[fchu]

There is something fascinating about this article, and it's not the tips about how to properly work hard, which aren't new or particularly insightful (otherwise reasonable and well summarized).

It's the fact that throughout the article, hard work is an implied imperative in life, the main thing to do (otherwise it brings a "feeling of disgust"), without questioning if that's healthy, right, or so absolute. Maybe instead of the how, I was expecting something about the why, a reflection on the bad aspects of working hard too, and its associated costs on other parts of one's life, whether it's Paul, Patrick or Bill.

[tyrex2017]

The question you address is much more difficult to answer, if not impossible.

I read the article with the preface: Lets suppose workimg hard is desirable. How to do this?

This is the correct reading for me

[pornel]

pg runs a business that depends on young people wanting to work their asses off for startups.

IMHO the real "why" of this article is attracting the right people for Y Combinator.

[dang]

pg hasn't been running Y Combinator for over 7 years!

You've got your causality reversed. It's not that this essay exists because of YC, it's that YC exists because PG is obsessed with the idea of doing great work. (There are other reasons too, of course, but that was one vector.) He was that way long before YC.

[eloff]

This is clearly true looking from the outside, but people seem so eager to attribute motivations to greed or self interest, and success to luck, inherited wealth, and connections for any famous and successful person.

Is it just jealously and pettiness? Do people downplay the achievements of others to make themselves feel better about achieving nothing remarkable?

There is a rarely used English word I learned for the first time the other day - compersion - which is the opposite of jealousy. When you take joy in other people's success. Let's do more of that as a community and as human beings.

[luffapi]

It’s not clearly true at all. Please tell me what was “great” about Viaweb (how pg got where he is today). It was literally about being at the right place at the right time. I think you’d also be hard pressed to find someone who would call Arc great.

> Is it just jealously and pettiness?

It’s neither, it’s people seeing who gets rewarded, how and why.

[dang]

> think you’d also be hard pressed to find someone who would call Arc great.

I would call Arc great! It's one of my favorite things about my job that I get to work in it every day...though not nearly enough every day.

As for Viaweb, are you sure you're not looking at this through hindsight? Those guys were among the first to invent what we now call web apps, years before AJAX. In an era of internet startups coasting on hype, they built a real business - basically what is now called Shopify today. They also did it with a shockingly small team. All that seems pretty great to me.

[luffapi]

I guess I don’t find an online store interesting or innovative. It’s hardly the Apple II or Linux. I also wonder if a sub 100M acquisition would be considered a success by pg himself on a YC company.

Have you ever heard of WebObjects? It was light years ahead of what Viaweb was doing at the time.

[eloff]

> Please tell me what was “great” about Viaweb (how pg got where he is today)

He built a product that many people loved enough to pay for. It's harder than it sounds.

> It was literally about being at the right place at the right time.

Entrepreneurial success requires that. If you're in the wrong place or the wrong time, you'll fail.

> It’s neither, it’s people seeing who gets rewarded, how and why.

What do you mean by that?

[luffapi]

Just because something makes money, that doesn’t make it great. MS is a perfect example. Made a ton of money with products and predatory business practices so bad they held back innovation for years until Linux gave people an alternative and created the foundation for the modern internet. That was great tech from the time period.

[AnimalMuppet]

It was great compared to what else was available at the time. Yes, it was about being in the right place at the right time - a place and time where three guys could build something that was better than anything out there, that people actually used.

[luffapi]

> a place and time where three guys could build something that was better than anything out there, that people actually used

This is being in the right place at the right time. In other words, luck.

[balfirevic]

> It's the fact that throughout the article, hard work is an implied imperative in life

That would be strange, as PG doesn't seem to believe that: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1404321931491430403

[imgabe]

You should work hard if there’s something important to you that you want to achieve. If there’s nothing that you particularly want to accomplish then there isn’t much point in working hard.