[Jd]

TLDR: Startups that try to focus on big launches are generally lazy. Success comes from putting in extraordinary effort to putting your customer first. This means you get super-enthusiastic users. This works by the principle of compound growth as users tell their friends.

Somewhat ironically I am of the opinion that:

(A) this is one of pg's best and most useful essays ever

(B) it is partially more useful because it is longer and more experience driven than some of his other "classic" essays (i.e. the theory behind why blub is bad and lisp is great)

(C) it is too long and could have been edited down a bit more

[scribu]

I agree that it's one of his most useful essays ever.

I didn't find it particularly long, though. It would be great if more top links on HN were as in-depth as this.

[lmm]

It felt like the main difference from most essays is that this one give lots of concrete examples of everything he talks about.

I'm in two minds about this. It makes it more accessible, but seems like it could divert attention away from the general point to the specific companies.

[dmoney]

It's long, but at least PG gets to the point. So many articles have a title like "Why x is y", and then start like "The cool evening air smelled of honeysuckle in <place that, initially, would seem to have nothing to do with x or y>", and are multiple pages long even though having a web page be more than one page long makes no sense.

[6cxs2hd6]

His essay nails it.

This is priceless advice. For free. If you could follow it without coaching hep, you wouldn't need YC (except maybe for the connections and networking).

The tricky part is that the wisdom is utterly simple. [1]

So if you say it concisely, it sounds like a fortune cookie. A lot of people won't believe it. They'll ignore it. Or they'll twist it into something unnecessarily complicated, and/or remap it into what they want to hear.

Maybe you could drop some Zen koan on their asses to stop them cold, a sort of mental slap to the face. Or more realistically, you could do what pg did -- write a somewhat long but clear essay. Hang enough flesh on the skeleton to get people to consider it.

- - -

[1] Simple is the sense of "not complicated". But not in the sense of "easy". It's hard work. On the other hand, it's gratifying work when you're getting feedback from real people and acting on it. Running that loop is energizing. But you need the energy because it's incessant.

[larrys]

Agree but not "c".

Target of this essay has the time to read something this long.

I'm saying that as someone that doesn't even need the info but yet I found it good enough (don't always agree with PG or anyone for that matter "just because") to read. I may read it again (ok I skimmed quickly first time because I have to get somewhere).

Lots of similarities between what I've done, what I've seen (in the traditional non "pg startup" business world) and what was written here.

[mojuba]

Somehow many of his essays look "the best ever" when they just come out ;) Take for example Startup = Growth which did have an impact back in the day, but already feels somewhat outdated.

[krisc]

It's like what he's writing seems so obvious, and the essay puts this seemingly obvious information out there for everyone to know.