Caring about the product seems to be the most dangerous. It's how the coffeeshop fallacy pops up and it's how people end up spending years building stuff nobody wants to buy.
Steve Jobs might have disagreed with that particular point.
The coffeeshop fallacy
51–60 of 99 posts
Re: The coffeeshop fallacy
#52I have found that being personally interested in the product has a lot of benefits. First, if you're a user/consumer, it's easier to determine which features are most important as well as usability issues. It's surprising how unusable some products are because the developers never actually use them. Second, and most important, a personal connection helps to get you through the dark days at the start. It's very emotio…
I actually completely agree with you[1]. My [intended but perhaps poorly articulated] point was that playing DnD doesn't feel the same as making tools for DnD. However, if you accept that premise and are willing to endure potentially dull work, then caring about DnD will allow you to make much better DnD tools. [1] (updated to remove irrelevant personal information)
playing DnD doesn't feel the same as making tools for DnD
That's absolutely true, and I'd take it a step further. Playing DnD doesn't feel the same as making tools for and running a business around DnD.
Re: The coffeeshop fallacy
#53Similar to the coffeeshop fallacy is something I described to a friend over dinner the other night as the "ambulance fallacy" ... He was telling me about his startup ambitions and about one particular business that he said sounded like a ton of fun (it was an alcoholic beverage business) - he loved the lifestyle potential of being "that guy". I told him a story about how I wanted to be an EMS worker when I was 12 yea…
This is similar to how I talked my brother out of his brief thoughts of becoming a professional pilot. It sounds wonderful, but in reality the pay is poor (unless you're one of the lucky few able to work their way up to a good long-haul route), a lot of it is boring, a single relatively harmless medical problem can end your career, etc. etc. You have to look at the bad parts of any job when considering a career or st…
Very few jobs, I imagine, are anything like they seem from the outside. Every glamorous-looking job has many hours of painstaking drudgery involved.
On the other hand, dull-looking jobs probably have great parts that outsiders never know about.
Re: The coffeeshop fallacy
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually completely agree with you[1]. My [intended but perhaps poorly articulated] point was that playing DnD doesn't feel the same as making tools for DnD. However, if you accept that premise and are willing to endure potentially dull work, then caring about DnD will allow you to make much better DnD tools. [1] (updated to remove irrelevant personal information)
playing DnD doesn't feel the same as making tools for DnD That's absolutely true, and I'd take it a step further. Playing DnD doesn't feel the same as making tools for and running a business around DnD.
And doing that doesn't feel the same as slinking around dungeons and fighting dragons, which is probably terrifying and deadly... but on the upside holds far more social prestige than playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Re: The coffeeshop fallacy
#55Maslow [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslows_hierarchy_of_needs] would disagree with the fundamental premise of this post.
Re: The coffeeshop fallacy
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
yes, you will be able to own that coffee shop, but you won't want to. being their landlord is a better way to go. also, i don't think software is viewed as a "high-prestige" profession.
Writing letters isn't high-prestige either, which is why lawyers don't describe their job as writing letters all day. Learn from their example.
I've been thinking about this. Saying "I'm a software developer" just doesn't communicate what I do, even though programming is... well, what I do. Thanks for reframing the problem succinctly.
You thought about this, so how do you describe your profession?
Re: The coffeeshop fallacy
#57Caring about the product seems to be the most dangerous. It's how the coffeeshop fallacy pops up and it's how people end up spending years building stuff nobody wants to buy. Steve Jobs might have disagreed with that particular point.
Just because it's dangerous doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. It's risk, not ABANDON ALL HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER.
Re: The coffeeshop fallacy
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
yes, you will be able to own that coffee shop, but you won't want to. being their landlord is a better way to go. also, i don't think software is viewed as a "high-prestige" profession.
Writing letters isn't high-prestige either, which is why lawyers don't describe their job as writing letters all day. Learn from their example.
And an m&a investment banker actually edits a file in word for 14 hours a day and on weekends. For the first 3-4 years he doesn't even get to come up with the content in those files.
It's amazing what people will do for "prestige".
Re: The coffeeshop fallacy
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
yes, you will be able to own that coffee shop, but you won't want to. being their landlord is a better way to go. also, i don't think software is viewed as a "high-prestige" profession.
Writing letters isn't high-prestige either, which is why lawyers don't describe their job as writing letters all day. Learn from their example.
And an m&a investment banker actually edits a file in word for 14 hours a day and on weekends. For the first 3-4 years he doesn't even get to come up with the content in those files.
It's amazing what people will do for "prestige".
Re: The coffeeshop fallacy
#60This is great advice for some people, but terrible advice for others. It seriously depends on context -- who is to say someone's maximum pleasure doesn't come from running their own coffeeshop? It's not incorrect, but it's nearly impossible to make these statements without projecting one's own biases into the conversation.
The most startling thing was the Levchin quote: "You you can't be in love with a particular idea or business. You have to be in love with the idea of running a business."
It's presented as an either/or dichotomy. I'm pretty sure Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, etc. didn't succeed because they were focused solely on resource management. Lack of passion in one's product is certainly just as important (some would say more so.)