Dec 14, 2008
Paul Graham: I've always been fascinated by comb-overs, especially the extreme
sort that make a man look as if he's wearing a beret made of his own hair. How
does the comber-over not see how odd he looks? The answer is that he got to
look that way incrementally. What began as combing his hair a little carefully
over a thin patch has gradually, over 20 years, grown into a monstrosity.
Gradualness is very powerful. And that power can be used for constructive
purposes too: just as you can trick yourself into looking like a freak, you
can trick yourself into creating something so grand that you would never have
dared to plan such a thing.
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