul giving himself a pass for the companies he funds?

I read it more like he's considering what to throw his money at, and it sounds like he wants to throw his money at companies that make good new things.

But then he doesn't really define good, makes an odd comparison to a now acclaimed pulp fiction author and then says we can only really know what is good after the fact.

Leaning on "new" so hard as part of the "good" just reduces to, "Make new-new things that aren't by every objective measure bad and see if it works out in hindsight".

It would be helpful if we understood what good and bad mean to him.

With his multiple endorsements of MAGA I fear his definition of "good" is severley warped. Is ensuring the poor don't die of preventable diseases good? Not to this guy.

Any second thoughts about Flock (YC17) or others?

His essay from 2008[0] is just as nebulous. When you have such a hand-wavy definition of such an important term, it ultimately means you can wield your narrative to fit any conclusion you want.

[0] - https://www.paulgraham.com/good.html

Yeah, this feels like an attempt to (partially preemptively?) rehabilitate his image/legacy more than anything. If he makes a blog saying how important it is to "make good new things", then surely everything he makes is a good new thing! No need to look further to see what he actually supports.

("making things rather than, say, making critical observations about things other people have made. Those are ideas too, and sometimes valuable ones, but it's easy to trick oneself into believing they're more valuable than they are. Criticism seems sophisticated")

https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/07/20

"thoughts by a billionaire. self-praising. spiritually enriching. sophisticated. 'high' value"

"thoughts by a commoner. critical. base. self-deluding juvenile hack work. 'low' value"

"thoughts by a billionaire about how critics are delusional and self-important. Sophisticated irony. philosophically challenging. 'high' value"

"suppose I say the author is giving himself a pass for the companies he funds?"

"sophomoric. intellectually sterile. 'low' value"

Great comic.

Reminds me of my own "ai art", The Marlboro Man riding a chrome blow up dog.

"sophomoric. intellectually sterile. 'low' value"

> With his multiple endorsements of MAGA

Do you have a source for this that I can read up on?