I did the scariest thing I can imagine: I resigned • Hacker News Board

Re: I did the scariest thing I can imagine: I resigned

#61

Post by Mvandenbergh » Mon, Sep 03, 2012, 10:54 PM UTC

nightski wrote: post #59

Mvandenbergh wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who cares? People say things that are wrong all the time, it's better to ignore them and say "How interesting, I'll keep that in mind" than to devote mental resources to getting upset about it.

Not that I feel a particular way about it, but he is the President. People tend to care what he says. Just sayin.

The President? I had to look this up (I'm not American) and it looks like he was intending to refer to the public infrastructure that all businesses use rather than the businesses themselves.

Anyway, I don't much care for the politics of any country but it's still a waste of time to pay too much attention to the minutia of political campaigning. Before November, both parties are going to say a great number of things that are untrue, out of context, and that they don't believe. If you let yourself get upset by the circus show months before election time, you'll go barking mad.

Re: I did the scariest thing I can imagine: I resigned

#62

Post by anamax » Mon, Sep 03, 2012, 10:55 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #57

robomartin wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, when you finally succeed, some asshole will tell you that you didn't actually build your business. That your success isn't due to having worked hard (because there are tons of people that work hard) or because you are smart (because lots of people are smart). No, you had nothing to do with building a successful business despite your sacrifices, risk, uncertainty, sleepless nights, good and bad decisions, family…

Who would actually say that? Sounds like you've had some experience of this. A lot of conservatives misinterpreted something Obama said as meaning much of what you've said, even though if one reads the entire paragraph, the "that" in his sentence was infrastructure such as the Internet, roads and bridges.

Not so fast.

No one questions that other people built roads etc. (Govt didn't provide the resources - it only collected them.)

The only way that Obama's comment is not a non sequitur is if he meant more than that, that people who "built" were treated differently than the people who didn't wrt those resources.

I get that you think that Obama should be given the benefit of the doubt, but don't other people get that same benefit?

For example, one of the most common sentiments expressed to people trying to concieve is "you've got to keep a positive mental outlook", the implication being that a negative mental outlook reduces the odds of conception. I have no idea whether or not mental outlook has that effect but we're damning a US senate candidate who said that it did.

Re: I did the scariest thing I can imagine: I resigned

#63

Post by _pius » Mon, Sep 03, 2012, 10:58 PM UTC

nightski wrote: post #59

Mvandenbergh wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who cares? People say things that are wrong all the time, it's better to ignore them and say "How interesting, I'll keep that in mind" than to devote mental resources to getting upset about it.

Not that I feel a particular way about it, but he is the President. People tend to care what he says. Just sayin.

Except that the President didn't actually say that.

Moreover, that characterization has been widely debunked even by the likes of ABC, CBS, and NBC who rarely call bullshit on anything. Aren't you embarrassed to repeat that false talking point here, especially when it has zero to do with the OP?

Re: I did the scariest thing I can imagine: I resigned

#64

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 03, 2012, 10:59 PM UTC

bartonfink wrote: post #43

andrewljohnson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A start-up changes a person in the same way a war does - trauma, triumph, battle, and blood. If you aren't changed after you start up, it probably wasn't your first time.

That's just insane. People working on start-ups do not, as a matter of course, risk their lives in the same way soldiers in a war do. I'd challenge you to point to anyone doing a tech startup who has lost a limb due to an IED. A start-up may very well change a person more than spending the same time at a job would, but to compare it to going through war shows an incredible amount of naivety about how horrible war act…

[deleted]

Re: I did the scariest thing I can imagine: I resigned

#65

Post by finkin1 » Mon, Sep 03, 2012, 11:00 PM UTC

Good for you. Good luck. It's a hard road.

Re: I did the scariest thing I can imagine: I resigned

#66

Post by pcrh » Mon, Sep 03, 2012, 11:01 PM UTC

bartonfink wrote: post #43

andrewljohnson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A start-up changes a person in the same way a war does - trauma, triumph, battle, and blood. If you aren't changed after you start up, it probably wasn't your first time.

That's just insane. People working on start-ups do not, as a matter of course, risk their lives in the same way soldiers in a war do. I'd challenge you to point to anyone doing a tech startup who has lost a limb due to an IED. A start-up may very well change a person more than spending the same time at a job would, but to compare it to going through war shows an incredible amount of naivety about how horrible war act…

It's obviously metaphorical/hyperbole.

Over 2M US soldiers were deployed in Iraq, with ~4.5K deaths and ~21K wounded, a rate of 0.002% for death and 0.01% for wounding. Significantly higher than the rate in start-ups (I presume), but lower than climbing Mount Everest.

Re: I did the scariest thing I can imagine: I resigned

#67

Post by _pius » Mon, Sep 03, 2012, 11:10 PM UTC

robomartin wrote: post #50

edw519 wrote: post #14

The good news: If you think you've done the right thing, then you have. Congratulations! The other news: - Your runway is probably 50% of what you think it is. - Your task is probably 200% of what you think it is. - It will take 200% of what you expect to get your first customer. - Your wife will get scared before you do. - Some customers will take forever to pay. - You'll probably have to backtrack on your design /…

And, when you finally succeed, some asshole will tell you that you didn't actually build your business. That your success isn't due to having worked hard (because there are tons of people that work hard) or because you are smart (because lots of people are smart). No, you had nothing to do with building a successful business despite your sacrifices, risk, uncertainty, sleepless nights, good and bad decisions, family…

Why the gratuitous, partisan threadcrapping? And with a debunked "quote" to boot?

Re: I did the scariest thing I can imagine: I resigned

#68

Post by breckenedge » Mon, Sep 03, 2012, 11:11 PM UTC

alpb wrote: post #6

Whoops it seems like site is down just at the time it is #1 on HN.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

Re: I did the scariest thing I can imagine: I resigned

#69

Post by ktizo » Mon, Sep 03, 2012, 11:12 PM UTC

robomartin wrote: post #50

edw519 wrote: post #14

The good news: If you think you've done the right thing, then you have. Congratulations! The other news: - Your runway is probably 50% of what you think it is. - Your task is probably 200% of what you think it is. - It will take 200% of what you expect to get your first customer. - Your wife will get scared before you do. - Some customers will take forever to pay. - You'll probably have to backtrack on your design /…

And, when you finally succeed, some asshole will tell you that you didn't actually build your business. That your success isn't due to having worked hard (because there are tons of people that work hard) or because you are smart (because lots of people are smart). No, you had nothing to do with building a successful business despite your sacrifices, risk, uncertainty, sleepless nights, good and bad decisions, family…

some asshole will tell you that you didn't actually build your business.

I though the whole thing was very similar to Carl Sagan's comment - If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. - and I never thought that Carl Sagan was having a go at bakers.

Re: I did the scariest thing I can imagine: I resigned

#70

Post by MBCook » Mon, Sep 03, 2012, 11:17 PM UTC

thaumaturgy wrote: post #58

robomartin wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, when you finally succeed, some asshole will tell you that you didn't actually build your business. That your success isn't due to having worked hard (because there are tons of people that work hard) or because you are smart (because lots of people are smart). No, you had nothing to do with building a successful business despite your sacrifices, risk, uncertainty, sleepless nights, good and bad decisions, family…

This comment has absolutely no place in this thread. This wasn't the appropriate place to inject your politics.

I don't know, it seems fitting to me. If you ignore the current political mess surrounding that (out of context) statement, it's still true.

If you reach any kind of success, you'll find people who will say it wasn't you. You got rich off of someone else's work. You had it all handed to you. Or the most common of all, you got lucky.

It doesn't matter that you worked hard, or studied, or failed 50 times before. You were in the right place at the right time, and that's why you're making so much money. It was only because of the cosmic lottery that they, sitting around and not doing much, didn't become the rich person.