Paul Graham's 12-year-old essay resurfaces: mean people fail at startups
vaibhavbetter · x · 2026-10-01
A resurfaced Paul Graham essay on kindness argues that to succeed in the startup world you must not be mean — mean people fail.
His three reasons:
- Mean people fight, and fighting is a poor use of mental and physical resources.
- Mean people build weak networks and can't attract the best collaborators.
- Mean people are extrinsically motivated, while intrinsically motivated founders simply last longer.
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