Relevant quote from Paul Graham’s recent essay What I Worked On:
One day in 2010, when he was visiting California for interviews, Robert Morris did something astonishing: he offered me unsolicited advice. I can only remember him doing that once before. One day at Viaweb, when I was bent over double from a kidney stone, he suggested that it would be a good idea for him to take me to the hospital. That was what it took for Rtm to offer unsolicited advice. So I remember his exact words very clearly. “You know,” he said, “you should make sure Y Combinator isn’t the last cool thing you do.”
At the time I didn’t understand what he meant, but gradually it dawned on me that he was saying I should quit. This seemed strange advice, because YC was doing great. But if there was one thing rarer than Rtm offering advice, it was Rtm being wrong. So this set me thinking. It was true that on my current trajectory, YC would be the last thing I did, because it was only taking up more of my attention. It had already eaten Arc, and was in the process of eating essays too. Either YC was my life’s work or I’d have to leave eventually. And it wasn’t, so I would.
Relevant quote from Paul Graham’s recent essay What I Worked On: