When I ask myself what I've found life is too short for, the word that pops into my head is “bullshit.” I realize that answer is somewhat tautological. It's almost the definition of bullshit that it's the stuff that life is too short for. And yet bullshit does have a distinctive character. There's something fake about it. It's the junk food of experience. If you ask yourself what you spend your time on that's bullshit, you probably already know the answer. Unnecessary meetings, pointless disputes, bureaucracy, posturing, dealing with other people's mistakes, traffic jams, addictive but unrewarding pastimes.
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Paul Graham
Co-founder of Viaweb and of the startup accelerator Y Combinator; essayist
United States · b. 1964
Technology
About
Co-founded Viaweb, an early web-application company acquired by Yahoo in 1998, and co-founded Y Combinator in 2005. Publishes essays on programming and startups at paulgraham.com.
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