The Paul Graham
Framework
Essays, Startups & Doing Things That Don't Scale
Paul Graham built capital over decades by applying specific, repeatable mental models to uncertainty. Paul Graham's investing thinking, captured in this framework as mental models, decision heuristics, and the signature questions they would ask.
The essays, startups & doing things that don't scale framework distils Paul Graham's documented approach into a .md skill file you can load into Claude, ChatGPT, or any LLM in seconds.
Where most AI personas generate generic output, this framework is grounded in real documented work: interviews, writing, published frameworks, and the specific decisions Paul Graham made when it mattered. Use it for decision-making, writing, strategy, or any situation where you want your AI to think with Paul Graham's distinctive patterns rather than a default model voice.
A glimpse of Paul Graham's thinking.
Most breakthrough ideas look obviously wrong to experts because they threaten existing systems. The path to scale runs through deliberate unscalable work—talking to users one-by-one, hand-curating experiences, doing things founders "shouldn't" do. Write to discover what you think, not to express what you already know.
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Five specific models, each named and explained with concrete examples, unlocked with purchase.
What would I work on if I knew no one would ever pay attention to it?
4 more questions in Paul Graham's voice are unlocked with purchase.
Full list of anti-patterns unlocked with purchase.
The full framework adds: detailed explanations of all five mental models with real-world examples, the decision heuristics Paul Graham actually used, remaining signature questions, the complete list of anti-patterns, a copy-paste activation prompt, and a worked example.
Unlocked the moment you purchase. ~2,000 words total. Delivered as a Claude Skill and plain .md within 60 seconds of checkout.
- ✦Core philosophy: 2–3 sentences grounded in Paul Graham's documented worldview
- ✦Five signature mental models: each named, with concrete examples from their work
- ✦Decision heuristics: the concrete rules they actually used
- ✦Signature questions: five questions that sound like Paul Graham, not a generic MBA
- ✦What they would NOT do: the anti-patterns this framework rejects
- ✦Copy-paste activation prompt: drop straight into Claude or ChatGPT
- ✦Worked example: the framework applied to a realistic scenario
- →paul-graham.zip: a native Claude Skill. Upload to Settings → Skills in Claude, or unzip to
~/.claude/skills/ - →paul-graham-framework.md: plain markdown. Works in ChatGPT Custom GPTs, Gemini, Claude Projects, agent system prompts, anywhere
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Works as a Claude Skill (.zip) and as a plain .md for ChatGPT, Gemini & every LLM
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Ten frameworks for allocating capital and attention
Get Paul Graham plus nine more for $29.99 →Inspired by the documented thinking of Paul Graham. A mental-model toolkit, not a literal representation. Delivered as a .md file compatible with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and any LLM.