Just because Paul Graham wrote it, doesn't mean it's worth reading. Usually the opposite, in fact.
You people need to lay off the PG cultism. Stop worshipping every word he writes just because you idolize his riches, or want to be him, or whatever.
Is the insight merely that some wacky ideas turn out to be right sometimes?
Yeah, sure so how can we tell in advance? How is this actionable? And his answer is: listen to reasonable domain experts. That phrase is doing some real heavy lifting there...
That's a great way to put it!
All this stuff about Copernicus, Darwin, Galileo... You're not revolutionizing our understanding of humanity's place in the universe... You're buying companies that make filesharing apps and (often untaxed) hostel booking websites.
will these supervillians ever stop? nothing less than world-domination is enough.
microsoft tried to own everything about computing, they largly succeeded. they even infiltrated schools and still every pc is sold with windows-preinstalled.
then came google/facebook/apple... and they all want to own the entire internet.
unity wants the entire gaming/gamedev/computer-graphics. i am sure there are schools out there have unity classes, just unbelievable. "unity-developer" is the norm in job titles now, and i have never once heard "photoshop-artist" in the title of a job description.
this particular case is no exception.
ok, most logical conclusion is i too am envious.
It would make the idea you created an account to express invalid. You can't criticize Paul Graham if he can say "That wasn't me, it was Gaul Praham".
If your ideas aren't good enough for you to stay by them with some form of consistent identity, do not express those ideas. Think about them, develop them and then communicate them when they no longer embarrass you.
you also got discourse backwards. you should be judging the arguments presented (which in this case not much), not the persona.