Ah, conventional minded people are those who insist that those who break the rules are bad, worthless in society, and should be punished.
Then Mr. Graham goes on to say that the rules of civilized, successful, wealthy societies are that everyone should be free to debate even the worst of ideas, and the people who prevent this or disagree with this are bad, never become entrepreneurs (a laughable thought), are not worth considering, and are in fact responsible for all bad things in the world (well, they and the leaders who appeal to them, only those two groups of people!)
It's laughably puerile... I mean how does he think this way? Has he any idea that one of the most valuable companies in the entire world is from a wealthy, civilized (in terms of lack of crime and lots of social etiquette only), successful country which has no concept of free expression (ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia)?
How do intelligent people end up reducing the world into such obviously untrue caricatures? How does he think that convention is the enemy of new ideas? Following convention is also the same thing as learning from the past or standing on the shoulders of giants. Without regard for convention at some level, the "geniuses" Mr. Graham praises would have been reinventing the wheel over and over and over again!
There are at least 2 others. Reread and see if you can find them.
Also, being state run doesn't mean you aren't innovative. It's a different game but still requires innovation. Companies don't grow and grow and grow without any innovation at all.
Single-purpose accounts aren't allowed on HN, nor are trollish usernames, so I've banned this account. I realize it's a borderline case, but a username like that is going to forever exert a trollish skew on every thread it posts to (especially on this site, given the particular celebrity you're referencing) and we've learned that it's better to deal with this earlier than later.
Happy to rename and unban it if you want to pick a more neutral username.
ARAMCO and Saudi Arabia by extension were not built because of innovation. PG is talking about the importance of discussing idea regardless of how unorthodox they are, because the majority of successful companies are built, believe it or not, using ideas and not oil.
Yes they were built by innovation. Creation of a new country no matter how it happens is an innovation. Creation of a new company, no matter how it happens, is an innovation.
Growing a company also is an innovation. You can only grow by venturing into new areas. If you think ARAMCO has never made any improvements in petroleum engineering, cyber security, logistics, etc, then you are daft. If all they had was oil fields they wouldn't make so much money. It's a combination of having them, knowing how to extract wealth from them, knowing how to identify more, and knowing how to reduce competition (OPEC is an example of constant innovation, there is no precedent to follow in setting the prices for a commodity like oil which humans have never relied on as extensively as they do now).
Then Mr. Graham goes on to say that the rules of civilized, successful, wealthy societies are that everyone should be free to debate even the worst of ideas, and the people who prevent this or disagree with this are bad, never become entrepreneurs (a laughable thought), are not worth considering, and are in fact responsible for all bad things in the world (well, they and the leaders who appeal to them, only those two groups of people!)
It's laughably puerile... I mean how does he think this way? Has he any idea that one of the most valuable companies in the entire world is from a wealthy, civilized (in terms of lack of crime and lots of social etiquette only), successful country which has no concept of free expression (ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia)?
How do intelligent people end up reducing the world into such obviously untrue caricatures? How does he think that convention is the enemy of new ideas? Following convention is also the same thing as learning from the past or standing on the shoulders of giants. Without regard for convention at some level, the "geniuses" Mr. Graham praises would have been reinventing the wheel over and over and over again!