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Comment by dean177 | Hacker News Reader

This is unnecessarily snarky. Nobody is claiming to reinvent anything, just someone sharing their wisdom.

But the snark has a point: Paul Graham is qualified to give advice about startups, but what qualifies him to dispense parenting advice? Like all other parents, it sounds like he's making it up as he goes along.

Meh. The vast majority of parenting advice lacks scientific evidence anyway. (I tried to find some with a proper evidence base as a new dad and honestly I'm amazed we don't have more for what is clearly such an important topic).

And what qualifies anyone here to discount his advice? He's not bringing down stone tablets from Mt. Sinai, just writing about his own thoughts and experiences. If you're not interested, don't read it.

There is no point, because he doesn't pretend to be anything than other than a parent, not an expert on parenting. It's like posting to a mommy blog. The call for industry professionals to "stay in their lane" when they want to talk about whatever they want to talk about is ridiculous.

...except you are only listening to his parenting advice compared to, say mine or the GP, because of his relative narrow expertise in a completely unrelated area. I'm not calling for famous people to STFU, but to be extra vigilant about passing on advice outside of their recognized area of epertise. For example: should Jenny McCarthy "stay in her lane" or are you cool with a c-grade actress using her fame to promote dangerous pseudo science?

Perhaps people like his parenting advice because it's insightful on its own merits? I wouldn't expect an expert on startups to be particularly wise when it comes to parenting. If anything, I'd expect the opposite. But the proof is in the pudding.

> compared to

Who says we don't listen to others for parenting advice?

> extra vigilant about passing on advice outside of their recognized area of epertise.

It's life advice. Anyone can dispense it.

> For example: should Jenny McCarthy "stay in her lane" or are you cool with a c-grade actress using her fame to promote dangerous pseudo science?

I'm not cool with any pseudo science no matter who's dispensing it. People have the right to babble about what they want.

Except PG doesn’t write blogs. He writes essays.

While that is admittedly a bit snarky, the fact is the context of nearly all PG’s essays are things he is an expert in, and has rightly earned a bit of authority in influencing others in these areas he is an expert in.

So I think it’s fair for others to make it clear he may not have much more authority in this area vs. other “mommy bloggers”, who probably have as much, and in many cases much more experience.

Why would making a startup make you an expert in startups, but making a kid not make you an expert in kids?

Anybody can make a startup, but it’s incredibly tough to make a successful one, and YC and what PG has built has arguably earned him authority to influence others in this space. And it’s usually pretty objective what constitutes a successful startup.

On the other hand, almost anyone can be a parent, there are many more parents on the planet, and what constitutes an “expert in this space” is incredibly more subjective.

> what constitutes an “expert in this space” is incredibly more subjective.

There are none.

Begs the question, who has the authority in that area? No one, except experienced parents.

When it comes to life advice, it's redundant to point out "lack of authority" when there is no authority body. No disclaimer is needed for life advice.

There's no claim to expertise in writing an essay. If anything, the contrary.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21859353

I wish more people would chill out, love their kids and just make it up as they go along. SPOILERS: there are no secrets; nobody really knows what the hell they are doing

For all you PG super fans: being a good (or great!) parent is the ultimate doing something that does not scale.

Why is parenting the only endeavor where thinking and study and research are useless?

There is no one more qualified to share their experience than the person who experienced it.

The snark is an over-reaction. This is just a collection of thoughts. He has every right in the world to put his thoughts online. It is up to everyone else whether or not to read them.

Fundamentally, there is an impedance mismatch between Tweets and Hacker News norms.

I'm not defending the snark. The link brings Twitter into Hacker News. All the social context comes with it. Getting reactions is the purpose of tweeting. Having reactions is the purpose of reading. Thoughtful long form comments are not.

It's snarky but I don't think it's unwarranted.

I'm not part of the anti-pg crowd. I'm aware of where I am, I've read Hackers and painters and his blog ("essays"). But I prefer to think of him as a famous Lisp hacker and venture capitalist, not Peter Gregory from the Silicon Valley show.

It's not sound to build a cult around anyone.

If you wanted snarky comments about people reinventing parenthood, go to person would have been my school teacher grandmother. Unfortunately she's gone 30 years.

Distilled: Parenthood is like the old military saying that no plan survives contact with the enemy.

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