# Do things that don't scale by Paul Graham

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Do things that don't scale by Paul Graham and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Paul Graham essay on early startup work that readers call a favorite. One critic says its advice doesn't always fit their context.

## Why people recommend it

- Favorite essay of several readers (1 comments): "That's one of my favorite essays right now too." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47877541))
- Useful advice from Paul Graham (1 comments): "reading Paul Graham's articles is incredibly useful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47876601))
- Fits recommended reading lists (1 comments): "some of his influential essays ("Do things that don't scale"...) also fit the bill" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49133400))

## What people warn about

- Advice may not fit every context (1 comments): "I'd rather share what I learned the hard way than repeat talking points that don't apply to my context." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45905242))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grug-brained-developer.md): 13 recommend
- [Choose Boring Technology by Dan McKinley](https://hackerapproved.com/p/choose-boring-technology.md): 11 recommend
- [The Bitter Lesson by Rich Sutton](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bitter-lesson.md): 10 recommend
- [Things You Should Never Do by Joel Spolsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/things-you-should-never-do.md): 10 recommend
- [The Illustrated Transformer by Jay Alammar](https://hackerapproved.com/p/illustrated-transformer.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Do things that don't scale by Paul Graham", https://hackerapproved.com/p/do-things-that-don-t-scale/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).