“Like a lot of American kids, I read [Lord of the Flies] in school. Presumably it was not a coincidence. Presumably someone wanted to point out to us that we were savages, and that we had made ourselves a cruel and stupid world. This was too subtle for me. While the book seemed entirely believable, I didn’t get the additional message. I wish they had just told us outright that we were savages and our world was stupid.”
-Paul Graham, Why Nerds are Unpopular
I like how this essay gets off to an awkward start and then explodes with insight.
1 month ago