"Survive" is the one bit of advice that, by definition, is immune to survivorship bias.
Basically, Justin is saying "the ones that survived are the ones that survived". It's stating the painfully obvious, however it's a simple contrast to the normal "strategic" advice.
Thanks for this. That PG article was sobering for me. All the while reading it, I had Shawshank's "Get busy living or get busy dying" playing in my head. :-(
Basically, Justin is saying "the ones that survived are the ones that survived". It's stating the painfully obvious, however it's a simple contrast to the normal "strategic" advice.
Paul Graham writes about this a lot:
http://paulgraham.com/aord.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html
http://paulgraham.com/badeconomy.html