Paul Graham quotes.


The most interesting to me is the one below.

5. People unsure of their own position will try to emphasize it by maltreating those they think rank below.

This is just something I get a lot at work. I am also reminded of an offhand reference that I think Google talked about. A-quality people will hire A-quality people because that's who they want to work with. B-Quality people hire C-Quality people because they are threatened to have to work with them on-the-level. So they secretly stack the deck whenever they can so they're the shinier turd.

If you ever give someone the responsibility to hire people. Tell them they'll be graded on how well the newly hired person is.

12. In pre-industrial times, (kids) were all apprentices of one sort of another, whether in shops or on farms or even on warships. / Teenagers seem to have respected adults more then, because the adults were the visible experts in the skills they were trying to learn. Now most kids have little idea what their parents do in their distant offices, and see no connection (indeed, there is precious little) between schoolwork and the work they’ll do as adults.

This quote is very interesting. It brings to mind a friend who's father apparently worked in the Department of National Defence (Canada). When we were teens I would ask him or his son what his job is and he's never say. He'd usually say something really corny, making as if he was James Bond and he might have to kill me. Even my friend wasn't sure what he did. Now, I don't think he was that important or security sensitive (based on a lot of things). I think that he purposely did it to maybe shelter us from the kind of shitty job that may be awaiting us.

But what's the point? I'm not 100% into nepotism, but if you can guide your child and tell him about something you may have figured out they should be better off. If he knows your work is misery, or what chances you missed; they might move toward or away from it. It's not like telling them they WILL be a lawyer, but it might be interesting to explain something honestly.

I think children are very isolated because their parents keep a lot of details and responsibilities totally hidden from them. I don't think you should sit down a ten-year-old and tell him about pregnancies, cancer and mortgages. But they should probably be prepared to work, understand the benefits of skill building.

I know modern parents don't want to force their careers on their kids. But why not give them the rudder instead of just letting them drift? If they don't want to rudder you gave them they can change it. Better yet, they might be able to repurpose it to their own taste.