Anjou Zhao

Ramblings

Source: paulgraham.com/earn.html

Rather than the title, or lines like “how to become a millionaire,” what I like are the many passages in the essay that I find far more important.

My favorite discussion is this one:

“So how, exactly, do you make something people like so much that they tell their friends about it? … is that it’s hard to make something customers want that they don’t already have. As soon as a new, satisfiable need is discovered, people rush to satisfy it. So you’re going to have to discover a need that no one else knows about yet.”

If there is a second, it’s this one:

“You should make something you and your friends want. Making something you and your friends want doesn’t mean you have to build a consumer product. Maybe you and your friends are molecular biologists, and there’s something cool that could be done now to DNA that everyone else has overlooked. Maybe you and your friends are into drones. The idea doesn’t have to have a wide appeal. It literally just has to appeal to you and your friends.”

I like the argument here, just like you should always make something you’ll be proud of, at least you can’t already find on the market. And always, working with your friends will be one of the most wonderful experiences in your life. But you still need to do the right thing the right way, and keep working on it until it reaches its theoretically intended potential.