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Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

toomas.net

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Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#81

Post by cmahler7 »

open_bear wrote: post #73
cmahler7 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is a business anything like the lottery? Thousands of decisions over years vs 1 random event. Domain knowledge obviously plays a role as well, if you can't code you're going to have a hard time making software. There's a lot of money to be made in AI right, the timing is good but it doesn't matter if you don't know anything about it. By your logic some random guy off the street would have the same chances of buil…

Survivorship bias: because for every Steve Jobs and Bill Gates there are millions of folks, whose business ended without any success (something like 80% of businesses close during the first year).

That's my point, 80% of entrepreneurs can't make it one year, so what are the odds of Steve Jobs starting multiple multi-billion dollar companies over multiple decades, with tens of thousands of decisions, through pure luck?

You're saying that skill and knowledge play no part in success. A mentally handicapped person would have as good a chance at success as Steve Jobs by your logic, because it's all luck.

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#82

Post by teddyh »

kelukelugames wrote: post #49
rb808 wrote: post #10

Yeah this is the best for me: > Ship. Ship. SHIP. The overwhelming failure case among people who read interviews like this one is that they spend 98 units of effort reading about running a business for every 2 units of effort running a business. Flip that on its head. I wonder how many successful entrepreneurs actually spent time reading advice blogs when they were starting.

Haha, I've read 4 books on writing by famous authors but have written 0 books. I think I enjoy reading about writing more than actual writing.

That’s fine, as long as you don’t call yourself, or identify as, a “writer”.

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#83

Post by zapperdapper »

briandear wrote: post #71
zapperdapper wrote: post #20

All good advice, but I'm going to propose something that may be a bit contrary to current wisdom: if you really want a decent lifestyle/work-life balance don't start a business! So what's the alternative? Go contracting. Reduce your expenses to the bone, and limit the contracts you do. I now only take 3 month contracts and I do one a year. I make about £24K from that - I know many developers making double my rate. Th…

So you essentially work for the rest of your life? Building a business should not be confused with creating a job for yourself.

> So you essentially work for the rest of your life?

Not quite. I still pay National Insurance contributions, and in fact am already entitled to a full UK state pension (at age 66). I also pay into a private pension plan and have done so for years. I also built up my tax free savings in cash and stocks and shares (low cost index tracker). I can access the private pension and private savings whenever I want.

So the plan is I will continue to do this as long as it makes sense to do so.

My partner and I are actually considering complete early retirement (I'm 55 now) to Philippines next year - but that's another story.

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#84

Post by armenarmen »

kelukelugames wrote: post #49
rb808 wrote: post #10

Yeah this is the best for me: > Ship. Ship. SHIP. The overwhelming failure case among people who read interviews like this one is that they spend 98 units of effort reading about running a business for every 2 units of effort running a business. Flip that on its head. I wonder how many successful entrepreneurs actually spent time reading advice blogs when they were starting.

Haha, I've read 4 books on writing by famous authors but have written 0 books. I think I enjoy reading about writing more than actual writing.

Finished writing my first novel, waiting on cover art now, and yeah. Reading about writing is a lot more pleasant than the actual writing. Rather, it's editing that sucks.

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#85

Post by stevenj »

armenarmen wrote: post #84
kelukelugames wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, I've read 4 books on writing by famous authors but have written 0 books. I think I enjoy reading about writing more than actual writing.

Finished writing my first novel, waiting on cover art now, and yeah. Reading about writing is a lot more pleasant than the actual writing. Rather, it's editing that sucks.

Good writing is great editing.

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#86

Post by sah2ed »

danieltillett wrote: post #22
noxToken wrote: post #3

I've always wondered what the advice would look like if you compiled a list of what not to do from failed companies. TFA is a list of the successful ones who got it right, so we know what they did to make it. Yet I'm sure many people follow this advice and still fail. You can find wildly varying statistics, but somewhere between 50% and 90% of startups will fail within 2 years. What did those companies do (or failed…

I can’t add anything concrete, but anecdotally the reasons I have personally seen are very diverse. To misquote Tolstoy all successful startups are all alike; every failed startup is a failure in its own way.

Peter Thiel's version:

"All happy companies are different, all unhappy companies are alike (in that they failed to escape "sameness" or competition).

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#87

Post by bigtunacan »

zapperdapper wrote: post #67
jonmb wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like this - the idea has a Mr. Money Mustache vibe to it. His blog is great, if you haven't seen it already. My question for you is how do you manage healthcare costs?

haha - I'm more like Mr. Shoestring Mustache. MMM has several hundred thousand a year coming in from his blog alone. He also had I think a million bucks in the bank before he retired. He also has a couple of rental properties I believe. I don't have anything like that. I live in UK so healthcare is free here. Many years ago I had some mental health problems and the NHS here literally saved my life. I am so grateful f…

In terms of the healtcare; is it free only for native citizens? What if someone were to move there from another country such as the United States?

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#88

Post by bigtunacan »

The 4-Hour Workweek is the first book listed and I have heard of it so many times I finally decided to read it. I picked up an old copy from the local library and I'm a little over 1/2 way through.

So far I have not been all that impressed. Just in general it seems so light on anything really concrete and more just a motivational book. Where it does have concrete things though they are just really out of date (One example is that they recommend Yahoo Stores where today someone would probably use Shopify or another alternative. Another example is there is a LOT of talk about using magazine ads, but how many people are actually still reading/buying print mags today?).

What are other people's thoughts on this particular book, and what about the updates in the latest edition? Has it changed enough to be somewhat current when the realities of today?

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#89

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

cmahler7 wrote: post #81
open_bear wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Survivorship bias: because for every Steve Jobs and Bill Gates there are millions of folks, whose business ended without any success (something like 80% of businesses close during the first year).

That's my point, 80% of entrepreneurs can't make it one year, so what are the odds of Steve Jobs starting multiple multi-billion dollar companies over multiple decades, with tens of thousands of decisions, through pure luck? You're saying that skill and knowledge play no part in success. A mentally handicapped person would have as good a chance at success as Steve Jobs by your logic, because it's all luck.

>what are the odds of Steve Jobs starting multiple multi-billion dollar companies over multiple decades

High. The first success is luck and the rest are a consequence of this initial lucky break (namely via generous access to capital).

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#90

Post by hodgesrm »

lettergram wrote: post #38
rb808 wrote: post #10

Yeah this is the best for me: > Ship. Ship. SHIP. The overwhelming failure case among people who read interviews like this one is that they spend 98 units of effort reading about running a business for every 2 units of effort running a business. Flip that on its head. I wonder how many successful entrepreneurs actually spent time reading advice blogs when they were starting.

It's interesting. I can't stand reading about startups, advice, etc. I regularly watch my friends, people on HN or Reddit fall into the folly of discussing different strategies or trying to create the "perfect team" or "perfect business" prior to launch. I create products regularly, and many of them make a profit (not a ton yet, but all growing). My consumer facing apps include https://easy-a.net/ or https://projectp…

It's worth thinking about the team in advance, especially to understand what things you do well and where you need complementary talents. Good teams also work through the problems that are inevitable in new products. There's a great speech by Ed Catmull that makes this point well. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc)

Of course this is useless advice if you are doing a one-person business. :)

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