Marc Andreessen “tried really hard not to invent anything new”
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Marc Andreessen “tried really hard not to invent anything new”
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Re: Marc Andreessen “tried really hard not to invent anything new”
#2Here's one of the quotes from the video (Marc):
"We tried really hard not to invent anything new. And we also tried not to solve any hard problems. Which makes it a lot easier to actually get something done"
Re: Marc Andreessen “tried really hard not to invent anything new”
#3Note that he is talking about NCSA Mosaic, not Netscape
Re: Marc Andreessen “tried really hard not to invent anything new”
#4"we borrowed protocols, formats and even code from the world wide web project ... our goal:easy to use, fun graphical front end"
It's a classic university commercialization effort:take ip from university for some important problem, integrate it together and give it a commercial appeal, and sell.
But it's not as easy as writing some crud site.
Re: Marc Andreessen “tried really hard not to invent anything new”
#5Be real with yourself: Cleverness is a finite resource, even yours. Leverage it in the most efficient way possible.
(So alpha-geek pissing matches are clearly a waste. Everything should be focused towards furthering your company's goals while avoiding bugs and making refactoring easier.)
Re: Marc Andreessen “tried really hard not to invent anything new”
#6Seems pretty standard for a commercializer. The goal is to take some existing research funded by someone else (out of a university usually, though sometimes a corporate lab or government lab) and turn it into a product with the minimum additional modifications.
Re: Marc Andreessen “tried really hard not to invent anything new”
#7Be real with yourself: Cleverness is a finite resource, even yours. Leverage it in the most efficient way possible. (So alpha-geek pissing matches are clearly a waste. Everything should be focused towards furthering your company's goals while avoiding bugs and making refactoring easier.)
God I wish that attitude were more common.
Re: Marc Andreessen “tried really hard not to invent anything new”
#8Be real with yourself: Cleverness is a finite resource, even yours. Leverage it in the most efficient way possible. (So alpha-geek pissing matches are clearly a waste. Everything should be focused towards furthering your company's goals while avoiding bugs and making refactoring easier.)
It takes all kinds. The world would be a duller place if all of us were chasing current goals.
Re: Marc Andreessen “tried really hard not to invent anything new”
#9There’s an ongoing debate about whether startups should focus on harder problems.
Is there a really a debate or am I missing something? This is honestly the first thing I have seen supporting not solving a problem.
Really I think there is a place for both. He mentions avoiding the problem of search, which happened to be the foundation of a particularly successful company.
Re: Marc Andreessen “tried really hard not to invent anything new”
#10There’s an ongoing debate about whether startups should focus on harder problems. Is there a really a debate or am I missing something? This is honestly the first thing I have seen supporting not solving a problem. Really I think there is a place for both. He mentions avoiding the problem of search, which happened to be the foundation of a particularly successful company.
> Really I think there is a place for both.
There is, but the sense is that things have shifted out of proportion.