At a time when it seems like so many pursuits or activities or things to make are overshadowed by " but won't there be a model in the next 6 months that can just do this itself?", not to mention all the other present world uncertainties...
Well, it would be nice to hear more thought as to how to focus one's energies.
(I have my own thoughts on this of course, but what I'm really advocating / hoping for is more strong takes on the question.)
Then you've got 6 months to cement your place in history as one of the last humans ever to have accomplished that thing before AI could do it. Hurry!
(More generally, even if you don't care about AI: if you think you might want to do something, then depending on your age you've got maybe 50 years to do it before you've squandered your opportunity. Hurry!)
Asking for a friend
How well has Y Combinator done at upholding this principle with the companies it funds?
A "good" motivation doesn’t guarantee a good outcome, nor does a bad outcome ensure a good one.
Intuitively, I'd have thought "making good new things" would be a tactic to helping people and/or taking care of the world.
If I ask him "What new good thing should I make?" surely his answer has to be, "Make something people want," right??
I'm not even sure the new things are "good" unless people want them, or if new things aren't making the world better in some way.
pg notes in the last paragraph that there's "often" a lot of overlap between making good new things, helping people, and helping the world, but it seems like even pg is forgetting his own motto…?
What is interesting is if you read Chandler's Wikipedia entry it has a quote on how he talked about pulp fiction being formulaic and attempts to break free of the formula were trounced but if you didn't try you'd have been a hopeless hack.
This is fascinating in comparison that PGs formulism appears to be a self-styled self-help (?) essay. Is PG stuck or trying to break free? He certainly has an audience. To what quality should we ascribe his writing?
Understand people. With all the talk in the news about the current Disney Snow White, got out the DVD for the old Disney Cinderella: Yup, have learned enough about people to see that the many plot events are not just incidental for the drama but examples of deep fundamentals about people. In particular understand what's important for good family formation.
Understand human societies, e.g., cultures, religions, economies, politics, war and peace.
Understand academics: E.g., a lot of academics that has done research that results in good tools to enable "Make good new things" has deep contempt for doing that.
Understand, say, math, physical science, biology, medical science, nature, technology, fine arts.
> I mean new things in a very general sense. Newton's physics was a good new thing. Indeed, the first version of this principle was to have good new ideas. But that didn't seem general enough: it didn't include making art or music, for example, except insofar as they embody new ideas.
This is partly because modern conceptual art is about concepts so it's very easy for it to be overtaken by a political or critical message as the concept.