Seriously, though, would you rather I kept chapters off the web to force people to buy the book to read them? If I don't do that, people will always be able to say that the book is just a bound collection of web essays.
'... Without the invention of the printing press to make books available to more people, William Shakespeare might never have been inspired to write some of the world's most famous plays. ...' [0]
I was going to reply about 'paradox of choice', 'consequences of non choice' and 'constraints of choice'. [1] But thinking more about it I asked, "would Shakespeare have hesitated in releasing his writing to the printing press?" [2] What about the Internet? [3] Then I saw the above quote.
It's the quality of the words and ideas, not the transmission medium. So make one choice.
[2] Shakespeare lived from 1564 - 1616 and the Gutenburg printing press was invented in 1445. So from the time Shakespeare was writing his most important works from 1586 - 1612 the press was over 100 years old. But did he release his works to print in his lifetime?
[3] Wikipedia, William Shakespeare "Asking the question, 'Did he print his works in his life time?'. Found the following observation ~ '... Some of Shakespeare's plays first appeared in print as a series of quartos, but most remained unpublished until 1623 when the posthumous First Folio was published by two actors who had been in Shakespeare's company ...'"
I've read virtually everything on your site and also bought Hackers and Painters. A physical book is super convenient and it's an easy way for me to get new people to start reading your stuff, since many people don't like reading on the web.
The more new essays the better of course, but I would truly appreciate getting them when they're fresh baked and not waiting for the book (which I will order the second it's available). I say screw the people who don't appreciate and see the value in both versions.
My ultimate format preference would be a spoken "book on tape" version of all your essays. That'd be amazingly great fuel for my iPod and I'd happily pay iTunes-type prices.
No just write more, that's the promise of a new book. More more more:-)
And I'd like to read your thoughts on other topics, the startup topic is getting a bit exhausted.
'... Hopefully it's more than just his essays bound in paperback this time... '
Disagree. Each essay [0] looks at a particular set of essential truths or principles for creating and operating startups. A lot the ideas have the same validity five years ago as they do today. Putting together revised essays in print, allows one to read off-line, a more polished version of the on-line principles.
Hackers and Painters has made many hours worth of public transport enjoyable. And each essay makes me question why the heck I'm spending two hours every day traveling to college.
Noticed this on the stanford bio for pg. [0] Anyone care to speculate what the outline for the new book is?
Reference
[0] pg talk, 'Summit 2007 - Paul Graham Keynote'
http://ases.stanford.edu/summit_2007_graham.shtml