I did read the entire article and here are my thoughts about it. No distinction was made or addressed about the difference between wealth and prosperity. Prosperity = Being Rich. The wealthy may make significant sums of money, but many of the wealthy are very poor in many respects. I understand and agree for the most part about what he said about what it takes to create wealth, but he fails to address as most do about how replenishment factors into creating wealth. If you know how to recognize and manage leverage, that in itself can create wealth. I believe he was saying that in a round about way. I'll leave you with this, your happiness = comfort, but your joy comes from knowing.
Money buys happiness. It can also buy friends, family and love. Only people who believe in a contrarian philosophy are those without wealth.
You should save that statement for when you get older, much older, and see if you still agree with your younger self.
I would say that I basically agree with Paul Graham, with the exception being that if you are creative, which I am, you should create for yourself, to satisfy that which made you have the urge in the first place. If you are thinking about the end user too much, you no longer are being creative, but merely solving a problem. There's a subtle difference. I was sort of shocked when my mentor told me the same. I mean, he had big important clients. Didn't he do his work for them? No, not at all, I was told. He created for himself, and if they liked it, that was even better.
Have any of you ever thought about how absolutely wacked it is to share most of the stuff we talk about with perfect strangers?
Ok I just need to mention this. The intuitive personality is found in less than 10 percent of the population. Probably way less. Most people are rational. However, a very high percentage of CEOs are intuitive. I was told it's over 80 percent. Here you have a case where the leader of the company, a woman, appears to be off the charts in terms of intuition. However, from the reading and I can tell you first hand from experience, intuitives tend to shy away from conflict. It's almost as if it rattles their cage so they lose their abilities. I'm talking about Paul's wife. Sorry if this is too weird for you guys.
It's a good mix because Paul is off the charts In terms of analytical ability, but he's not as good at decision making. Too much information gets those guys every time.