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Summary of "Must Read" articles for starting entrepreneurs

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Re: Summary of "Must Read" articles for starting entrepreneurs

#3

Post by RiderOfGiraffes »

dabent wrote: post #2

This is a case where someone's HN reputaion made the collection a "must read" for me. RoG has done a great job here of knowing what's been posted, more than "finding dupes" and adding to the conversation. I look forward to checking out the list.

It's very kind of you to say so, but in the interests of full disclosure I must declare that I've had no hand in creating this list. I've read several of the linked articles and found the general quality to be high (by my standards, for my rather limited context) and so thought I'd share it.

I even suspect it was posted here some time ago, but was ignored. I found it in my "Great Articles" experiment that I'm starting to review that to see if I can turn it into a more generally useful tool.

ADDED IN EDIT: Yes, thought so, here it is: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1753144

Re: Summary of "Must Read" articles for starting entrepreneurs

#4

Post by Umalu »

This is an impressive list of articles, and includes some of the best articles I have read on these topics. However, seeing so many of these articles in one place made me think two seditious thoughts: (1) Larry and Sergey didn't need a single one of these articles to start Google, and (2) if everyone else reads and acts according to these articles, you should probably do the opposite. Just as generals fight the last war, advice articles seems determined to duplicate the last success. If you want the next out-of-left-field success, you need to be where no one else is even thinking to look.

EDIT: Yes, I realize I've just added another advice article to the pile.

Re: Summary of "Must Read" articles for starting entrepreneurs

#5

Post by DanielRibeiro »

I found Eric Ries to be remarkably underrepresented on this list. I've assembled a list of some of his best presentations and related work on this bundle: http://bit.ly/fXzcTQ

It mostly falls on product strategy, culture, idea, and general startup advice. Mostly product strategy.

Re: Summary of "Must Read" articles for starting entrepreneurs

#7

Post by Jun8 »

Umalu wrote: post #4

This is an impressive list of articles, and includes some of the best articles I have read on these topics. However, seeing so many of these articles in one place made me think two seditious thoughts: (1) Larry and Sergey didn't need a single one of these articles to start Google, and (2) if everyone else reads and acts according to these articles, you should probably do the opposite. Just as generals fight the last…

Exactly, you should modulate your base carrier domain knowledge with some random fluctuations to beat the herd.

Re: Summary of "Must Read" articles for starting entrepreneurs

#8

Post by true_religion »

Umalu wrote: post #4

This is an impressive list of articles, and includes some of the best articles I have read on these topics. However, seeing so many of these articles in one place made me think two seditious thoughts: (1) Larry and Sergey didn't need a single one of these articles to start Google, and (2) if everyone else reads and acts according to these articles, you should probably do the opposite. Just as generals fight the last…

Here's a counter seditious thought ;-)

Everyone spotlights the biggest success stories (in your case Google) and tries to exrapolate what the average should do to be like them.

However, the average case won't be like the outliers regardless of what methodological is followed, and maximizing the profit for the average startup is likely wildly different from maximizing the profit of the outliers.

Secondly, Google acted like an average startup--seeking funding, seeking sale to Microsoft, Yahoo, et all---until they stumbled upon their disruptive technology: ads.

So unless your startup is likely to revolutionize the industry its good advice to follow proven techniques for profit making.

Re: Summary of "Must Read" articles for starting entrepreneurs

#10

Post by charlesju »

Umalu wrote: post #4

This is an impressive list of articles, and includes some of the best articles I have read on these topics. However, seeing so many of these articles in one place made me think two seditious thoughts: (1) Larry and Sergey didn't need a single one of these articles to start Google, and (2) if everyone else reads and acts according to these articles, you should probably do the opposite. Just as generals fight the last…

Information is power. You can always choose to ignore poor advice, but if you don't read, you miss the opportunity to act on good advice.
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