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Comment by barbegal | Hacker News Reader

I can't understand why "694 people found this helpful". It's not a very good review or even a review at all. The only review-like part of it is "I still don't feel I have learned everything the book has to teach." which is very cryptic. Why doesn't Paul Graham feel like he has learned everything from the book? Is it because the book has a huge amount to teach and it isn't possible to consume it all in a short period of time or is it because the lessons are poorly taught and therefore require careful re-reading or is it because the book can be read at many different levels?

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I have the feeling anything PG says these days is applauded w/o proper reflection. Maybe it’s just me, but I have the feeling most of his thoughts are quite profane

For me Paul Graham is a very rare breed of people that manages the delicated symbiosis between academic Vs entrepreneur - theory Vs real life - gut feeling Vs mathematical analysis.

Is overwhelming contribution to the Startup culture will only be well understood by future historical analysts.

This applies to all prominent people at any time in history.

Yes. Still, it’s need to be said

I think you are only half right. I don't know him, but from his online writings, he seems to be a guy who does have a clue, has been around, and has some good insights. But you are correct that he is hero-worshiped more than such things normally deserve. Like everyone else, he is a person whose reputation online might not be in sync with who he is on a personal level. But that is the nature of the internet, and not a reason to lash out at him personally.

I haven't read anything close to 50% of his thoughts to know if most of them are quite profane, but the few other pieces I've read have indeed seemed quite insightful.

Profane?

1. relating or devoted to that which is not sacred or biblical; secular rather than religious.

2. (of a person or their behavior) not respectful of orthodox religious practice; irreverent.

3. treat (something sacred) with irreverence or disrespect.

That all said, I wouldn't go as far as to say profound. Just insightful commentary distilled from experience.

"profound", not "profane, surely?

No, it's clear from the context they meant something negative.

I'd put my bets on "mundane".

Yes, you’re smart and I’m German. Profane in German also means mundane. A false friend I guess

Yea, I've read several of his essays (certainly not close to all of them) and didn't find any profane.

That’s because you’re suceptible to startup folklore

No, couldn't care less about that. I liked his essay on growing up as a nerd...those kinds of things.

It's funny, so people want to upvote it. There's only one upvote button for an Amazon review.

It's not a review per se, but 4 of the 6 questions are pretty good. Trying to answer them helps think important thoughts.

I suppose a few other proper reviews exist on the book's page, so adding another like these might be not so important.

(Also, Amazon in 2000 was quite a different thing than Amazon in 2018. It was much smaller, and much less important.)

The reviewer basically says that anyone who gave the book just one star is an idiot who "doesn't get it". "Smarter people than you like this book, so you are wrong." Which might very well be true...but it is not really helpful or even enlightening.

But such rhetoric seem to be extremely effective in our community, where everyone wants and needs to feel smarter than the rest. If you can make the reader feel smart by declaring some other group dumb, you are ensured upvotes. Just consider the enormous effectiveness of pg's metaphor about the "blub programmers". People love to quote this in defense of whatever random paradigm or technology, since it is so effective to frame the in-group versus the sheeple.

Norvig's review was much better.

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