http://www.paulgraham.com/road.html<p>Apologies to people who have read this recently, but I last read it years ago and when I decided to have a "New Year read" to motivate and focus myself I decided to re-read it. I was struck by how prescient it is and if you have never read it, I'd strongly suggest you do.<p>I actually wish I'd taken more notice the first time as there are some key points in here that I should have learned from. Instead I made my own mistakes (and learned from them) when I could have learned from here.