Paul Graham is my one of my biggest programming heroes. He single-handedly changed the way I think about and do programming about a decade back, and I am eternally grateful for it. One of the biggest lessons I got from him is &quot;succinctness is power&quot;. That essay was a game changer both in terms of the math work and the programming work I do.<p>Here is one instance where that powerful way of thinking runs head on into a stone wall. He said &quot;few successful founders grew up desperately poor&quot; and moved on. Succinct. yes, but not powerful. This piece took a couple thousand words to say the same one succinct thing that PG said, and nails it in terms of the empathy it generates and the power with which it communicates. While PGs writing in this issue comes out as aspie. This is the lesson he needs to take from that latest article and the Internet&#x27;s reaction, and not that “Life is short” and totally miss the point.<p>Narrativity and Authenticity and Poetry and Verbosity is power! (when dealing with humans).