Damn. I'm trying to do a startup and have been asking myself some questions and this really hits. Thanks!
Success may not matter if you aren't doing what you love
31–38 of 38 posts
Re: Success may not matter if you aren't doing what you love
#32I'm not trying to gatekeep or belittle the author, but there's something funny about this genre of articles that assert with utmost conviction what it takes to be successful in business. Of course, we all have opinions, but this piece doesn't say "here's what I think". It says, more or less, "here's how you succeed". There are two things that are undoubtedly beneficial. The first one is a degree of unreasonable optim…
Hell yeah. Linkedin (with AI assisted slop) is full of "Here's the thing:" overconfident and low depth claptrap.
And Substack to that list too.
Re: Success may not matter if you aren't doing what you love
#33There are way too many straw man examples in this article that it distracts from the point the author is trying to make. A former jazz pianist and Buddhist monk who used psychedelics, the Spanish-speaker trying to sell into a Chinese-speaking market, the introvert selling to enterprise buyers who love going to steakhouses and watching the Yankees from box seats, etc. Interestingly, two words that aren't mentioned eve…
> Interestingly, two words that aren't mentioned even once in this entire article: "co-founder" and "hire" I actually debated including this! But I ended up not doing so, because your co-founder and the people you hire will end up being more aligned to you (your values, judgements, whatever) than even the market you end up in, especially early on. And if they don't, that's an even bigger problem. Founder breakups are…
> But I ended up not doing so, because your co-founder and the people you hire will end up being more aligned to you (your values, judgements, whatever) than even the market you end up in, especially early on.
Your article comes off as very confident about the way things are, and your comment does too, but your perspective doesn't match what I've seen in over 30 years in this industry, which is that tons of companies are started by founders and early employees who compliment each other and fill in each other's gaps.
> all real but unnamed examples
Real Buddhist monks typically don't use mind-altering substances (it's a violation of the Fifth Precept), but in any case, following on my point above, your "unnamed examples" read like caricatures. Great for trying to make your blog post convincing; not great for building arguments that align to what's typical in the real world.
Re: Success may not matter if you aren't doing what you love
#34Your entire history seems to be self-promotion, you're aware of the guidelines? > Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity. Perhaps you could submit something you're curious about, instead? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
> Perhaps you could submit something you're curious about, instead? Hi, author here. I write about what I'm curious about. I don't think it's promotion (both in spirit or letter) to share what I am curious about. I hate just linking to without any commentary, since that has very low value-above-replacement. I'm curious why you went into my posting history -- do you do that for every post? [EDIT] to be clear this isnt…
> “I'm curious why you went into my posting history -- do you do that for every post?”
Someone did that for one of my comments recently. It was a strange feeling, having been raised in the ‘New Criticism’ tradition.
I guess they had doubts of my motives, and believed the “shortcut” to answer their concern was to survey my past work to look for more examples of the negative pattern they feared.
Re: Success may not matter if you aren't doing what you love
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Interestingly, two words that aren't mentioned even once in this entire article: "co-founder" and "hire" I actually debated including this! But I ended up not doing so, because your co-founder and the people you hire will end up being more aligned to you (your values, judgements, whatever) than even the market you end up in, especially early on. And if they don't, that's an even bigger problem. Founder breakups are…
> But I ended up not doing so, because your co-founder and the people you hire will end up being more aligned to you (your values, judgements, whatever) than even the market you end up in, especially early on. Your article comes off as very confident about the way things are, and your comment does too, but your perspective doesn't match what I've seen in over 30 years in this industry, which is that tons of companies…
Next time I'll hedge more
Re: Success may not matter if you aren't doing what you love
#36Is the converse also true?
I don't know about the converse. But for an "if-then" statement, the contrapositive is logically equivalent. This statement (in if-then form) is "if you are not doing what you love, success does not matter". (I took the liberty of getting rid of the "may", so that everything is boolean, and so the law of contrapositives applies.)
The contrapositive is "If success matters, then you are doing what you love".
That... might be true. If I'm just working at a McJob, what do I care about the success of the business? I'm just there to do what they tell me, punch a clock, and cash paychecks. It pays for the parts of life that I do care about.
But if I care about the success of the business, then on some level, I love that business.
Re: Success may not matter if you aren't doing what you love
#37I'm not trying to gatekeep or belittle the author, but there's something funny about this genre of articles that assert with utmost conviction what it takes to be successful in business. Of course, we all have opinions, but this piece doesn't say "here's what I think". It says, more or less, "here's how you succeed". There are two things that are undoubtedly beneficial. The first one is a degree of unreasonable optim…
> I'm not trying to gatekeep or belittle the author, but there's something funny about this genre of articles that assert with utmost conviction what it takes to be successful in business. Of course, we all have opinions, but this piece doesn't say "here's what I think". It says, more or less, "here's how you succeed".
A difficult lesson I’ve struggled to come to terms with is that it’s socially advantageous to appear confident that you’re right than it is to actually be right.
Re: Success may not matter if you aren't doing what you love
#38I'm not trying to gatekeep or belittle the author, but there's something funny about this genre of articles that assert with utmost conviction what it takes to be successful in business. Of course, we all have opinions, but this piece doesn't say "here's what I think". It says, more or less, "here's how you succeed". There are two things that are undoubtedly beneficial. The first one is a degree of unreasonable optim…
> I'm not trying to gatekeep or belittle the author, but there's something funny about this genre of articles that assert with utmost conviction what it takes to be successful in business. Of course, we all have opinions, but this piece doesn't say "here's what I think". It says, more or less, "here's how you succeed". A difficult lesson I’ve struggled to come to terms with is that it’s socially advantageous to appea…
I am someone completely unable to fake appearances, and would never want to.
But I can vouch that being completely convinced of a solution path to an ambitious problem, is a shockingly helpful condition to get long term, long shot help, with no strings.
I have never been in a situation where I needed, wanted or felt I deserved help before. And I would have had no idea how to ask for it. But dire need and absolute belief (not faked) in what I am doing has resulted in so much help over so much time (far more than planned of course), I am humbled. And also very happy that it worked out.