Great article, finally something worth reading fully on here. As a serial entrepreneur this definitely hits home and is something I've had to learn the hard way over my 17 years of entrepreneurship. Just because you come across a great opportunity and you have the skills and gusto to make it happen doesn't mean it's a good fit. If you don't give a shit about the idea/problem/market it doesn't matter if you are good at every aspect of the business, it will be a slog and you just won't care and will set yourself up to fail sooner or later.
Your entire history seems to be self-promotion, you're aware of the guidelines?
> Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity.
Perhaps you could submit something you're curious about, instead?
> Perhaps you could submit something you're curious about, instead?
Hi, author here. I write about what I'm curious about. I don't think it's promotion (both in spirit or letter) to share what I am curious about. I hate just linking to <openai blog / anthropic blog / karpathy twitter / tech crunch / engadget> without any commentary, since that has very low value-above-replacement.
I'm curious why you went into my posting history -- do you do that for every post?
this was a really good read and something I feel like I needed to hear as well. definitely has helped with how I should approach a project im working on - and I'm heavily on that introvert axis.. thanks for sharing.
He assumes the lanes are thinner than they are. I am an introvert but love the idea of speaking at a conference. I am happy to help a struggling customer whon doesnt know what HTML is and work on a high performing lean team. I do have some hard nos though. A freedom sucking job (lots of travel to places I don't want to be) or 90h weeks is a no for me.
There are way too many straw man examples in this article that it distracts from the point the author is trying to make.
A former jazz pianist and Buddhist monk who used psychedelics, the Spanish-speaker trying to sell into a Chinese-speaking market, the introvert selling to enterprise buyers who love going to steakhouses and watching the Yankees from box seats, etc.
Interestingly, two words that aren't mentioned even once in this entire article: "co-founder" and "hire". Very few people singlehandedly build the type of businesses the author is talking about. They team up with and recruit other people to join them so that they can focus on what they do best and fill in the gaps with other people's talent.
I'm not trying to gatekeep or belittle the author, but there's something funny about this genre of articles that assert with utmost conviction what it takes to be successful in business. Of course, we all have opinions, but this piece doesn't say "here's what I think". It says, more or less, "here's how you succeed".
There are two things that are undoubtedly beneficial. The first one is a degree of unreasonable optimism or arrogance that pushes some people to try while everyone else is sitting in comfy armchairs, explaining why the idea is boring or can't work. The second is a financial safety net, so that you can try and try again.
As for everything else, it's reading tea leaves. There are folks who believe you need to be like Steve Jobs. There are people think you need to be like Elon Musk, or Bill Gates, or Dario Amodei, or Sergey Brin, or Warren Buffett. Good luck reconciling that.
> Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity.
Perhaps you could submit something you're curious about, instead?
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Hi, author here. I write about what I'm curious about. I don't think it's promotion (both in spirit or letter) to share what I am curious about. I hate just linking to <openai blog / anthropic blog / karpathy twitter / tech crunch / engadget> without any commentary, since that has very low value-above-replacement.
I'm curious why you went into my posting history -- do you do that for every post?
A former jazz pianist and Buddhist monk who used psychedelics, the Spanish-speaker trying to sell into a Chinese-speaking market, the introvert selling to enterprise buyers who love going to steakhouses and watching the Yankees from box seats, etc.
Interestingly, two words that aren't mentioned even once in this entire article: "co-founder" and "hire". Very few people singlehandedly build the type of businesses the author is talking about. They team up with and recruit other people to join them so that they can focus on what they do best and fill in the gaps with other people's talent.
There are two things that are undoubtedly beneficial. The first one is a degree of unreasonable optimism or arrogance that pushes some people to try while everyone else is sitting in comfy armchairs, explaining why the idea is boring or can't work. The second is a financial safety net, so that you can try and try again.
As for everything else, it's reading tea leaves. There are folks who believe you need to be like Steve Jobs. There are people think you need to be like Elon Musk, or Bill Gates, or Dario Amodei, or Sergey Brin, or Warren Buffett. Good luck reconciling that.