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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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.