While the nerds were being trained to get the right answers, the popul — Paul Graham

"Nerds arent losers. Theyre just playing a different game, and a game much closer to the one played in the real world."

"As a rule of thumb, the more qualifiers there are before the name of a country, the more corrupt the rulers. A country called The Socialist Peoples Democratic Republic of X is probably the last place in the world youd want to live."

"One thing that leads us astray here is that the selector seems to be in a position of power. That makes him seem like a judge. If you regard someone judging you as a customer instead of a judge, the expectation of fairness goes away. The author of a good novel wouldnt complain that readers were unfair for preferring a potboiler with a racy cover. Stupid, perhaps, but not unfair."

"If I were back in high school and someone asked about my plans, Id say that my first priority was to learn what the options were. You [high school students] dont need to be in a rush to choose your lifes work. What you need to do is discover what you like. You have to work on stuff you like if you want to be good at what you do."

"The first type of judgement is the type where judging you is the end goal... But in fact there is a second much larger class of judgements where judging you is only a means to something else."

"Software has to be designed by hackers who understand design, not designers who know a little about software. If you cant design software as well as implement it, dont start a startup."