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Start before you think you’re ready

austinkleon.com

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Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#21

Post by wsinks »

kaycebasques wrote: post #18

> Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something. --- Jake the Dog [1] Maybe not exactly on-topic, but ever since I heard this quote it's been my mantra whenever I'm learning something new. For example I took a beginner's hip hop dancing class last night. A younger me would have been very embarrassed at how uncoordinated I was. That embarrassment probably would have kept me from go…

Congrats on taking the first class! I forced myself to do something similar after a nasty breakup, and the first 4-6 classes were brutal. Then I finally got the hang of it!

Glad you aspire to be more like Jake the Dog.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#22

Post by tombert »

tentboy wrote: post #9

Struggled with this a lot when I started studying foreign language. I spent way too much time deciding between Turkish, Russian or Japanese and trying to justify my decision with arbitrary metrics of usefulness. In the end I went with Japanese as I had the most interest in the culture, but then ran into another phase of paralysis by analysis in determining the most efficient study methods. Finally bought a "recommend…

I'm going through this now; I've wanted to learn Esperanto for awhile now, had similar experience going through YouTube trying to find the most optimal way of learning it, looking at reviews of different methods, when in reality I would have been better off choosing virtually any of the tutorials out there and just going with it.

To those curious, I've settled on Duolingo just because I realized I should just choose something, and it's free.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#23

Post by DayDollar »

Encourage others to take impossible risks. Theire failure and corpses build a bridge to your success. Try to see obnoxious "You-can-do-it-talks" not as ego-pumping, but as leveraging of stupid people into free R&D. Do not be first, find others who are stupid enough to develop and research for you- invest just enough, to become a goto adress once they are desperat- skin the carcasses. Be the general in the fifth row of the army, who will be painted as victorious, while all those "inspired" men, are laying dead and dieing at his horses feet.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#24

Post by JoeAltmaier »

DayDollar wrote: post #23

Encourage others to take impossible risks. Theire failure and corpses build a bridge to your success. Try to see obnoxious "You-can-do-it-talks" not as ego-pumping, but as leveraging of stupid people into free R&D. Do not be first, find others who are stupid enough to develop and research for you- invest just enough, to become a goto adress once they are desperat- skin the carcasses. Be the general in the fifth row o…

Not really a startup kind of person, are we?

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#25

Post by RobertRoberts »

DayDollar wrote: post #23

Encourage others to take impossible risks. Theire failure and corpses build a bridge to your success. Try to see obnoxious "You-can-do-it-talks" not as ego-pumping, but as leveraging of stupid people into free R&D. Do not be first, find others who are stupid enough to develop and research for you- invest just enough, to become a goto adress once they are desperat- skin the carcasses. Be the general in the fifth row o…

Some people have bad motivations, but that is not true for everyone saying these things.

I had no choice, I couldn't do anything but start a business, I was a failure as an employee because of how I looked at life and the process of building/creating. I was always at odds with my employers to make things work better. (I was told to work slower and less hard because I made others look bad sigh)

So what do you say to someone like me? I need to hear "you can do it" because even though I am inclined to do it anyways, it's still really hard to build your own business.

This kind of information is incredibly helpful (encouraging) for me in my situation at this point in time. For many others it's not good advice.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#26

Post by riazrizvi »

derialstrazus wrote: post #20
riazrizvi wrote: post #16

The question is prepare more vs take a shot. Rules of thumb advocating one versus the other are abound. Sun Tzu extols the virtue of more preparation to defeat the enemy before engaging, while also recommending the warrior that does not load his supply wagons twice nor wait for a second group of reinforcements. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, Faint heart never won fair lady etc. So there is advice advocatin…

It depends on what are the consequences for failure. In war, lack of preparation means death of your men at minimum, and the collapse of your nation at worst. In training, failure makes you stronger. It's a good argument for managers to create a working environment where employees are not afraid to fail. I absolutely agree that starting early is the best and fastest way to learn. Too many people avoid it because of t…

> In war, lack of preparation means death of your men at minimum, and the collapse of your nation at worst.

This is the fallacy that keeps people locked in over preparing. The way past it is to identify less risky goals that are still aligned with that particular objective. So in war your objective is to learn the enemy's weaknesses. So you could try trading with them, to survey their defenses. Imagine the Vikings at Lindisfarne, they are not going to go in blind. They first build a trading relationship, selling fish, and as friends they can see how strong the Abbey is, how many monasterial guards there are, or when the collection trays are the most full etc. Very little risk right? Similarly with sales, where your risk is your reputation. Say, you can't afford to jeopardize it with your one big connection because you spent a decade building the relationship. Well then you go in asking for advice on your idea, something low risk, instead of trying to make a yes-no sale.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#27

Post by AmericanChopper »

DayDollar wrote: post #23

Encourage others to take impossible risks. Theire failure and corpses build a bridge to your success. Try to see obnoxious "You-can-do-it-talks" not as ego-pumping, but as leveraging of stupid people into free R&D. Do not be first, find others who are stupid enough to develop and research for you- invest just enough, to become a goto adress once they are desperat- skin the carcasses. Be the general in the fifth row o…

Similarly, try to convince people that competition is inherently unfair, and that it shouldn’t exist. They will either become apathetic or invest their effort into trying to undermine competition itself, making it far easier on everybody else who’s focused on competing.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#28

Post by oneshoe »

DayDollar wrote: post #23

Encourage others to take impossible risks. Theire failure and corpses build a bridge to your success. Try to see obnoxious "You-can-do-it-talks" not as ego-pumping, but as leveraging of stupid people into free R&D. Do not be first, find others who are stupid enough to develop and research for you- invest just enough, to become a goto adress once they are desperat- skin the carcasses. Be the general in the fifth row o…

That's just some straight up machiavellianism.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#29

Post by [deleted] »

DayDollar wrote: post #23

Encourage others to take impossible risks. Theire failure and corpses build a bridge to your success. Try to see obnoxious "You-can-do-it-talks" not as ego-pumping, but as leveraging of stupid people into free R&D. Do not be first, find others who are stupid enough to develop and research for you- invest just enough, to become a goto adress once they are desperat- skin the carcasses. Be the general in the fifth row o…

[deleted]

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#30

Post by cryptozeus »

DayDollar wrote: post #23

Encourage others to take impossible risks. Theire failure and corpses build a bridge to your success. Try to see obnoxious "You-can-do-it-talks" not as ego-pumping, but as leveraging of stupid people into free R&D. Do not be first, find others who are stupid enough to develop and research for you- invest just enough, to become a goto adress once they are desperat- skin the carcasses. Be the general in the fifth row o…

Lol this way you will never start because guess what when 4 people ahead of you die, you will just turn back. You are not good to walk on their corpse. Imo this is totally wrong way of doing anything.
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