Y Combinator’s Arc still powers Hacker News after 20 years
The Lisp dialect Graham co-designed in 2001 remains the invisible engine behind one of the internet’s most influential forums, a testament to his beli...
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Saturday, March 28, 2026
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LISP PIONEER TURNS ESSAYIST TURNS STARTUP ORACLE: PAUL GRAHAM STILL WRITING THE FUTURE
From Viaweb’s $50M Yahoo! exit to Y Combinator’s 5,000 startups, the polymath’s fingerprints are everywhere
Paul Graham, the 62-year-old programmer-writer-investor whose fingerprints are on some of the most consequential technology companies of the 21st century, is spending 2026 rewriting the rules of work itself. His latest essays—*Founder Mode* (2024) and *How to Do Great Work* (2023)—have become lodestars for founders and artists alike, distilled from decades of building, funding, and writing. "The companies that have stayed great were run by founders who never fully delegated," he observes in *Founder Mode*, a phrase now echoing in Silicon Valley boardrooms and Berlin co-working spaces alike.
“The single trait that separates founders who make it from founders who don’t is being relentlessly resourceful—not smart, not visionary.”
Founder Mode debate splits Silicon Valley: ‘Hire good people’ is dead, says Graham
In a 2024 essay that went viral, Graham argued that the conventional wisdom of delegation fails at scale. His prescription—founders must stay deeply i...
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In a 2024 essay that went viral, Graham argued that the conventional wisdom of delegation fails at scale. His prescription—founders must stay deeply involved—has sparked both admiration and backlash among venture capitalists and operators.
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