What Paul Graham thinks about empathy

@paul-graham · 124 positions · On ppll ↗

Co-founder of Y Combinator and Viaweb; essayist at paulgraham.com.

Paul Graham did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

Filter empathy · Newest first

Topic

All 124empathy 1startups 27design 19ambition 15taste 11writing 8management 6AI and human skill 5LLMs 5

33 more topics

discipline 4investing 4venture capital 4America 3AGI 2AI and jobs 2capitalism 2data centers 2humility 2optimism 2simplicity 2space 2war 2agency 1AI agents 1AI alignment 1AI writing 1attitude change 1benchmarks 1China 1curiosity 1education 1energy 1friendship 1Google 1hiring 1innovation 1measuring intelligence 1OpenAI 1politics 1price gouging 1Silicon Valley 1team size 1

Sort

NewestOldest

Only Paul Graham on empathy. See everyone on empathy

1 dated position, 2003, in their own words. Our reading of what Paul Graham has said — not written or endorsed by them.

1 position so far — this page is not yet offered to search engines.

1. 1 May 2003

   Our readingEmpathy is probably the single most important difference between a good hacker and a great one, because great software has to be seen from the user's point of view.

   Their wordsEmpathy is probably the single most important difference between a good hacker and a great one. Some hackers are quite smart, but when it comes to empathy are practically solipsists.

   ↗Hackers and Painterspaulgraham.com