Greg sounds like me. Usually gets taken advantage of by people writing articles like this.
Greg
91–100 of 103 posts
Re: Greg
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, it was intended as half tongue-in-cheek. Making light of tough situations is usually for the best. Sorry for not making that more clear. My smiley face budget had already been reached by the latter portion of that post. Anything exceeding one smiley and you end up looking like you're on something, especially on HN. Heck, even just one can be suspect!
Yes it's better to be misunderstood, than to use too many smileys.
Case in point: I'm not sure if your comment was genuine snark, or if you simply refrained from adding a smiley.
It's turtles all the way down. :)
Re: Greg
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard OpenAI isn't actually open source. Is it?
They do have open source projects, but their mission is not to necessarily be an open source company. They want to equalize the footing in AI for everyone, and this might require some degree of secrecy so that commercial AI companies do not get an edge. At least, that is my perception, feel free to correct me.
Okay, so OpenAI is not open source but a private company.
Re: Greg
#94YC at this moment is able to recruit the absolute top talent for any position they can envision. Damn that is a lot of power they wield, especially in starting these projects like Open AI and the Basic Income. I'd love to be able to invest in YC, as I think a good return at this point is one of the best bets an investor could make.
> YC at this moment is able to recruit the absolute top talent for any position they can envision. Absolute top talent? I think you are blinded by the light of YC. Not everyone thinks that or even close to it. [1] [2] By way of example I am reminded when I told a young person that I was helping to look on the page of a vc/angel investor that I do work for and know (among many). I said 'look at what they are doing I c…
> [2] And while most people know who Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos are (what I will call 'the aunt' test) most people have never heard of Sam, PG or YC for that matter.
Sure, but most software engineers probably have. While companies need a lot more than just engineers, having a leg up on engineering recruitment (especially as a very early-stage startup) seems extremely valuable.
Re: Greg
#95> with an average email response time of about 5 minutes to anything Why is this being praised? Can't stand the "always on" economy. It's OK to not immediately to respond to things.
Especially after he says that he didn't reply back quickly (living in a high-latency environment)
Re: Greg
#96Greg sounds like me. Usually gets taken advantage of by people writing articles like this.
That's exactly the thoughts that came to my mind. Article is big on complimenting Greg about his qualities being able to follow others, and drive a given vision handed down to him.
Hopefully, this article is simply not doing the Person justice and is simply poorly thought out and comes out as a superficial 'fluff' piece.
Re: Greg
#97From about 20,000 feet higher than the OP, one of the issues about PG, Sam, and YC is the combination of (1) lots of warnings about the dangers of disputes among startup co-founders and, thus, the extreme need for yet another startup co-founder, this one to play den mother, peace maker, mother hen, group psychologist, Chief Cat Herder, etc. versus (2) extreme negativity about a solo founder.
From another 10,000 feet up, here is a simple observation: All across the US, from the largest cities to the smallest crossroad communities, there are solo founders of successful auto repair shops, auto body shops, dentist practices, CPA practices, rental property ownership and management, pizza carryout shops, Chinese carry out shops, Mobil Travel Guide five star restaurants, pediatrician practices, manufacturer representative practices, big-truck, little-truck businesses of wide variety, etc. where commonly the cash to start the business is higher than that of servers, domain name, and Internet connection of a Web site.
So, solo founders do relatively well in main street startups. Since co-founders are not crucial for main street business and since a Web site startup should be in most ways easier, why are co-founders crucial for Web site startups? Since co-founder disputes are so common and potentially destructive, why be so eager to have co-founders and so down on solo founders?
With the above, to me, hiring a co-founder as a recruiter, office peace maker, general evangelist, smiling face, optimistic, good hand shake, meeter and greeter who knows a lot of people is a big slice of cash and equity for the usual thin budget of a startup.
Or, as we often hear, the crucial work of a startup is to keep the burn rate as low as possible and ASAP please the customers/users and get to earnings. In this case, an office peace maker, etc. is at best a nice to have if for free, otherwise not a must have for free, and likely too expensive if have to pay much.
Re: Greg
#98If all startups need a Greg and there are only so many Gregs to go around, can new Gregs be deliberately created?
I'd push back on this idea that there are only so many to go around.
My bet is there are a lot of potential "Gregs" out there with the qualities Sam describes, but wasting away under-employed as Mid-Senior individual contributors at BigCorpXyz, like the stereotypical Oscar-capable actress waiting tables trying to get discovered. All it takes is the courage to recognize potential--they can be found!
Re: Greg
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
> YC at this moment is able to recruit the absolute top talent for any position they can envision. Absolute top talent? I think you are blinded by the light of YC. Not everyone thinks that or even close to it. [1] [2] By way of example I am reminded when I told a young person that I was helping to look on the page of a vc/angel investor that I do work for and know (among many). I said 'look at what they are doing I c…
> [2] And while most people know who Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos are (what I will call 'the aunt' test) most people have never heard of Sam, PG or YC for that matter. Sure, but most software engineers probably have. While companies need a lot more than just engineers, having a leg up on engineering recruitment (especially as a very early-stage startup) seems extremely valuable.
Highly doubt it :) HN crowd is a small subset of all professional engineers.
Re: Greg
#100Greg sounds like me. Usually gets taken advantage of by people writing articles like this.
That's exactly the thoughts that came to my mind. Article is big on complimenting Greg about his qualities being able to follow others, and drive a given vision handed down to him. Hopefully, this article is simply not doing the Person justice and is simply poorly thought out and comes out as a superficial 'fluff' piece.
Different people are skilled at and like doing different things. I'm not the "big, original vision" guy. I'm the guy who pairs with the big vision guy and figures out the myriad details required to make that big vision come to fruition, figures out how to reign in the unrealistic, unachievable, or merely "sometime later" parts of the vision, so we can deliver in the near-term on the parts that are achievable.
That means I often get (and win at) the second-in-command role, but I don't see that as being taken advantage of at all. I've made quite a good career of it and honestly and earnestly enjoy it.