Will Paul Graham run for President of the USA? | Hacker News Reader

Will Paul Graham run for President of the USA?

15 pointsFrojoS11 comments

Not for the upcoming election, but how about in ten years? I'm actually somewhat serious with this speculation. He seems to fit all the requirements and more. Good speaker and writer, charismatic, financially very successful and he even went to the same school as the current president.

This might be a short spring, but right now it seems like he is helping to innovate a new age economy and together with his Essays and the HN Community he is an idol for a whole new generation of aspiring people. Some of those people might someday be very rich and influential.

The success of YC seems exponential right now. So when will someone suggest this to PG and how will he decide?

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I was born in England.

I won't believe you unless you post your birth certificate. Long-form please.

Dang. How about becoming Prime Minster of the UK or chancellor of Germany then? We don't care where you're born [1].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_R%C3%B6sler

Philipp Rösler is Vice-Chancellor, not Chancellor. He probably won't become Prime Minister unless he changes parties since the FDP is too small.

I didn't claim that Rösler is chancellor. In theory, he could still become prime minister of a state or chancellor. As you probably know the Green Party just got their first prime minister, so small parties can grow big. And really, going from 15% to 24% doesn't look that impossible at all. He is still very young.

Anyway, my point was, that place of birth plays no role in Germany. And, certainly the vice president must meet the same requirements as the president since he automatically takes over if something happens to the president. I think this true for most organizations, no?

I just forgot, that PG was English born. So this submission of mine was clearly bullshit. By the way I don't advocate that the US changes this law. I think there are plenty of good candidates anyway.

Seriously though. I think we'd all be much better off if most or all of the lawyers in government were replaced with engineers, and the language and mechanisms of laws changed to reflect that.

Then, if something didn't achieve its expected outcome (take your pick of well-meaning programs across the political spectrum that didn't return on their promises), it would be seen as a bug requiring a fix as opposed to a matter of ideology to be spun into a success by countless PR firms.

It would also be nice to have a group of people who collectively have no respect for large incumbent corporations at the helm of this country.

I firmly believe that any manifestation of the state necessitates somebody getting fd, but in this scenario it would be an entirely different set of people and in new and interesting ways. I'm all for it.

Though, I don't want no technocrats in my government. Just look at China. I'd prefer entrepreneurs, technical or not, but its hard to convince the successful ones to become professional politicians.

edit: Maybe, an effective CEO could run a country as a part time job? :-D

Downvotes? Really? Way to agree to disagree, folks.

Hahahahahahahaha. I don't know why but the idea tickles me. Can you imagine an actual tech entrepreneur in charge. Flying cars and logic.

Probably best to have more effect by doing great work instead of managing a country.

Just don't go for a physicist. Big mistake in my opinion [1].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel

Much more likely that in 10 years Eric Schmidt runs than pg....

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