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Why Should I Start a Startup?

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#291

Post by Mz »

lomnakkus wrote: post #289
Mz wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just that unlikely statistical events are... unlikely even though they often do happen to someone (in aggregate). You may think you mean well, but your original comment came across as ugly and dismissive and personally attacking. I didn't provide any evidence that I am some extreme outlier because a) that wasn't the point and b) people who know me already know I am twice exceptional and don't need that elaborate…

I really don't understand why you addressed this comment to me...? I think I specifically stated that I wasn't being dismissive of your experience? (Also, assuming you're telling the truth, I think it might also be imprudent to divulge so much of your life story online. It'd be very easy to gather a lot of detail about you that might lead to a spearphishing attack or similar. You should probably ask a mod to delete s…

This is your original comment:

This article is selling a narrative that you want to hear with a huge dollop of confirmation bias as andy_ppp points out. It's not very likely that you or your family are that 0.01%[1], but it is very likely that you think you are exceptional. (I wish you all and your family all the best, but one needs to be very careful around this kind of narrativium.)

You may not mean it to be dismissive, but it absolutely is. It is also overly personal since most of my original comment was about the article. Comments about me and my sons were merely in support of those points.

And that's why it is addressed to you.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#292

Post by 40acres »

Mz wrote: post #62

He sounds twice exceptional -- gifted, but with some sort of learning disability or handicap of some sort. Twice exceptional people often appear to be "average" but find an "average" or normal life enormously frustrating. Because of having some sort of handicap, it can take a lot to get them going. Once they get going, they often outperform others. Life is vastly better for them when they can create their own niche b…

You seem to be very knowledgeable in regards to the twice exceptional theory. This may be confirmation bias but I feel as if I fall somewhere on the spectrum. What do you suggest for an adult who may be 2e? What online resources have you come across in terms of helping to "diagnose" and deal with this?

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#293

Post by jaypaulynice »

scottLobster wrote: post #272
jaypaulynice wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think financing your spouse education is a gamble? Who is to say you won't get divorced right after she's done? That's honorable, but at the same time a huge risk.

The fact that we were together for 7 years before we were married, and the experiences that came with that. We were a thing long before I had any money to speak of (or any real financial prospects), and she's supported me through quite a bit as I've supported her. If she's milking me for my money then I have no shame, because she'll have outdone Machiavelli several times over to hide it this well for this long. Somet…

Nice! You're right in that regard.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#294

Post by Mz »

40acres wrote: post #292
Mz wrote: post #62

He sounds twice exceptional -- gifted, but with some sort of learning disability or handicap of some sort. Twice exceptional people often appear to be "average" but find an "average" or normal life enormously frustrating. Because of having some sort of handicap, it can take a lot to get them going. Once they get going, they often outperform others. Life is vastly better for them when they can create their own niche b…

You seem to be very knowledgeable in regards to the twice exceptional theory. This may be confirmation bias but I feel as if I fall somewhere on the spectrum. What do you suggest for an adult who may be 2e? What online resources have you come across in terms of helping to "diagnose" and deal with this?

This is a general clearing house of gifted info:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/

This is their 2xe page:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/what_is_2e.htm

I will suggest that you consider joining a gifted homeschoolers list. I would not know what a good one is currently because it has been a lot of years since I did that stuff. But parents homeschooling a gifted child are very often dealing with a 2xe kid. Most school systems are ill equipped to deal with a 2xe kid. In fact, they often have trouble acknowledging that such a thing exists. (The schools ID'd one of my sons as gifted and the other as special needs, but they are both 2xe. The school system couldn't even conceive of such a thing, it seems.)

Parents on such lists often personally get a lot out of trying to understand what is going on with their kid and how to best support them. They often find themselves having big epiphanies about their own life and coming to terms with some things.

If you lurk, you will be privy to good discussions and find out what the current hot resources are and which ones have remained timeless classics that never go out of style. That is probably the best way to get some kind of useful info if you want to "self diagnose." It may also be okay for you to ask about adult assessment on some lists. Some gifted lists are not just for parents, but are more general. That would probably be a better place than a homeschooling list to ask about adult assessment.

Adult assessment is fraught with difficulties. If you aren't trying to get formal accommodation at college or at your job, I fully support a plan to "self diagnose" in order to try to figure yourself out. But do be aware that if you self diagnose and then want to talk about it online, an awful lot of people will be immediately dismissive, no matter your reasons for trying to engage and no matter how carefully you frame it. So self diagnosing can be useful for personal insight, which can be very valuable, but without a formal diagnosis, you won't qualify for official accommodation from work, school or other institutions and most people, online or off, will be pretty unsympathetic, if not downright ugly about it.

Best.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#295

Post by eli_gottlieb »

grogenaut wrote: post #275
eli_gottlieb wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The opposite side of the problem is that sometimes people continually tell you you're exceptional, talented, capable, and driven, while you point to your record of actual accomplishments and proclaim your mediocrity. And by "you" I of course mean "me".

you could also just have a ton of below average coworkers so your mediocrity is still amazing. This is what happens in highschool sports. Folks mistake "above average" which is get you to college sports (I played D3 I know) with exceptional, eg Pro, or even All Star Pro. Few can even tell at that level. I enjoyed myself a lot by going to a place where I was continually challenged in a domain I didn't know, games. Lea…

I hugely enjoyed my last job: the coworkers were all above my skill-level in practically everything, but somehow still liked having me around. I learned loads and built great relationships. We still keep in touch.

Pity our client cancelled the big project I'd been hired on for, revenue flow never quite got back up, and I was the only person in the company who couldn't do hardware dev :-(.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#296

Post by eli_gottlieb »

gist wrote: post #283
eli_gottlieb wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The opposite side of the problem is that sometimes people continually tell you you're exceptional, talented, capable, and driven, while you point to your record of actual accomplishments and proclaim your mediocrity. And by "you" I of course mean "me".

> while you point to your record of actual accomplishments and proclaim your mediocrity Luck being the missing ingredient.

No, not at all. The missing ingredients are drive from an early age, extreme privilege from almost birth, and/or efficiency of work-ethic from an early age.

You can crank things out by putting in a lot of hours, to work towards a goal, but that's not actually enough. You needed to learn how to just process things efficiently and mechanically from the start.

You shouldn't have grown a sense of drive at age 23 and then needed to figure out how that works. You should have been efficient since forever, and then been able to deploy that towards drive at whatever age. Ideally, you should have had drive starting around age 14 on top of efficiency.

Provided you never managed any of those things, you should have just been born right. It's easy to hit all the top-ranked targets in life without having efficiency, or even an idea or drive before adulthood -- provided someone sent you to prep school, put you through top universities, and let you know you could start a business without worrying about ever starving or missing rent.

(I've met some people as privileged as that last description. The best among them is absolutely one of the most friendly, helpful, overall nice people I've ever met. Many of them are self-aware about the whole thing. Those who are neither nice nor self-aware are a danger to society, and IMHO haven't really earned it. Oh, and worse, some of the non-nice, self-unaware ones are in some very, very high places. Apparently they're awkward at parties, too.)

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#297

Post by andkon »

cryoshon wrote: post #270
andkon wrote: post #153

I'd like to fill out the "maybe" part of his "If you answer yes three times, then maybe starting a startup is for you" bit. I answer a very strong yes to all three of those. Always have. But a startup, despite my always having worked in them and run one of my own for three years, was resolutely not a good idea for me. It took a lot of self-discovery to see myself not as an entrepreneur, but as an artist, and it's fru…

>It took a lot of self-discovery to see myself not as an entrepreneur, but as an artist, and it's frustrating, because it sure took me a while to admit it i'm in the midst of this realization as well, not exactly as an artist though. it's shitty-- artists/etc don't get paid.

Well, so far I don't get paid as an artist. But artists definitely get paid. It's probably about as hard as getting paid as a startup founder.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#298

Post by Zarath »

metalliqaz wrote: post #54
marssaxman wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The megacorp economy requires people to accept the likelihood of crushing institutionalized misery in exchange for a chance at being able to sustain a high salary long enough that the accumulated pile of cash after you finally quit will allow you to live a good enough life to make up for all that lost time and deferred happiness. I decided not to play along with that and will never again work for a megacorp, because…

But then you have kids, and kids require stability. So you go to work for the man, because the kids are more important.

Exactly, be miserable so the next generation can do it too! People raise children in total poverty all the time dude, I'm sure you're going to be fine.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#299

Post by King-Aaron »

andy_ppp wrote: post #216
King-Aaron wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't see the comment as snarky :) I'd argue however that those examples were just examples of others succeeding even though they had a limiting factor, not evidence to say that a reduced learning capacity is going to guarantee success haha.

Even so, if you are suggesting dyslexia (in these cases) probably has or probably hasn't affected outcomes, that's problematic . The examples you give provide zero information either way; without enumerating a statistically relevant section of people considered successful, these examples seem to provide information, but actually provide nothing. You'd also have to adjust for other factors such as parents trying harde…

It was just a bit of Thursday inspirational fluff, not really intended to be used as part of the 'social implications of saying positive things on the internet' study.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#300

Post by deepGem »

Mz wrote: post #280
deepGem wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twice exceptional people often appear to be "average" but find an "average" or normal life enormously frustrating Like all correlation to causation misconceptions, most people read this and imply the converse. I find the normal life exceptionally frustrating, so I must be exceptional, hence I must do a startup. I am questioning if this is indeed true. I believe that this is a misconception, being frustrated with day…

most people read this and imply the converse. I am not responsible for strangers on the internet reading my comments and twisting them to mean something I did not intend at all. I have been online long enough to know that it is not possible to open my mouth online at all without someone, somewhere wildly misinterpreting my words and having zero desire to make a good faith effort to actually understand my point. I do…

Yes, you mean well and I don't mean to imply that people are misinterpreting your words. People understand things differently. They read correlation and imply the converse. I have done it so many times. Another analogy - Alan Turing was a great computer scientist, he was also a long distance runner. The thought process in my head after reading that sentence, "To be a great computer scientist it's good to start long distance running". This is because I like running and my brain perceives it as the path of least resistance to achieve mastery over a subject.
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