Filed under: Philosophy
There is an excellent passage in a recent essay by Paul Graham, a well-known computer programmer. The essay has nothing to do with sports, but the points made are very much in keeping with our philosophy. If you want to win, consider this: by these criteria, our best athletes are all adults.
There’s a reason we have a distinct word “adult” for people over a certain age. There is a threshold you cross. It’s conventionally fixed at 21, but different people cross it at greatly varying ages. You’re old enough to start a startup if you’ve crossed this threshold, whatever your age.
How do you tell? There are a couple tests adults use. I realized these tests existed after meeting Sam Altman, actually. I noticed that I felt like I was talking to someone much older. Afterward I wondered, what am I even measuring? What made him seem older?
One test adults use is whether you still have the kid flake reflex. When you’re a little kid and you’re asked to do something hard, you can cry and say “I can’t do it” and the adults will probably let you off. As a kid there’s a magic button you can press by saying “I’m just a kid” that will get you out of most difficult situations. Whereas adults, by definition, are not allowed to flake. They still do, of course, but when they do they’re ruthlessly pruned.
The other way to tell an adult is by how they react to a challenge. Someone who’s not yet an adult will tend to respond to a challenge from an adult in a way that acknowledges their dominance. If an adult says “that’s a stupid idea,” a kid will either crawl away with his tail between his legs, or rebel. But rebelling presumes inferiority as much as submission. The adult response to “that’s a stupid idea,” is simply to look the other person in the eye and say “Really? Why do you think so?”
There are a lot of adults who still react childishly to challenges, of course. What you don’t often find are kids who react to challenges like adults. When you do, you’ve found an adult, whatever their age.