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Ask HN: How to Overcome the Trough of Sorrow?

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Re: Ask HN: How to Overcome the Trough of Sorrow?

#61

Post by DoesntMatter22 »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #57
DoesntMatter22 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh I've heard it from adults before. Were they acting like children? Sure. Even so, in the past, children were working pretty hard themselves to try to eek out an existence with their parents and the concept of life being unfair because you couldn't have a device wasn't even a thought.

I mean, spoiled people are spoiled no matter what year. It's not the best representation of an entire population. I think it's more about how the current generation can't afford a lot of what the previous one had or even took for granted. Housing, education, the process of procurring a career; a few things that changed so radically that it creates a generational divide among contemporaries.

I think there was a very short time in human history where it was "the good life" where it was affordable and that was basically the 50s to the early 90s.

Other than that in human history things have been extremely hard.

Re: Ask HN: How to Overcome the Trough of Sorrow?

#62

Post by jacknews »

AviationAtom wrote: post #59

Watch a series called American Dynasty. Many of the most successful people in history because so, in part, because a stroke of luck. They had many setbacks before they caught their break, but it was ultimately luck that allowed their venture to take flight. Had they given up sooner we likely would have never known who they were.

Yes, as they say 90% is just turning up.

Being smart and working hard might pay the bills but are not enough for 'success'. As above, it seems many if not most successful people seem to have caught a break; been in the right place at the right time, discovered some little trick or loophole, etc.

Re: Ask HN: How to Overcome the Trough of Sorrow?

#64

Post by muzani »

papertigerau wrote: post #40

If you have a strong enough “Why”, then you can tolerate any “How”. Wanting to be your own boss, or having the ability to freely travel the world are both a great “Why” to create the activation energy to take the risk and start. But in my experience, it’s rarely a strong enough motivator to help someone persist through 4+ years without any meaningful wins. The strongest "Why" usually involves serving something other…

I've always said it's about the fans. Even when we're making a credit card or something, the fact that people create entire groups to discuss the product is pretty cool.

Re: Ask HN: How to Overcome the Trough of Sorrow?

#66

Post by mortallywounded »

It sounds like you spent 4 years building a product before you even knew if anyone would use it. That's a terrible idea, but a good learning experience.

I wouldn't give up (perhaps you need to give up on your current product though).

What you need to do is evaluate _why_ the product isn't selling. Who's the ideal customer? Can you get on a call with some of them and put it in their hands and get actual feedback? Figure out if you need to abandon the product or not. Stop building. Focus entirely on marketing and sales.

Next time, don't go so deep on the building phase until you have people handing you money.

For reference, I recently came up with a new product idea. I did some searching to figure out if any competition exists and I found none. That's horrifying. I almost immediately gave up the idea entirely on the spot.

However, I randomly met someone that was an ideal customer (while dropping my kids off at school) and they immediately said they would pay $200/month for that and asked when they could try it. Not only that, they said they knew 2-3 other people that would as well. I ended up meeting two other ideal customers that said the same thing and one even asked if they could invest in it.

I'm still not entirely sure-- but those are strong signals that people will put up money for it, but it doesn't mean they will. I am still nervous but decided to go ahead and build an mvp and see if the idea has legs.

What kind of signals are your ideal customers giving you?

Re: Ask HN: How to Overcome the Trough of Sorrow?

#67

Post by anonzzzies »

I am in the same boat, but for me it has been 10 years working on it and I stopped mostly doing anything else a few years ago and focusing 100% on this. I know should do something as not even competitors are closing 10m$+ investment rounds with incredibly low quality products compared to mine. I just don't live in san francisco and i don't know investors. Anyway: I am going to keep pushing, I guess my belief in the product and in myself is what keeps me going. After 10 years I still jump out of bed in the middle of the night to fix something or write a new feature i've been mulling. That's more important than money to me, but money we can unfortunately not go without in this life.

Re: Ask HN: How to Overcome the Trough of Sorrow?

#68

Post by tim333 »

voxl wrote: post #36
e40 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They survived in the past by having low expectations and knowing hardship was a fact of life. And also that life was unfair to the extreme.

I would argue that they didn't survive, unless they were predisposed to it. If you were depressed 500 years ago you died.

Depression must have had some survival value or it would have evolved out.

Re: Ask HN: How to Overcome the Trough of Sorrow?

#69

Post by tim333 »

>I want to finally live this life

I'm not sure your situation but assuming you are a programmer in a high wage country you can have quite a lot of fun going off packing SE Asia and similar and living by beaches, jungles for not much money for a few months. Then you'll probably get an idea for a plan B when bored with the beaches.

Re: Ask HN: How to Overcome the Trough of Sorrow?

#70

Post by aquarkortwo »

e40 wrote: post #16
imperialdrive wrote: post #7

Life is just hard. I don't know how folks managed 50 years ago, 100 years, 500+ years, it was just our ability to keep pushing through the mud, the cold nights, the loneliness, sometimes letting a glimpse of a beautiful day or sparkling night be enough to keep going. Someone told me that life and work and relationships are sometimes just pushing everything you have in a giant deep dark hole in the ground, and every n…

They survived in the past by having low expectations and knowing hardship was a fact of life. And also that life was unfair to the extreme.

They also had strong communities in many cultures/cases. Community, "sharing the load", and having a sense of purpose (e.g. kids, community members) helps a huge amount.
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