What I tell founders is not to sweat the business model too much at first. The most important task at first is to build something people want. If you don't do that, it won't matter how clever your business model is.
Paul GrahamRead
A programming language is for thinking about programs, not for expressing programs you've already thought of. It should be a pencil, not a pen.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Programming languages should facilitate the thought process behind coding rather than just codifying pre-existing ideas.
Paul Graham's quote emphasizes that programming languages serve as tools for conceptualizing and developing ideas. He likens a programming language to a pencil, suggesting it should be flexible and supportive of iterative thinking, rather than a rigid medium that confines creativity to a predetermined structure, akin to a pen.
Themes
ProgrammingLanguageThinkingCreativityFlexibility
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on software development, to illustrate the importance of flexibility in programming languages.
More from Paul Graham
All quotes βSimilar quotes
Making AI more sensitive to the full scope of human thought is no simple task. The solutions are likely to require insights derived from fields beyond computer science, which means programmers will have to learn to collaborate more often with experts in other domains.
Fei-Fei LiRead
We want to reinvent the phone. What's the killer app? The killer app is making calls! It's amazing how hard it is to make calls on most phones. We want to let you use contacts like never before - sync your iPhone with your PC or mac.
Steve JobsRead
I never felt that the naming issue was all that important, but I was obviously wrong, judging by how many people felt. I tell people to call it just plain Linux and nothing more.
Linus TorvaldsRead
Skin has become inadequate in interfacing with reality. Technology has become the body's new membrane of existence.
Nam June PaikRead
Technology to wipe out truth is now available. Not everybody can afford it but it's available. When the cost comes down, look out!
Bob DylanRead
I feel drawn to experiment with ways that technology can interact with notions of intimacy, because so much of technology is done in a way that's very cold and has such an opposite effect.
Jaron LanierRead