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No More “Insight Porn”

jakobgreenfeld.com

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Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#161

Post by 79C5 »

ineedasername wrote: post #41
MOARDONGZPLZ wrote: post #28

I got super lucky. I started a company and didn’t really have any meaningful traction. I was about to shut it down. Walking out of the grocery store one night after work, I passed by my former manager when I was an intern. We got to talk for about 30 seconds, mentioned my company, she asked me to email her. I did, and that very quickly led to my first big customer which makes me about double what a FAANG swe would ma…

So what you’re saying is that I should Always Be Grocery Shopping ? Because you never know who you’ll meet there. No, don’t worry about taking the time to reply & say that of course that’s what you mean. I’m already halfway through dictating a blogpost on my way to the grocery store right now. Thank you, I never would have seen it as the rich business networking venue it clearly is without your insight.

idk if you're joking, but urbanist writer James Kunstler points out that grocery stores are the only place in the suburbs where you can actually have a spontaneous interaction with your neighbors. Maybe ymmv but in the suburb where I live, there are no sidewalks and like 1-to-3 people walk by per day.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#162

Post by mmaunder »

“Many people that truly accomplished amazing things, when asked for the key to their success come up with some framework or playbook that they, in fact, never used themselves.”

And they rarely share the messy awkward embarrassing reality of their journey.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#163

Post by rjtavares »

saalweachter wrote: post #113
rjtavares wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we stop pretending theses things aren't luck? Sure, there's merit involved - but that's a necessary condition, not a sufficient one. There's a million competent people having basically the same drive and capability. The thing that makes a difference is luck. Period. Please note: this doesn't mean that succesful people don't deserve the success - most times they do. It's just that there are many more people, equal…

If "luck" is a dirty word in the startup world, I would at least like acknowledgement that the pathways to success are frequently not replicable . Sure, nothing is certain, but some career paths are much more replicable than others. Maybe not everyone can work at a FAANGAMMATRON, there's a certain amount of luck, but "get a big tech job, work it for twenty-thirty-forty years" is still a fairly replicable path to mode…

> You can look at the types of actions people took to get a big tech job (...) and there's probably a double-digit percent chance of you being able to replicate it.

You think more than 700 million people can get a big tech job?

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#164

Post by aaron695 »

MOARDONGZPLZ wrote: post #28

I got super lucky. I started a company and didn’t really have any meaningful traction. I was about to shut it down. Walking out of the grocery store one night after work, I passed by my former manager when I was an intern. We got to talk for about 30 seconds, mentioned my company, she asked me to email her. I did, and that very quickly led to my first big customer which makes me about double what a FAANG swe would ma…

No post body was provided.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#165

Post by jrochkind1 »

Swizec wrote: post #130
jrochkind1 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory, hypothetically, it could be helpful in identifying when you don't have the proper situation to make success sufficiently likely -- perhaps you want to find another path where your situation is more advantageous. OR to identify what you, unique to your circumstances, might need to do to be in circumstances to maximize your luck, that other people woudln't -- like, in this case, cultivate a relational networ…

Identifying challenges to overcome is extremely helpful. Necessary even! Giving up before you even start just because it’s harder for you than someone else, that part doesn’t help. The thing here can be anything. Losing weight, running a marathon, starting a business, climbing out of poverty into the middle class. You can’t get there unless you start.

> Giving up before you even start just because it’s harder for you than someone else, that part doesn’t help.

Doesn't help with what? In general, when you have your choice of direction, choosing a direction that plays to your strength instead of a direction where you are starting out handicapped compared to competitors can certainly help with your chance of success.

If we ignore the specifics about it being about the background you were born into, I think we'd all agree taht there are some people who exist who because of personal charecteristics or even personality are ill-suited to be startup founders, and have a poor chance of success, and maybe shoudln't do it, right?

It's just when we don't ignore that we are talking about social position specifically, in America we want to believe this can't be true because of your social position, we want to believe everyone has an equal chance regardless of social position. This is an ideology though, not based on observation. An ideology that says you have to pretend it doens't matter, not even identify the challenges to overcome.

So if you know you're going to have a harder time being successful than others, and that of course most startups fail anyway, and maybe you want to try it anyway after evaluating the risk and what will happen to you if you fail, but maybe you say actually, no, I don't want to do the thing that is already very risky and I have an additional handicap for... maybe instead of being a founder I'm going to look for someone else's startup to join, or maybe I'm going to try to work at a FAANG instead -- when you say it "doesn't help", what do you mean -- it doesn't help who do what? And who would it help to do what if you were to insist upon doing it even though it will be harder for you than someone else?

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#166

Post by jdmoreira »

PuppyTailWags wrote: post #158
throwaway98797 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We’re fed myths that they all started from the bottom and worked hard enough and smart enough to get where they are, and you can do it too! i know this may be rhetoric but i’ve never heard someone say that. a lot of folks in power say “I got lucky but also worked hard” it’s counter productive to claim the elite is this super disconnected group of people. because they are not and it weakens the case for reform. let’…

The elite are a super disconnected group of people. My understanding is that their children don't even have the same capacity for empathy as children from other classes. Money literally changes how humans think, such that humans with significant wealth have a different psychology. There is of course nuance but let's not pretend like moneyed people, new or old, are normal.

> My understanding is that their children don't even have the same capacity for empathy as children from other classes

I don't know. It seems like you are dehumanizing rich kids which I don't really think it's a great idea. Sure, entitlement is a thing but it's not like rich kids don't have their own struggles

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#167

Post by dymk »

altdataseller wrote: post #70
EmilyHughes wrote: post #19

Why does everything have to be some kind "porn" nowadays. Does anybody seriously think this is funny?

Because it fits the meaning of what he is trying to convey. Porn, is immediate gratification that makes you feel good at the moment, but doesn't really satisfy the deeper needs you might have.

Porn is sexy things for sexual gratification.

There, I said it. It's not a pretty mountain top sunset. It's not kittens playing. It's not useless self-help articles.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#168

Post by agentwiggles »

pessimizer wrote: post #154
Swizec wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ....and your chances of being able to do those things (without severe risk of poverty and homelessness) are increased dramatically by having been lucky enough to be born wealthy, or at least upper-middle-class. While this is true, it also isn’t helpful. Play the cards you have, not the cards you wish you had. You always gotta start somewhere . Might as well start with what you’ve got and go from there.

> While this is true, it also isn’t helpful. It isn't quite helpful. The second half of the advice should be to tell working class people to do whatever they can to get near rich/upper-middle class people, to flatter them, befriend them, attend their parties, and sleep with them. The more rich people around you, the luckier you get. Some rich manchild somewhere is waiting for you to be "the brains" behind something.

I'm annoyed by how true this comment has been for me. Lots of my success in life has been more about knowing the right people than about knowing the right things.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#169

Post by vangelis »

Swizec wrote: post #124
bombcar wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't want to admit it involves hard work and luck - they'd rather think that Bill Gates got to where he is because of his parents (even though there are thousands/millions with similar parents and backgrounds who didn't get even close). Because one line of thought leads to: "I couldn't do anything, the game was rigged from the start" and the other leads to "I didn't do as much as I could have done."

> People don't want to admit it involves hard work and luck My favorite realization from actually playing cards. We used to play a lot of rummy on vacations as a family. Like a lot . I kept losing. Hard. Absolutely destroyed. If only I could get this one card to complete my hand, I’d win every time. But it just wouldn’t come! I had terrible luck. Someone else always ended up winning before I got the one card I needed…

now imagine each bad play had a cost and you had a budget before too many knocked you out of the game

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#170

Post by juve1996 »

strken wrote: post #116
juve1996 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One of the later tweets is "pick business partners...with integrity." They're both good bits of advice. Really? This is good advice? Is "don't work with a known thief" also good advice? Most people know this already. They make it seem like it's this grand knowledge. it's not. It's worthless advice dressed up to sound good.

One of my (distant and now deceased) family members got ripped off by a business partner who fled the country, who he knew was slimy but decided to trust for some reason. Yes, it would have been good advice for him. It's not grand knowledge unveiled by the Secret Brotherhood of Hidden Twitter Masters, it's just...normal good advice. You shouldn't go into business with crooks. People do it all the time, and it often e…

> who he knew was slimy but decided to trust for some reason. Yes, it would have been good advice for him.

He knew he was slimy, and did so anyway. This advice would not then help.

> You shouldn't go into business with crooks. People do it all the time, and it often ends poorly for them.

The problem isn't that they don't know they shouldn't do business with crooks. Most of them do. Just like many know that murder is wrong and yet people still kill.

Eating vegetables is almost directly actionable. So is taking your car in for service. But this is far from the "don't do business with crooks." Which is generic, unhelpful advice. And many crooks have made it rich and made others rich too. Is the advice even always true? Many a person got rich off of corruption.

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