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Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

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Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#91

Post by jermaustin1 »

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.

Steve Jobs only started Apple and NeXT. Pixar was already a division of Lucas Films and had leadership prior to Jobs that aided in it's success post Lucas Films.

That said, of the 2 companies he explicitly founded and ran, only Apple was successful. NeXT was a spectacular failure.

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#92

Post by ivm »

soneca wrote: post #45

I believe this list is missing what I consider to be the most important factor for success, an underlying strength that the most successful business I read on IndieHackers (and elsewhere) have that is systematically underestimated as a reason for success: previously acquired audience . I believe audience is the most important currency in today's world, especially for digital products. Audience may be followers on Twi…

This is an underrated comment. Breaking through the public's indifference for the first time is mostly luck, snowballing with some existing audience is much easier.

Here's another great comment about the "minimum amount of attention": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7207943

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#93

Post by mrisoli »

soneca wrote: post #45

I believe this list is missing what I consider to be the most important factor for success, an underlying strength that the most successful business I read on IndieHackers (and elsewhere) have that is systematically underestimated as a reason for success: previously acquired audience . I believe audience is the most important currency in today's world, especially for digital products. Audience may be followers on Twi…

I've read most of the interviews on IH and some of them do mention audience as a big factor, but you are right, it is very underestimated.

Good audience, network, reputation or community involvement doesn't just get you product validation or your first customers, it gets you free ambassadors for your business.

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#94

Post by komali2 »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #89
cmahler7 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

>generous access to capital

Increases total number of opportunity chances.

I don't like the lottery metaphor, because the math doesn't work out (you can't buy out the total # of lottery numbers to guarantee a win and still profit), but basically, the more money you got, the more tickets you can buy, the higher your chance of winning.

Mark Cuban said something along the lines of "You only have to be right once." Get your first couple million, and from there on it's just intelligent investing, which you can literally pay an intelligent investor to do for you.

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#95

Post by mrisoli »

donmatito wrote: post #51

What I find interesting with Indie Hackers is that it covers a wide range a personal/business situations. It goes from real lifestyle business, to beer-money-making side-projects. I feel that there is a world of difference between a side-project that is free, to one where you ask customers for their credit cards. Of all professional experiences, I have never learnt as much as I did taking a side-project idea from ide…

Exactly! What I love about IH is that it doesn't define success as 6+ figures revenue streams, many of them are in early stages or making <$1k/month and are people happy with what they are building even if it is not their main job yet. Which is good to divert from the nonsensical thinking that only unicorn status/IPOs/acquisition equate to success often spoken in the startup world.

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#96

Post by komali2 »

jansho wrote: post #74
ThomPete wrote: post #57

In other words. Reading about success to become successful is like reading the autobiography of lotterywinners. There are no secrets to success other than luck, timing and actually shipping your product (or play the lottery). Contrary to the lottery though much fewer people ship and there are much more winning lottery coupons. There is nothing to learn about how to build a successful product. If you want to read anyt…

Reading about success might create a feedback loop to yourself so that you feel more motivated and possibly more guided to get to success. Kinda like hanging out with games enthusiasts, and you gradually become one yourself?

I have definitely read in one of those exact type of books that surrounding yourself with successful people helps you become successful. Same for surrounding yourself with the rich. Something about feedback loops, and greater access to opportunities through networking.

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#97

Post by komali2 »

bigtunacan wrote: post #88

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 ex…

He specifically recommends niche magazine ads, which then and today will probably get you a print + ad on their site. So like, take an ad out in PCGamer, and get yourself an ad on their website as well, if you're making an indie game. Better yet, find a magazine + website that specifically is about indie gaming.

I can't think of a single magazine that doesn't have an accompanying website.

EDIT: Might as well include my thoughts on the book. For me, it was the second "success genre" or "self help" style book I had read, the first being How to Win Friends and Influence People. I was about 22 at the time, fresh out of college, living abroad in Taiwan, trying to figure myself out and find myself. Very impactful time, so for me it was a very impactful book. Not so much for anything specific, but because the specifics were there. Here was a guy laying out concrete plans, concrete schedules, to making money. It guided me to how it really was possible to make money on my own, to live the kind of life I wanted to, to work remote etc. It planted a seed that took a long fucking time to grow, but it did grow, and the result is by the time I was 25 I had managed to sneak my way out of my liberal arts degree'd relatively futureless life into software engineering. Now my goals and objectives are framed by that first read - I haven't looked at it since, though I should.

In short, it's a great book for those new to the whole concept of working for yourself, creating a life for yourself, stepping outside the "normal boundaries" of life (go to school, get job, poop kids, die). Those on this site reading this may not think it's such a big deal, to those of us here it's pretty normal to step outside the box, but there's a reason I'm here now and this book contributed in a big way to it.

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#98

Post by mrisoli »

l33tbro wrote: post #50
jasongrishkoff wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As one of those folks featured on IndieHackers ( https://www.submithub.com ), I can say that I didn't read a single interview, advice blog or anything of the sort. I just focused on rolling out an MVP that streamlined the problem I was trying to solve. I confess that to this day, I haven't read any of the other interviews on IndieHackers :-D. Oops, hope you're not seeing this Courtland <3

I struggle with this so much that I even managed to unearth a buzz term (1) for this syndrome of reading too many advice blogs. That aside, I think a lot of this is relative to where one is at in terms of education, network, support structure, access to capital, and a raft of other factors Eg, if you're an MBA with a deep and narrow understanding of a certain niche, you're not going to lean on startup blogs in the sa…

I knew this existed but I never knew the name thank you!

I suffer from this in many ways, not just shipping a product, but even when just starting a dumb side project it is easy to get sidetracked with simple decisions, such as language, framework, etc.(the infamous JS fatigue)

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#99

Post by draw_down »

ThomPete wrote: post #57

In other words. Reading about success to become successful is like reading the autobiography of lotterywinners. There are no secrets to success other than luck, timing and actually shipping your product (or play the lottery). Contrary to the lottery though much fewer people ship and there are much more winning lottery coupons. There is nothing to learn about how to build a successful product. If you want to read anyt…

Conclusion: sell the autobiographies, don't try to live them.

Re: Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers

#100

Post by konpikwastaken »

Heh, something I read earlier on indiehackers made me chuckle.

"Honestly, negativity about my business model is more likely to come from a community like Hacker News than it is from my readers."[1]

He's not wrong.

[1]: https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/site-builder-report

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