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How Not to Die (2007)

www.paulgraham.com Essays & writing Essays & articles Economics & business Class of 2019-11 Hall of Fame
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Resurfaced independently across 9 calendar years, with breakout response in 3 of them.

submissions
12
submitters
12
observed span
2007–2026
peak thread · 143 comments
428 pts
latest 20+ return · 2019-11-11
428 pts

Submission timeline

2007–2026

One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.

First comments on top threads

HN comment order

For us the main indication of impending doom is when we don't hear from you. When we haven't heard from, or about, a startup for a couple months, that's a bad sign. If we send them an email asking what's up, and they don't reply, that's a really bad sign. So far that is a 100% accurate predictor of death. Can someone at YC comment on if this is still a good proxy for startup failure? From a personal perspective…

I will say it plainly: This is the most influential, well written essay I have ever read. It hit a chord very deep with me..

I am finishing up my PhD and I have a very direct analogy to what PG mentions. There are multiple research groups with different success rates and what I have noticed is groups with extremes are not doing that well. By extremes I mean professors who try to micromanage and get a daily update and professors who do not care at all. In my group, we have a biweekly meeting for everyone to present what they did in 2 weeks…

ujjwalg·145-point thread·

Very true what Paul says here. I have created two companies on my own(backed companied from others). The first one was Hell, nobody believed in us or the idea, everyone believed I was crazy, and after fighting and loosing battles a lot I also(my subconscious mind) started believing it!!(I had trained it in failure) But then it turns out it was a brilliant idea after all. We were the first surprised to see that in the end it worked even…

The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.

Breakout years
3

100+ points or 50+ comments

Total points
840

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
351

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission

DateTitle as submittedByPointsComments
2007-08-30How Not to DieFirst breakoutsubhash169143
2009-08-17How not to dieswombat14547
2012-03-15How Not To Diecarlsednaoui20
2015-08-05How Not to Die (2007)bluejellybean8030
2016-02-17How Not to Diedomrdy20
2016-09-08How Not to Die (2007)kornish20
2019-11-11How Not to Die (2007)Hall induction · Best thread · Latest 20+ point returnsellingwebsite428130
2020-08-18How Not to Die (2007)yarapavan10
2024-01-24How Not to Diesarimkhalid41
2024-05-04How Not to Die (2007)tosh20
2024-05-30How Not to Die (2007)yamrzou30
2026-06-05How Not to Die (2007)downbad_20