Question for Paul Graham: What philosophy books do you recommend?

3 points by fireandfury 19 years ago | 9 comments

fireandfury 19 years ago |

I've read most of Paul Graham's essay's and have read that he was a philosophy/classics major, so I wonder what sorts of books influenced him. I'd like to read a few of the old books too, but I don't know where to start.

Here is a constraint for the recommendations: -At least one book that is good to start with and not too challenging

pg 19 years ago | |

Off the top of my head I can't think of any I'd recommend. What I learned from trying to study philosophy is that the place to look is in other fields. I.e. if you understand math or history or aeronautical engineering very well, the most abstract of the things you know are what philosophy is supposed to be teaching. Books on philosophy per se are either highly technical stuff that doesn't matter much, or vague concatenations of abstractions their own authors didn't fully understand (e.g. Hegel).

It can be interesting to study ancient philosophy, but more as a kind of accident report than to teach you anything useful.

BTW, while this was an interesting question, it's not really about startups, so I'm killing it.

staunch 19 years ago | | |

Way beyond interesting. Thanks for responding to his off-topic question. I wanted to ask the same one, but managed restraint. "Ask Paul" would be an awesome section and probably serve as a great FAQ. I suppose it'd be annoying for you though.

rms 19 years ago | | |

I think it's about time for you to let the community go off-topic. I understand the motive for keeping this site focused on start-ups but allowing another area of the site for general link-sharing and discussion will be enlightening for all of us.

fireandfury 18 years ago |

Sorry about being off-topic. I posted it in a flash without really thinking, and it didn't even occur to me that it was off-topic. The reason why I asked is because I am still trying to figure out what kind of program/service I would want/need to use.

Anyway, here's why it could be related to start-ups:

If you examine Steve Job's history, it's worth noticing that he was influenced by East Asian writings. Apparently at one point he travelled around India for 6 months.

Also, the company 37 Signals has a very distinct philosophy (I'm thinking of their book "Getting Real") that's focused on minimalism and the path of least resistance, etc. It sort of reminds me of the Tao or something like that.

Thus, I think adhering to some philosophy can be useful in a start-up.