Abandon Your Big Idea. But Don’t Give Up Your Big Ambition.
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Re: Abandon Your Big Idea. But Don’t Give Up Your Big Ambition.
#2Not sure I agree with his thesis in the context of entrepreneurship... sometimes, the inexperienced person comes up with a surprising (and surprisingly scaleable and profitable) take on a problem precisely because of lack of experience. However, I don't know if that's a statistical anomaly.
Re: Abandon Your Big Idea. But Don’t Give Up Your Big Ambition.
#3Remember, entrepreneurs: this is how academics think. And this is the attitude that makes begging for money via grants a lot more appealing than entrepreneurship. It's "give me money to do this because I'm an expert in it" instead of "make something people want and they will give you money."
Re: Abandon Your Big Idea. But Don’t Give Up Your Big Ambition.
#4Ok. A thesis that sounds reasonable, except how do we test this belief and what measuring stick?
In other words, how do we know that experience depth lead to being a successful research scientist. What does a successful research career mean? Discover something new and significant? Getting a teaching position? Citation? Nobel prize in a science field?
Re: Abandon Your Big Idea. But Don’t Give Up Your Big Ambition.
#5Every member of each generation grows up and implicitly faces a decision: am I going to follow the path of others towards success? or am I going to redefine success? The former is for iBankers, lawyers, doctors, carrer academics and social capitalist. The latter is for innovators.
Re: Abandon Your Big Idea. But Don’t Give Up Your Big Ambition.
#6I agree with this, and see this trap in lots of entrepreneurs. They want to disrupt healthcare, or teleconferencing without any domain expertise in it. They think having a keen sense of UI, superb technical skills, with some SEO mixed in will get the job done, but without the deep domain knowledge, you're just rolling the dice. I think that's what the author is getting at.
Example: The person who just wants to innovate for the heck out of it will create an app that allows people to learn foreign languages through Skype. The person who's actually studied foreign languages and accelerated learning will create an app that concentrates on input/listening first.
Re: Abandon Your Big Idea. But Don’t Give Up Your Big Ambition.
#7Question from the Article: She admitted that she was having trouble with this ambition because no one at her school did behavioral neuroscience research. “But I really want to get involved in that area,” she emphasized. “How do I find someone to work with me? I’m stuck.”
Answer Given: "I told her to abandon the idea."
Correct Answer: Find another school.
Re: Abandon Your Big Idea. But Don’t Give Up Your Big Ambition.
#8Remember, entrepreneurs: this is how academics think. And this is the attitude that makes begging for money via grants a lot more appealing than entrepreneurship. It's "give me money to do this because I'm an expert in it" instead of "make something people want and they will give you money."
Huh? So entrepreneurs are "better" than academics? That's just silly and pompous.
Remember, 90% of everything is crap. That goes for both businesses and research.
Re: Abandon Your Big Idea. But Don’t Give Up Your Big Ambition.
#9Remember, entrepreneurs: this is how academics think. And this is the attitude that makes begging for money via grants a lot more appealing than entrepreneurship. It's "give me money to do this because I'm an expert in it" instead of "make something people want and they will give you money."
Huh? So entrepreneurs are "better" than academics? That's just silly and pompous. Remember, 90% of everything is crap. That goes for both businesses and research.
No, it means there's more pressure on entrepreneurs to succeed because there's more risk if they fail. There's no ladder or set of stepping stones on a path to entrepreneurship -- you either started/work at a company and are innovating, started/work at a company that's going to fail, or haven't started a company.
Re: Abandon Your Big Idea. But Don’t Give Up Your Big Ambition.
#10If you think you're interested in problem, start trying to solve it. If you really get into it, along the way you'll become a domain expert.
At least for me, that's how I learn. Who cares if you end up solving a different problem than the one you started with.