Lists / People
Paul Graham
Y Combinator; essays on startups (do things that don't scale, etc.)
Co-founder of Y Combinator, the seed accelerator that backed Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe. Previously created the web application Viaweb (sold to Yahoo in 1998) and holds a PhD in computer science from Harvard. Widely read for his essays articulating practical startup heuristics, including the concept that early-stage founders must embrace unscalable manual effort to achieve initial traction.
60/ 100
Authority scoreEstablished
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Frameworks
Attributed to Paul Graham
Mental models, principles, and operating frameworks extracted from sources where Paul is the credited author or speaker.
24frameworks
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Ambition Catalyst Framework
Find your city
Productivity·from Cities and Ambition
Ambitious Startup Idea Generation
Think Big
Entrepreneurship·from Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas
Barriers to Entry
Protect your startup
Entrepreneurship·from How to Make Wealth
Bullshit Minimization Framework
Eliminate waste
Productivity·from Life is Short
City Ambition Framework
Cities send messages
Self-Mastery·from Cities and Ambition
Consult
Act as a consultant to your users
Entrepreneurship·from Do Things that Don't Scale
Counterintuitive Startup Success
Trust users, not instincts
Entrepreneurship·from Before the Startup
Creator vs Consumer Mindset
Create, don't consume
Mindset·from The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius
Curiosity Cultivation Framework
Cultivate curiosity
Self-Mastery·from How to Think for Yourself
Curiosity Driven Learning
Follow your curiosity
Self-Mastery·from What You'll Wish You'd Known
Curiosity-Led Career Navigation
Follow genuine curiosity through domains to build an unexpected career
Self-Mastery·from What I Worked On
Day Job Strategy
Treat high school as a day job
Productivity·from What You'll Wish You'd Known
Default Alive or Default Dead
Know thy fate
Entrepreneurship·from Default Alive or Default Dead?
Disagreement Hierarchy
Disagree Well
Communication·from How to Disagree
Discovering Your Interests
Find What Drives You
Self-Mastery·from How to Work Hard
Earnestness Framework
Doing something for the right reasons
Mindset·from Earnestness
Essay Discovery Framework
Discover new ideas
Innovation·from How to Write Usefully
Evolutionary Idea Framework
Ideas evolve
Innovation·from Startup = Growth
Exceptional Work Framework
Do great work
Productivity·from Superlinear Returns
Expected Value Framework
Calculate the expected value of startup success
Finance·from Startup = Growth
Fierce Nerd Framework
Unleash Your Inner Nerd
Mindset·from Fierce Nerds
Finding Your Limit
Balance Effort and Quality
Productivity·from How to Work Hard
Founder Mode vs. Manager Mode
A founder's unique approach to running a company, distinct from conventional professional managem...
Entrepreneurship·from Founder Mode
Get Users
Focus on users
Entrepreneurship·from How to Make Wealth
Domains
Framework distribution
103frameworks
Entrepreneurship27 frameworks · 26.2%
Self-Mastery20 frameworks · 19.4%
Productivity19 frameworks · 18.4%
Mindset15 frameworks · 14.6%
Innovation7 frameworks · 6.8%
Strategy5 frameworks · 0%
Other10 frameworks · 14.6%
Bibliography
Sources by Paul Graham
51sources
Book
Essay
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A Project of One's Own
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Before the Startup
Essay·10 frameworks extracted
Cities and Ambition
Essay·4 frameworks extracted
Crazy New Ideas
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Do Things that Don't Scale
Essay·8 frameworks extracted
Fierce Nerds
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Founder Mode
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas
Essay·4 frameworks extracted
How to Do Great Work
Essay·22 frameworks extracted
How to Do What You Love
Essay·8 frameworks extracted
How to Lose Time and Money
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
How to Make Wealth
Essay·14 frameworks extracted
How to Think for Yourself
Essay·4 frameworks extracted
How to Work Hard
Essay·10 frameworks extracted
How to Write Usefully
Essay·6 frameworks extracted
Relentlessly Resourceful
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Six Principles for Making New Things
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Startup = Growth
Essay·10 frameworks extracted
Superlinear Returns
Essay·4 frameworks extracted
The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups
Essay·12 frameworks extracted
The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius
Essay·6 frameworks extracted
The Lesson to Unlearn
Essay·4 frameworks extracted
The Right Kind of Stubborn
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
The Top Idea in Your Mind
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
What You'll Wish You'd Known
Essay·8 frameworks extracted
What You (Want to)* Want
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Putting Ideas into Words
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
The Need to Read
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
What I Worked On
Essay·6 frameworks extracted
Earnestness
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Life is Short
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Default Alive or Default Dead
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Default Alive or Default Dead?
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Write Like You Talk
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
How to Be an Expert in a Changing World
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Do Things That Don't Scale
Essay·6 frameworks extracted
Black Swan Farming
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
How to Get Startup Ideas
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Schlep Blindness
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
The Acceleration of Addictiveness
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Keep Your Identity Small
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule
Essay·4 frameworks extracted
How to Disagree
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
Good and Bad Procrastination
Essay·2 frameworks extracted
How to Start a Startup
Essay·4 frameworks extracted
Appears alongside
Top neighbors of Paul Graham
8people
01
Aileen Lee
Cowboy; "unicorn" coiner, Cambrian-explosion essays
1shared list
02Albert Wenger
USV; World After Capital, attention-economy thesis
1shared list
03Alfred Lin
Sequoia; Zappos-COO turned investor; ops-as-moat
1shared list
04Andy Rachleff
Benchmark co-founder; product-market fit term coiner
1shared list
05Ann Miura-Ko
Floodgate; market-disequilibrium thesis
1shared list
06Anu Hariharan
Avra; ex-YC growth lead; growth-stage frameworks
1shared list
07Arthur Rock
original VC; people-first investing (legacy founder-of-VC)
1shared list
08Avichal Garg
Electric Capital; crypto-developer-report thesis
1shared list
Last updated
10 May 2026