31–40 of 88 posts
Don't get me wrong, though -- they're both good writers, so the above isn't a swipe at either guy or Hacker News.
However: "trailer-dweller" seems a little mean-spirited (and inaccurate) when it's clear who you are referring to with that example.
Startups tend to be fairly binary, with you making either a very large amount off of them or nothing at all. Recently re-reading pg's How To Make Wealth [1] made me wonder if this will soon become an outdated view of startups. The factors leading to the current and predicted rise in the number of startups (free software, cheap hardware, less personnel) should also lead to a large broading of the spectrum of failure s…
I think the highest EV is from founding a private going concern and pocketing profits over the course of ten years. Statistically the majority of millionaires are entrepreneurial sole proprietorships or partnerships. We're talking about people who bought or built a few car washes and ran a tight ship, or built a reputable private accounting practice.
I don't know this for a fact, but I bet a lot more people have got wealthy (by my standards) from software contracting and ISV work than from startups.
Startups tend to be fairly binary, with you making either a very large amount off of them or nothing at all. Recently re-reading pg's How To Make Wealth [1] made me wonder if this will soon become an outdated view of startups. The factors leading to the current and predicted rise in the number of startups (free software, cheap hardware, less personnel) should also lead to a large broading of the spectrum of failure s…
Like a lot of thing in life: The most popular movie/book sells 10 times more than the #2. MS Word vs WordPerfect. Harrison Ford vs Mark Hamill... People like stars.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
bahaha. If I could somehow give you +10 for that comment I would.
You could mod up 10 of my other comments, but Paul Graham would have to remove your voting rights for abusing the system. I think allowing arbitrary karma transfer on here would be an interesting experiment in reputational economies.
Even more extreme -- what if the whole economic cycle reverses, the currency devalues and inflation eats up your savings? Hard to imagine, but economic systems have this capacity for extreme events. I know the whole generation of honest engineers in Soviet Union who have not built a capital to retire on (obviously) and who were left desolate in their 50s-60s without pensions or jobs when their state companies/research labs collapsed.
Startup offers an option to strike it rich. If you hit the sweet spot of some business 'fitness function' - then you're set for life. If not, the most obvious strategy is to try as many startups as possible in your lifetime. This is like having a venture fund spread in time. One of your holdings should make it, the rest of them you expect to fail. It's nice if the winner comes when you're in your 20s :) But not necessary.
However, focusing on a single make-or-brake business idea and betting your farm (life) on it is a stupid idea. It is sad that many engineers are actually one-idea phenomena simply because of their specialization. Venture capitalists are in the best position, as they sit on the portfolio of options (startups).