(I'm rich, I'm making plenty of money and you are an idiot for not listening to me)
So, like a pg essay?
Don't get me wrong, I think pg offers great advice after all. I do find it ironic though that there are several "defenders of the religion" here on YC that don't seem to see the similarities between the messages that pg conveys and every other self-help guru out there. (Yes, boiled down, Paul Graham is basically a self help guru.)
pg speaks to hackers, Pavlina, Orman, Godin, 37signals and others speak to people of different persuasion. Each is not selling snake oil, rather the lessons learned from a particularly successful experience. You can discount them or choose to learn more at your leisure.
There's nothing wrong with that, and suggesting he's somehow unethical, or otherwise insulting him because his methods are not particularly of your persuasion is like a Christian berating a Muslim for worshipping the wrong god.
In the last decade or so there's been a boom in pop-science self-help for yuppies, put out by a new crop of public intellectuals, like: Malcolm Gladwell, Jared Diamond, Chris Anderson, nearly all non-fiction in the New Yorker, the majority of TED speakers, etc.
"If expenses rise unexpectedly and surpass your monthly income, then you have no choice but to draw money from cash reserves or investments or go into debt. If your expenses later return to normal, this debt may be temporary, but you’ll still end up paying extra interest or losing interest on your depleted savings/investments, which takes money out of your pocket."
The same thing could happen if you earn a variable income: what if you had some large, unexpected expense and also had a bad month for income? Same result, maybe even worse.
The only solution is to live consistently below your means and save up a good-sized emergency fund - that advice works whether you make a "fixed income" or not.
He used to write shareware games / but then turned to doing the self-help stuff. Agreed that the article was pretty poor, but the guy is/was a bit above the 'get rich quick' folks
From the essay: On the other hand, maybe you want to inspire and motivate people for a living. This takes a lot more skill than delivering pizzas, but it’s in much higher demand relative to the supply.
Gosh, if I decided I wanted to inspire and motivate people for a living, who would I consult for advice on how to do it?...
Oh wait, he is a motivational speaker, one level above the "get rich quick" folks.
I found his post to be almost insulting (I'm rich, I'm making plenty of money and you are an idiot for not listening to me).