Ask HN: Which is your favourite PG essay?
If possible, please explain why.
Why? Because it reminds one that one of the most important things to do is just "keep going". Of course there's nuance to that... "keeping going" if you're going in the wrong direction isn't a virtue. But in the context of what he's talking about, and allowing for changes in direction, it remains the case that:
If you can just avoid dying, you get rich.
Also, bonus honorable mention:
"Schlep Blindness" -- http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html
I believe he even wrote a book on the idea. I guess it runs close to my own philosophy of development. I never liked the mass-development scrum style, which seems more similar to a printer, when it's really just sketching, and then fleshing out details.
From a startup standpoint, Startup = Growth http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html
It gave something solid to actually follow and explains how startups work, in so few words.
It really helped me put the whole two America's thing into perspective where some parents may have an opportunity to lie to protect kids and others don't have the time to entertain lies. At first it made me want to be a pragmatic parent when I have kids, but over time of rereading it I've realized that given the opportunity I'd probably perpetuate the same system in an effort to not have my child be the odd man/woman out.
The best PG essays come from around this period. The notion that "every check has a cost" has made this essay one of the few I find myself quoting to others.
Since I wouldn't be the first to offer an honorable mention, I'd be remissed if I left out:
"Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule"[1].
This right there influenced bloggers, essayist and many writers as we know. The method of the essay as not as a school subject but as a way of generating and writting the deepest ideas (even recalling something you read 2 years ago).