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Confessions of a 20-Something Startup CTO

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Re: Confessions of a 20-Something Startup CTO

#21

Post by djt »

larrys wrote: post #18

"I began getting depressed about the lack of a life I had outside of work. I’d bring this bad mood to work with me, in turn making it a worse place to be. I’ve since made an asserted effort to dedicate time to my social life: going on trips with friends; going on dates; and, most importantly, getting work completely off my mind occasionally." Serious question (and my thoughts) here I'm not trying to be cute. Regardin…

It is possible to have a social and work life balance. As an entrepreneur it will always weigh towards work but doing 6-7 days (80 hours) a week for years shows either that you enjoy it or there is a problem in product or delegation abilities.

I think there is something to be said for taking advantage of your youth and energy for something other than work.

Re: Confessions of a 20-Something Startup CTO

#23

Post by lazerwalker »

larrys wrote: post #18

"I began getting depressed about the lack of a life I had outside of work. I’d bring this bad mood to work with me, in turn making it a worse place to be. I’ve since made an asserted effort to dedicate time to my social life: going on trips with friends; going on dates; and, most importantly, getting work completely off my mind occasionally." Serious question (and my thoughts) here I'm not trying to be cute. Regardin…

> The best way to insure that you can live the life you want and have some fun is to put all the effort in that you can now and try to put off having fun until a bit later on. Now is when you have energy and should be able to work non-stop with very little else. (I didn't surface for air for 7 years working 6 to 7 days a week ..)

There's a flip side to the coin, though: your opportunities for 'having fun' are very different as a twenty-something living in a big city than as someone who's married with children in a less exciting locale. Many older people successfully start companies; far fewer stay out partying with their friends until 4am or go backpacking across Europe.

I'd argue you can find a balance. You shouldn't piss away your youth and your potential, no, but life's too short to spend it perpetually saying "I'll have fun later" because one day there won't be a later. Especially since working insane hours is usually a game of diminishing returns: while you might have been able to spend 7 years working your ass off 7 days a week, most normal people burn out, even the most driven and brightest of 20-somethings.

Re: Confessions of a 20-Something Startup CTO

#24

Post by MaxGabriel »

larrys wrote: post #18

"I began getting depressed about the lack of a life I had outside of work. I’d bring this bad mood to work with me, in turn making it a worse place to be. I’ve since made an asserted effort to dedicate time to my social life: going on trips with friends; going on dates; and, most importantly, getting work completely off my mind occasionally." Serious question (and my thoughts) here I'm not trying to be cute. Regardin…

I don't get why that lifestyle is necessarily required; your comment seems predicated on preparing for getting married with kids in the next three to four years. Even if he did, couldn't he just look for a job with a more established tech company?

Re: Confessions of a 20-Something Startup CTO

#25

Post by WadeF »

larrys wrote: post #20
WadeF wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of times people more experienced are so far detached from what you might be going through. I've found people who have just gone through what I've gone through can help a ton. Joel Gascoigne sums this up better than I. http://joel.is/post/28198804700/why-im-helping-startup-found...

"A lot of times people more experienced are so far detached from what you might be going through." Some of those people may have gone through the same and can offer their opinions of how it worked out for them. Have you ever had a medical problem and asked an older person about it? They might tell you "don't worry I had that same pain and it went away, no biggie". Don't assume someone older has no experience or empat…

I wasn't. Just simply trying to provide a perspective on why someone younger might also have valid advice.

Life doesn't have to be one or the other. :)

Re: Confessions of a 20-Something Startup CTO

#26

Post by gyardley »

larrys wrote: post #18

"I began getting depressed about the lack of a life I had outside of work. I’d bring this bad mood to work with me, in turn making it a worse place to be. I’ve since made an asserted effort to dedicate time to my social life: going on trips with friends; going on dates; and, most importantly, getting work completely off my mind occasionally." Serious question (and my thoughts) here I'm not trying to be cute. Regardin…

"The best way to insure that you can live the life you want and have some fun is to put all the effort in that you can now and try to put off having fun until a bit later on."

This is insane. While you need to meet your responsibilities and commitments, once you've done that, live the life you want, and live it right now.

That might involve work non-stop and very little else, if that's what you really want - but if you don't want to work non-stop, that's perfectly fine, and don't let anyone tell you any different.

Re: Confessions of a 20-Something Startup CTO

#27

Post by drumdance »

larrys wrote: post #18

"I began getting depressed about the lack of a life I had outside of work. I’d bring this bad mood to work with me, in turn making it a worse place to be. I’ve since made an asserted effort to dedicate time to my social life: going on trips with friends; going on dates; and, most importantly, getting work completely off my mind occasionally." Serious question (and my thoughts) here I'm not trying to be cute. Regardin…

You only get one youth. Goals are fine, but it's easy to fall into the trap of "once I do X, then I'll be happy." Better IME to spend at least a few hours per week discovering and doing things that make you happy now. That doesn't mean partying, just cultivating interests, practices and (most important) relationships that make you a well-rounded, emotionally healthy person.

Re: Confessions of a 20-Something Startup CTO

#28

Post by pbiggar »

heretohelp wrote: post #4

I'm a 20-something startup CTO, why do I want to read the thoughts of people my own age instead of people who are more experienced?

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but that's a real dickish thing to say. Imagine saying that to a colleague or someone at a party! "I'm sorry but you are too young to have valuable opinions".

TL;DR: don't be a dick

Re: Confessions of a 20-Something Startup CTO

#29

Post by heretohelp »

pbiggar wrote: post #28
heretohelp wrote: post #4

I'm a 20-something startup CTO, why do I want to read the thoughts of people my own age instead of people who are more experienced?

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but that's a real dickish thing to say. Imagine saying that to a colleague or someone at a party! "I'm sorry but you are too young to have valuable opinions". TL;DR: don't be a dick

It has nothing to do with age, you've totally misunderstood my point.

My point is that if the post seems pretty thin to somebody from the same cohort, how could it help anybody else?

I'd rather see either

1. More substantive content, less "here are my feelings about being a startup kid"

2. Something from people who've spent more time at this and developed deeper people skills. Could even be somebody the same age, just more experienced.

tl;dr don't call somebody a dick unless you actually understand the point of their comment.

Re: Confessions of a 20-Something Startup CTO

#30

Post by heretohelp »

BenjaminCoe wrote: post #5
heretohelp wrote: post #4

I'm a 20-something startup CTO, why do I want to read the thoughts of people my own age instead of people who are more experienced?

I was just trying to write an honest reflection on what my experiences have been like, diving head first into the startup world. I'm not trying to position myself as an expert :)

I guess the problem is that we have tons of wantrepreneurs and first-time startup kids posting about their feelings here.

It's a multiple-times-daily thing. Seriously.

What we don't seem to get very much of is more experienced (serial entrepreneurs, experienced programmers, etc.) individuals posting anything with with the same depth in terms of substance or how personal it is.

The degree to which Hacker News has become homogenous in terms of contributed content is disturbing.

Edit: Let me be more specific.

You want to know what content is? patio11. That's value right there. His stuff is gold and could legitimately help you get your product off the ground.

Another example would be Rands in Repose (Lopp). His twitter feed is the most self-indulgent bullshit I've ever seen, but his blog posts can be instructive for how to lead a technical team and work with other people in general.

To put content out into the ether for your own edification is all well and good, but the moment you promote it on a public community like Hacker News, you are making a particular declaration about what sort of value you're purporting to provide.

Value, not personality. Save the personality stuff for people not trying to build stuff.

Also, your tumblr is broken if you google yourself. Might want to fix that.

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