“Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice

Post by doetoe » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 7:07 AM UTC

jollofricepeas wrote: post #193

moralestapia wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The secret is that sometimes you just have to ... sigh ... work.

Of course. We work jobs and do our thing on the side like most traditional American entrepreneurs do until their business gets off the ground. Who the hell is bootstrapping businesses without a job besides rich kids? 1. Get a cheap apartment in a slightly sketchy neighborhood 2. Work 7-8 hours at work and every other waking hour on your business. Take meetings during lunch. 3. Focus to the point of cutting out sports…

> Do it all over again until you find success.

For which you may have to be somewhat lucky

Post by jiveturkey » Wed, Mar 08, 2023, 1:17 AM UTC

chmod600 wrote: post #29

jiveturkey wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to disagree; it is like going to the race track (I assume you mean horses). You might just be lucky, period, and still succeed. (Lightning does strike. ha, great name for a horse.) But your chances are FAR better if you are well prepared, know the stats, know the jockeys, have inside info on what a horse has been fed, maybe even that morning, and so on. You might be able to rig things in your favor via insi…

"But your chances are FAR better if you are well prepared, know the stats..." Gambling is zero sum. Businesses, even failed ones, generally do some positive things along the way. Learning to do things that are useful and getting paid for them is really different from learning some useless information that happens to help you win at the expense of others.

I generally have to agree with you, except for your denigration of betting. If it sharpens your analytical skills it isn't useless. And besides that, there is entertainment value. The "expense" comes against other willing bettors (addicted ones excepted perhaps -- but then lets also exclude negative value businesses like juicero, or basic supply hoarders during covid). Your characterization seems a bit extreme.

Anyway, to be clear, this isn't the point I was arguing. Whether zero sum vs positive sum, where any benefit might lie (value to society, or to anyone at all) is not my point. It's that skill is clearly involved in both activities, as well as a large luck factor. Not only did I not like the race track analogy, I found the critical reading of the tweet to be too narrow to be useful.

For the record and again, I generally agree with your comment. But as a reply to my own, I think you went off base from my argument.

Re: “Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice

Re: “Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice