Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Startup is not your job

igzebedze.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–38 of 38 posts

Re: Startup is not your job

#31

Post by entropyneur »

mindcrime wrote: post #30
entropyneur wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree that most startup founders are going to be making sacrifices and using all the resources available. If you are expecting anything to come out of your startup you better be really committed to it. I'm against that school of thought on a totally different basis. My issue with it is that it views starting a startup as a kind of gamble. Every sleepless night, weekend at the office and skipped vacation…

But in reality behind every overnight success is skill and years of dedicated work. And there's no way you are going to stay in overdrive for years without wrecking yourself and your startup. Yeah, you definitely can't sprint the entire marathon. I won't argue that. But I think there are moments when you choose to sprint for a while, to achieve certain goals. And even the non "flat out sprint" moments are a hard slog…

Actually I still feel the guilt when I take time off too, I just learned to do it anyway :)

Re: Startup is not your job

#32

Post by eggspurt »

ayers wrote: post #29
eggspurt wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between a "startup" and a "lifestyle business".

I would disagree with that, they are not mutually exclusive. Some people create a "startup" to provide them with a "lifestyle business".

How about new lifestyle business referring to themselves as new lifestyle businesses versus referring to themselves as startups? How should a startup call itself not to be ambiguous?

Re: Startup is not your job

#33

Post by verisimilidude »

igzebedze wrote: post #12
lmm wrote: post #2

Agreed except for holidays. If you don't have a clear sharp line between work and life day-to-day, then you need those more than ever.

hey guys, a) i'm not saying anyone should overwork themselves, you're seeing that in my post. all i'm saying is that even when entrepreneur (or a type thereof) tries to unplug, the brain still works on the same problems. b) work-life balance is bullshit, doesn't work. you can't switch contexts like that efficiently. if you try and think you'll be able to, no surprise you need vacation as well. c) i'm racing against w…

"work-life balance is bullshit, doesn't work. you can't switch contexts like that efficiently"

Efficiency is the anti-goal of a well-balanced life.

It's not efficient to drive four hours to Yosemite just to hike a new trail with my wife. It's not efficient to spend all afternoon trying to cook my own pizza instead of just ordering one for delivery. It's certainly not efficient to spend years learning to speak a new language for no practical reason.

However inefficient, all these "life" activities enrich and contextualize your work. There is nothing quite like a long hike to help you wrap your head around a difficult algorithm, or bringing a team together over some bad homemade pizza, or serendipitously running across a potential investor who speaks your otherwise "useless" second language.

This is what work-life balance is all about. It's about investing in yourself and, indirectly, your work. It's never efficient, but a lot of us find it necessary and rewarding.

Re: Startup is not your job

#34

Post by jeremyjh »

eggspurt wrote: post #24
Juuumanji wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said. I don't understand why people shy away from this mindset. There is nothing wrong with running something successful and living a full life.

There's a difference between a "startup" and a "lifestyle business".

Good luck with getting a consensus definition of "startup" on even this website alone. A lot of the advice that I read here is applicable to a "lifestyle business" - because I still have to make many of the same decisions with regard to product, marketing, hiring etc. I have some different constraints and optimization targets but that's true of any two businesses.

Re: Startup is not your job

#36

Post by rprasad »

entropyneur wrote: post #3

I don't understand why the idea that you should try and gain a competitive advantage by stretching yourself beyond limits is so popular in the startup community. Not resting properly (be it vacation or daily sleep) hurts your productivity and decision making ability badly. So overworking is simply not a rational thing to do. Starting a new business is not a sprint, but a marathon. And all this romanticizing does a hu…

Starting a new business is not a sprint, but a marathon.

Yes, but marathons are won by those who can run at the speed most others sprint.

Re: Startup is not your job

#37

Post by JacksonGariety »

Depends how you define "job". If a job is defined as repetitive, non-engaging, focused, simple work, then a startup is not a job. If define a job as anything, no matter how board, critical, and requiring abstract though, then a startup is a job.

In my opinion, a job is what you spend time doing to live your life. If you do a startup so you can continue to live, that's your job.

Re: Startup is not your job

#38

Post by JacksonGariety »

AznHisoka wrote: post #27
igzebedze wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

startups make money by making people behave differently - paying them instead of someone else. that's changing the world. let's stop pretending there is more to it than that, because it's hard enough.

I step on ants and consume bacteria everytime I eat. So I change the world as well.

Great observation there. Wanna know a secret? You can demean and belittle someone's argument just just by taking it out of context anywhere on in the world, not JUST hacker news.
Post reply on HN