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Comment by simonebrunozzi | Hacker News Reader

First, thanks for doing this - it's a useful list of books.

Second: I don't think we should "idolize" Paul Graham. He's certainly an intelligent and cultured man, but there's no reason to think that his book suggestions are either amazing or current.

I think a more diverse and organized review system can be a much better to discover great books, e.g. https://www.goodreads.com/.

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> Second: I don't think we should "idolize" Paul Graham. He's certainly an intelligent and cultured man, but there's no reason to think that his book suggestions are either amazing or current.

He's one of the best identifiers of and advisors of startups in this generation. If you are interested in startups, the subject of this site, it's hard to think of many people whose suggestions there's more of a reason to follow.

The average of everyone's recommendations will get you average results. Some people want to beat the averages.

Obviously YC is about startups, but startups aren't exactly the subject of HN. Only a small minority of posts here are actually about them.

How about an HN-user focused recommendation aggregator?

Results uncertain, but definitely would have missed out on Dropbox.

While HN gives poor career advice, the books recommendations around here have been top notch.

Thank you! The idea is not to "idolize" people, it's more of a new way to discover books. I know PG, I know his mentality and it's super useful when he recommends a book giving you context on why he recommends it. This doesn't necessarily mean I'm gonna read it, but I'll have a better idea on what the book has to offer vs checking goodreads reviews from strangers.

Thanks for this, great list and PGs context is great to have next to the recommendations. The PG glamour shot may have been what made it come off like you were idolizing him

There is a lot of "idolization" in the this industry. Those who have accomplished much are sought out for their opinions on all types of subjects, 1) because they are influential, and 2) there is some belief that the methods which led to their success in one field are applicable in the other fields they ruminate about.

I have no doubt Paul Graham has (or had) an anonymous account here. I'd love to see the responses to his comments there. I expect to see a bit of downvoting and people dismissing his (anonymous) ideas.

PS: The website design is excellent!

> I have no doubt Paul Graham has (or had) an anonymous account here.

That's him - https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pg

This is his official account. There is a persistent rumour that he had another, pseudonymous one.

Nice try, Paul

“Ok Paul” might become a meme

But PG has to be one of the most articulate & forthcoming guys out there in the tech world / I love him.

I’m not a parent, but I even sent my sister (non-tech person) his parenting advice someone on here had crowd-sourced.

The guy is an aficionado of what he likes & you can usually tell his insight comes from a HQ place of value. Maybe more than any other individual does his insight tend to blow my mind.

Awesome!! Thank you for this list - the link has been added to my iPhone homepage / amazing

There are plenty of other great recommendations on the website by other people if you'd like to idolize someone else.

Personally, I find Goodreads and general Amazon reviews to not be very helpful. The book A Perfect Mess has terrible reviews, and as a book it's poorly written. But it was definitely worth reading, and I wouldn't have found it if Marc Andreessen hadn't recommended it. A lot of books are simply too tough for the average person to read. I wouldn't recommend most people read Bill Gates' reading list, but people in the top 10% should.

I'd rather not idolize anybody. Then again, I don't think spending a few minutes looking through someone's book recommendations is equivalent to idolizing them.

I think you're right, but it does seem interesting to see what kind of recommendations he makes. I don't read as much as I wish I did, I find it easier to read websites than books, must be something about the format. I've been trying to use my Kindle more, but maybe it's the fact I always get 'boring' books.

PG wrote very very good books and essays.

But the current PG (esp on twitter) seems to be so far away from this level of quality that I see where you're coming from.

This list includes the Goodreads score of the books he mentions.

Yup, if you click on the score it takes you to the Goodreads page.

sure but I always love seeing people's book lists :)

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