“Every minute I spent thinking about competitors was a minute wasted”
1–10 of 166 posts
Re: “Every minute I spent thinking about competitors was a minute wasted”
#2If he hadn’t spent the thinking time, he wouldn’t have come to this realization. By wasting time, he gained experience. It was thus not wasted.
Gaining experience is inherently an inefficient process. It’s the nature of the beast. (And it’s tweetable).
Re: “Every minute I spent thinking about competitors was a minute wasted”
#3Being aware of what competitors are doing is a good thing I think.
Re: “Every minute I spent thinking about competitors was a minute wasted”
#4Sounds more like survivorship bias than actual good advice.
Re: “Every minute I spent thinking about competitors was a minute wasted”
#5Side jab... hasn't posted on HN since 2015 but regular on Twitter? What gives?
Re: “Every minute I spent thinking about competitors was a minute wasted”
#6Side jab... hasn't posted on HN since 2015 but regular on Twitter? What gives?
HN requires time investment, you have to find something to talk about. Twitter is a better format if you're just sharing random thoughts as they come to you.
Re: “Every minute I spent thinking about competitors was a minute wasted”
#7Full text is:
> At both Viaweb and YC, every minute I spent thinking about competitors was, in retrospect, a minute wasted.
Follow-up tweet:
> It may be useful for some companies to think about competitors. That's why I didn't phrase it as a general rule. In particular it may be useful for more established companies to. If a startup has to, though, they're probably doomed.
Also a quote from Jeff Bezos:
> “If you want to get to the truth about what makes us different, it’s this: We are genuinely customer-centric, we are genuinely long-term oriented, and we genuinely like to invent. Most companies are not those things. They are focused on the competitor, rather than the customer. They want to work on things that will pay dividends in two or three years, and if they don’t work in two or three years, they will move on to something else. And they prefer to be close followers rather than inventors, because it’s safer. So if you want to capture the truth about Amazon, that is why we are different. Very few companies have all of those three elements.”
As a side note, I added […] in the title to show this isn't the complete text but it got scrubbed then removed.
Re: “Every minute I spent thinking about competitors was a minute wasted”
#8Every minute I spent thinking about insightful quotes from modern day gurus was a minute wasted
Re: “Every minute I spent thinking about competitors was a minute wasted”
#9Side jab... hasn't posted on HN since 2015 but regular on Twitter? What gives?
One cements your spot as a “thought leader” (blue verified check, very visible follower/retweet/like count, routinely used as a source by the media), the other not at all.
Re: “Every minute I spent thinking about competitors was a minute wasted”
#10What exactly were you thinking about when "thinking" about your competitors?