The funny thing is when I googled that phrase I got another Hacker News thread from the same user quoting the same line. It might have been from an event or something.
To my shame, you are correct, the quote is nowhere to be found. It’s not either from Paul Graham. I thought it was a famous quote & concept among us entrepreneurs…
I vividly remember a blog from Joel saying things along Why are entrepreneurs passionate for things that seem very niche? / The truth is, once they succeed, they become passionate / So we have a bias of selection when assuming that all entrepreneurs are passionate about their product.
But this post is nowhere to be found. I thought the quote was the title of that blog post.
I have to make amend and recognize that I might be senile and spreading a false quote. Thank you for waking me up.
All good, the sentiment is very much shared amongst entrepreneurs and fortunately spreading after the whole “follow your passion” BS.
Lots of successful people nowadays now say “do what you’re good at” or “do the unsexy things, or the things no one else wants to do” and the passion will follow. That’s a much more pragmatic and realistic approach.
Personally I really enjoyed software and coding, but after doing the grind at SV companies and my own gig I’ve come to realize that on a risk-adjusted basis, the larger tech companies are a better way to make money.
