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Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs

shafyy.com

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Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs

#71

Post by shafyy »

vikramkr wrote: post #64
shafyy wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, I don't now that for a fact. It's more a form of rhetoric to trigger interesting discussions. Seems to work ;-)

Sure, but it wasn't phrased as an open ended question, it was framed as rhetorical questions with a given answer that are evidence for your conclusion. I'm confused by the "bschool he never went to" bit as well. I'll grant that it sparks an interesting discussion, but I don't think that it does much to support your thesis as evidence.

I'm not writing an academic thesis. It's just my opinion in a short blog post. Deal with it :-)

Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs

#72

Post by ska »

shafyy wrote: post #47
krm01 wrote: post #43

I think having lots of data points is the only way to give proper advice about Startups. YC has given outstanding startup advice from a specific SV perspective. I've been running a UI/UX design firm for the last 10 years, working with small unknown bootstrapping founders, up to well funded and awesome companies founded by super stars like Elon Musk and others. Though this was never my intent, over the years we've col…

While data points do help, impactful startups often change the paradigm and how things are done. So, again, I don't think relying too much on emperical data points is good for founders. If you do, you'll rarely do something interesting and new.

> If you do, you'll rarely do something interesting and new.

And if you don't you'll also rarely do something interesting and new.

It's not as fun to talk about, but most startups will not be particularly impactful and exceedingly few actually change any paradigm. And that's ok too.

I guess I'm saying if you are trying to find general advice based on analysis of outliers, it may not work well.

Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs

#73

Post by mcguire »

edgarvaldes wrote: post #4
tlb wrote: post #2

Not all ex-post theories are BS. For example, I slam my hand in the drawer and theorize, "Slamming hands in drawers hurts; one should not do it." That theory is pretty solid. It doesn't cover all the edge cases, but following it is better than not following it. There are lots of startup theories that are equally solid, despite being ex-post. I know a startup that didn't pay payroll tax for a couple years, and it ende…

Maybe theories about what not to do are more solid.

Thank you for the validation!

My purpose in life is to serve as an example of what not to do.

Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs

#74

Post by davidivadavid »

edgarvaldes wrote: post #4
tlb wrote: post #2

Not all ex-post theories are BS. For example, I slam my hand in the drawer and theorize, "Slamming hands in drawers hurts; one should not do it." That theory is pretty solid. It doesn't cover all the edge cases, but following it is better than not following it. There are lots of startup theories that are equally solid, despite being ex-post. I know a startup that didn't pay payroll tax for a couple years, and it ende…

Maybe theories about what not to do are more solid.

Nah. In fact that's the whole reason "contrarianism" is a thing.

Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs

#75

Post by vikramkr »

shafyy wrote: post #71
vikramkr wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but it wasn't phrased as an open ended question, it was framed as rhetorical questions with a given answer that are evidence for your conclusion. I'm confused by the "bschool he never went to" bit as well. I'll grant that it sparks an interesting discussion, but I don't think that it does much to support your thesis as evidence.

I'm not writing an academic thesis. It's just my opinion in a short blog post. Deal with it :-)

Not exactly sure what there is to deal with here, and it's certainly not easy to have an interesting discussion about a topic if you decide that it's not worth trying to argue your point instead of telling the other person to "deal with it" when they ask for clarification about what some of your points mean or point out things that would make your argument stronger if addressed

Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs

#77

Post by mcguire »

amoorthy wrote: post #34

I'm surprised this blog post made the first page of HN given its lack of sources or analysis. Maybe a good discussion can come on one example startup advice from YC: do things that don't scale. I think this is really sound in that they're saying "get product-market-fit with some segment of users." i.e. know that there's demand for your product/service even if it's pretty manual to deliver early on. Then see how to au…

"...know that there's demand for your product/service even if it's pretty manual to deliver early on. Then see how to automate."

So, Theranos? (I swear, if I had a quarter for every company that had "good product-market fit", I'd have...a lot of quarters. Possibly all of them.)

Advice isn't terribly useful if you can only evaluate it after you've taken it, or not.

P.S. Think I can get VC funding for my corner fruit cart?

Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs

#78

Post by quartz »

I feel like this post mistakes advice for directive.

Most of the great founders I've encountered are excellent pattern-matching engines who can absorb large quantities of advice and then re-apply it within their personal contexts rather than rejecting it outright, ex post facto or not.

No you probably don't need to live with your users, but yes you should probably spend significant time with them doing the thing your company is trying to help them do better.

Putting advice to work is more than regurgitation... then again, if your company's goal is to normalize short-term living with strangers well then yeah, you probably should live with a few.

Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs

#79

Post by afarrell »

shafyy wrote: post #49
amoorthy wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry shafyy. I don't understand why the addition of "ALSO" chnages the statement. Sorry for being dense.

My point is they're not saying "ONLY do things that don't scale". It's more like, "from time to time, ALSO do things that don't scale". Which, as I said, I think is good advice, but also pretty common sense.

> common sense

Is this a meaningful category of knowledge?

Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs

#80

Post by quirkot »

std_throwaway wrote: post #54
bovermyer wrote: post #33

When I was in my twenties, I was part of the early "life coach blogger" culture. Now that I'm almost in my forties, I realize everything I wrote back then was bullshit. Earnest, but bullshit nonetheless. I'm much more cynical, but I'm also much more likely to just do what seems right and figure out the rest as I go. I don't read "best practices" or advice articles anymore. This is not to say that there is nothing to…

Mastery is when you not only know the rules but also know which rules you can ignore in your particular situation.

“By all means break the rules, and break them beautifully, deliberately and well. This is one of the ends for which they exist.”

― Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style

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