After "Why Nerds Are Unpopular", it's one of my favorite things he's written.
"At an art school where I once studied, the students wanted most of all to develop a personal style. But if you just try to make good things, you'll inevitably do it in a distinctive way, just as each person walks in a distinctive way. Michelangelo was not trying to paint like Michelangelo. He was just trying to paint well; he couldn't help painting like Michelangelo."
I read it as a senior, when the bulk of my school related angst was behind me. It was still awesome, though. I felt less alone – less like I was nuts or something for seeing school the way I had.
Le goût est le nec plus utlra de l'intelligence/Lautréamont (means sthg like 'Taste is intelligence brought to its highest intensity') _ Original quote "Le goût est la qualité fondamentale qui résume toutes les autres qualités. C’est le nec plus ultra de l’intelligence. (Comte de Lautréamont, Poésies I, 1870)"
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Paul mentions these origins in his essay on Taste:
http://paulgraham.com/taste.html
After "Why Nerds Are Unpopular", it's one of my favorite things he's written.
"At an art school where I once studied, the students wanted most of all to develop a personal style. But if you just try to make good things, you'll inevitably do it in a distinctive way, just as each person walks in a distinctive way. Michelangelo was not trying to paint like Michelangelo. He was just trying to paint well; he couldn't help painting like Michelangelo."
'why nerds are unpopular' was the first paul graham essay i read in high school (as a sophomore who moved to a new high school). got me hooked =]
I read it as a senior, when the bulk of my school related angst was behind me. It was still awesome, though. I felt less alone – less like I was nuts or something for seeing school the way I had.
Le goût est le nec plus utlra de l'intelligence/Lautréamont (means sthg like 'Taste is intelligence brought to its highest intensity') _ Original quote "Le goût est la qualité fondamentale qui résume toutes les autres qualités. C’est le nec plus ultra de l’intelligence. (Comte de Lautréamont, Poésies I, 1870)"