"Take the Selfishness out of Profit"
Or possibly "Take the Profit out of Selfishness".
Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”
61–70 of 252 posts
Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”
#62"Take the ego out of ideas" is sound advice for investors , not entrepreneurs . Ego is a loaded word, but if you define it, in this context, as an irrational belief that you are right and the world will catch up, then it's essential for every entrepreneur. "New ideas" get no support. You're the only support. You have to strongly believe that the world will get there, do whatever it takes to convince them to get there…
In the grand scheme of things though - I don't think most entrepreneurs are doing anything new. Anecdotally I failed on 2 new-idea companies and had 2 successful ones with very little new and I have a third on the way. Most businesses grow by stealing market share; not creating new categories. I agree that some need to be steadfast with their idea and vision but that seems to be an exception.
I will say that doubters are everywhere and you do have to be able to persevere. My own wife was one of them with one of my companies. She'd say why are you spending so much time on that business when it doesn't make any money? I also met with an industry expert at the beginning and they told me not to bother; that there's already an 800 lb gorilla in the space and the market doesn't really need another entrant. Needless to say I bootstrapped it to 40k MRR and that gorilla offered to buy my company and I told them no.
Many times the doubt is not about your idea; people are just scared of any existing competition. They think - oh there are other companies doing that. Non-entrepreneurs seem to get more jazzed about new ideas that aren't being done and they get completely disappointed and paralyzed when they find out their idea isn't new and someone is already doing it. To the point they won't even see how they are doing it and see if they can do it better. I get jazzed when I see companies making a lot of money in a niche but not doing it well.
For many people, maintaining the ego on your idea/vision results in second mortgages on their house, high credit card debt, a lot of time away from family, and not knowing when to hang it up or change course.
Separately - taking the ego out of ideas is definitely a good thing when building a company with one or more partners.
Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”
#63> So if technological change were going to cause elimination of jobs, one presumes we would have seen it by now. ...considering this statement was delivered while the US Workforce Participation is at 30+ year lows while productivity and technological change has made significant inroads during that time (ex: Macintosh 512k vs. iPhone 7), I think he's missing a large chunk of the, uh, big picture. Then, contrast one of…
Cool, let's stop progress then cause life was so great in the 1980's with healthcare, communications, science and overall knowledge.
Working more isn't progress.
Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”
#64I'm getting tired of all of the hot air coming from these tech oligarchs. They're so enriched by a tech boom and a decade of easy money that we worship at their feet. Their vision and goal for the future is simply more money for themselves at the expense of others. "Guys look! An hour long commute is actually a good thing because you can spend it with your kids!" Why is it so hard to spend time with our kids now?! I…
The hero worship of successful people is just survivorship bias in action. Out of a population of people flipping coins, we (after the fact) find the ones who flipped heads 10 times in a row and fawn over them, asking them how they became such great coin flippers and what we can do to improve our coin flipping skills. See also: Good To Great or any similar business book.
Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
You still need to be sharply realistic about your own ideas, though. Blindly charging ahead with the first idea that occurs to you, as an entrepreneur, is probably not going to work no matter how strongly you believe the world will get there. Neither will not charging ahead at all, assuming that because the last 10 ideas failed the next one will too. Many years ago on HN, I think before he even became part of YC, Pau…
> Blindly charging ahead with the first idea that occurs to you, as an entrepreneur, is probably not going to work no matter how strongly you believe the world will get there. Statically, you're just as likely to be right with the first idea as the one you're sat on for months
Sure, but statistically, if each idea has a 10% chance of working, you're significantly more likely to have one good idea if you test 10 ideas (1 - 0.9^10 = 65%) than if you test one idea (10%). And even if you work really hard at that idea, so that its chance of success goes up to 20-30%, you still would be better with the 10 quick tests.
In practice, that usually means do the minimum you can to verify the key assumptions of each idea, back out and try something different if any key assumption doesn't hold, and if you find something that has a good chance of working, stick with it.
Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”
#66I'm getting tired of all of the hot air coming from these tech oligarchs. They're so enriched by a tech boom and a decade of easy money that we worship at their feet. Their vision and goal for the future is simply more money for themselves at the expense of others. "Guys look! An hour long commute is actually a good thing because you can spend it with your kids!" Why is it so hard to spend time with our kids now?! I…
It's not really hero worship, although it can morph into that or just look like that. Really, it's just that so many people aligned with the "SV culture" you mention want to be them . When someone has achieved all that you're shooting for, you have a vast personal investment in lionizing them while in your "I'll be that guy someday!"-phase. Then of course you just have the reality that plenty of the love coming their…
It's not really hero worship
Here's a thought experiment: what was Marc Andreesen's last idea? How much ego was in it: none, some, or a lot?
Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”
#67> So if technological change were going to cause elimination of jobs, one presumes we would have seen it by now. ...considering this statement was delivered while the US Workforce Participation is at 30+ year lows while productivity and technological change has made significant inroads during that time (ex: Macintosh 512k vs. iPhone 7), I think he's missing a large chunk of the, uh, big picture. Then, contrast one of…
> Because in the United States, we should be working even while we are getting to work, because we don't work enough? No, because if you work-day was originally 8hrs of work + 2hrs of commute, it's now just 6hrs of work + 2hrs of work.
Because company that trusts its workers so much it requires their presence in the office is certainly going to believe them they worked in their cars, right?
Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
But why not encourage people to build offices closer to these rural places or places in need up an uptick (Cleveland, Detroit, etc)? Why is the solution always to commute into cities?
Density allows communities to be more efficient.
And there's a lot of room in some of these mid-west cities and rural areas. It allows for cheaper COL and better space to build. The density will come if the business is there to support it.
Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”
#69I'm getting tired of all of the hot air coming from these tech oligarchs. They're so enriched by a tech boom and a decade of easy money that we worship at their feet. Their vision and goal for the future is simply more money for themselves at the expense of others. "Guys look! An hour long commute is actually a good thing because you can spend it with your kids!" Why is it so hard to spend time with our kids now?! I…
So I'd agree about taking the hero worship out of SV. The history of SV is one of successive technology waves, each of which certain people happen to spot & ride first, and then because they make a lot of money on those waves, everybody else idolizes them. And then the next wave happens and it's inevitably someone else who spots them and rides them, and suddenly we all have new heroes. But when it comes to building a…
Wealth distribution is a hard problem, but it is a MASSIVE problem that most productivity gains flow to a subset of society.
Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not really hero worship, although it can morph into that or just look like that. Really, it's just that so many people aligned with the "SV culture" you mention want to be them . When someone has achieved all that you're shooting for, you have a vast personal investment in lionizing them while in your "I'll be that guy someday!"-phase. Then of course you just have the reality that plenty of the love coming their…
It's not really hero worship Here's a thought experiment: what was Marc Andreesen's last idea? How much ego was in it: none, some, or a lot?
I'm not really disagreeing with the point that I suspect you're making, I'm just saying that it's a lot more cynical than "hero worship".