I want to be in an industry where the upstarts can grow and displace the incumbents, because that's why there's so much innovation.

Raise $500 for a thing you care about because you actually get the experience of taking an idea and actually doing it. There are fewer and fewer excuses not to.

There was a clear lesson here — and that was that the Internet loves Mister Splashy Pants.

Having that kind of endorsement and having Paul Graham's readership coming to your site and contributing to it and building the foundation of the community was just a really invaluable way to start Reddit.

Even if you have no interest in starting a company, having the experience of having ideas and doing them, that's muscle to exercise because that's what people are going to want to see. That's what makes you different.

I try to help founders as much as I can, but so many of us we won't even take meetings with people who still just have an idea, because everyone has an idea.

Let's say you're all worried about student-loan debt and you need to have steady income. That doesn't have to be your everything.