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

The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

zaksa.zip

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 168 posts

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#141

Post by RivieraKid »

mordechai9000 wrote: post #67
RivieraKid wrote: post #39

It's really hard for me to understand that people who have the chance to achieve basic financial independence (say $1M net worth) don't take that chance and make sure to stay financially independent forever. If you do that, you're almost guaranteed to stay in the top 2% globally for the rest of your life. You've made it in life, at least financially. The approach of not taking advantage of the lucky and privileged si…

I think $1M net worth in the US these days is a nice little nest egg, but not anywhere near financial independence. Unless your needs are simple, you can relocate somewhere to live very cheaply, and you don't have any dependents.

I meant basic financial independence. It gives you the option to live like someone who has the median wage forever, but without having to work. If you work, it's a bonus on top of the $40k you receive annually.

Whatever happens, perhaps AI replacing all cognitive work, you know you'll be fine. Maybe not able to live lavishly, but much better than needing to have a job you hate in order to survive.

You've hit the escape velocity. Worst case scenario (I'm simplifying) is that your NW stagnates, best case scenario is that your NW will continue to grow quickly. That's much better than the worst case scenario being that your unemployed with a zero NW.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#142

Post by JuniperMesos »

yesimahuman wrote: post #29
Carrok wrote: post #5

Bit of an aside but I found it somewhat amusing that one example the author uses of Jim’s financial recklessness was getting into home brewing. Home brewing is one of the cheaper hobbies available (though like all hobbies you can spend as much as you want). The only real requirements are a bucket and a pot.

Same with a $10k tree slicer, when the actually expensive alternatives that really get people in trouble are day trading, real estate, car collecting, divorce, and starting new businesses that fail.

Bay area housing costs are so expensive that a $10k fancy wooden table starts to look like a reasonably-priced piece of furniture. The expensive thing is the housing square footage to put the table in.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#143

Post by sherburt3 »

lmeyerov wrote: post #89

Fwiw, without naming names, I helped someone at a hackathon make their first app on something he was passionate about, later found out he had been recently homeless living on an abandoned boat, and now years later, afaict he turned that into a $10m/yr business with ~millions of users Persistence > Intelligence , and being able to code isn't some sort of superiority thing, it's just one skill of many Edit: being able…

Sounds a lot like a rich kid pretending they're not a rich kid.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#144

Post by danans »

vrosas wrote: post #58
Aurornis wrote: post #40

> Jim had participated in drug-fueled “founder parties”, group orgies and all other crazy experiences in San Francisco. This naturally led to the breakup with his fiancée and a nervous breakdown. The Bay Area is a weird place. There are countless companies staffed by smart people doing amazing things. There are also countless people cosplaying as smart people and founders who are going through all of the motions, but…

SF is such a weird vibe in general. I've watched a lot of founders/tech bros go to burning man for the first time, completely miss the point of it but adopt an air of superiority for attending. I watched a founder weave in his experience on peyote into a company all hands. They also, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, go out and buy a green Range Rover. And as someone who's been in the ENM space for a long time, SF…

> They also, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, go out and buy a green Range Rover.

What part is unfathomable, the Range Rover part or the green part?

I ask because Range Rovers are strongly associated being quite well-off everywhere, but maybe there's something with SF and the green paint choice.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#145

Post by ashu1461 »

I feel the crux is that there is no shortcut to success, any shortcut which is taken has to be compensated at a later part of your career. Example if you got funding without having product market fit, then you would have to justify that funding at one point on another.

One example of this is the current AI companies. Irrespective of how much marketing / hype that exists today, the long term question remains the same. Can they build a sustainable business ?

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#146

Post by [deleted] »

akurilin wrote: post #113
lmeyerov wrote: post #89

Fwiw, without naming names, I helped someone at a hackathon make their first app on something he was passionate about, later found out he had been recently homeless living on an abandoned boat, and now years later, afaict he turned that into a $10m/yr business with ~millions of users Persistence > Intelligence , and being able to code isn't some sort of superiority thing, it's just one skill of many Edit: being able…

pg wrote about this a while back: https://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html

[deleted]

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#147

Post by duxup »

lmeyerov wrote: post #89

Fwiw, without naming names, I helped someone at a hackathon make their first app on something he was passionate about, later found out he had been recently homeless living on an abandoned boat, and now years later, afaict he turned that into a $10m/yr business with ~millions of users Persistence > Intelligence , and being able to code isn't some sort of superiority thing, it's just one skill of many Edit: being able…

When I decided to code (later in life) I was determined to give it my best shot, not sweat the small stuff, just keep going. Previously I tried to learn but gave up assuming that it just wasn't my thing, but I decided this was my last shot and I was going to make it happen.

Some classmates of mine were (like everyone gets) frustrated at one point and actually complained that they were paired up "with those two". Those classmates thought that the other guy and I knew what we were doing and "just got it". Truth was we just kept our hands on the keyboard, had really not made anymore progress than anyone else in class had ... we just kept typing / trying things.

Years later I would say I'm still not a talented programmer, I just stay positive, help my coworkers, and keep gong until I make it happen, and as far as my employer is concerned that's pretty great.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#148

Post by JumpCrisscross »

andy99 wrote: post #17
khazhoux wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever you hear someone say they work 80- (or 100!) hour weeks, you should understand what they mean is they had a few crunch weeks once.

Or the only thing they do in life is come to the office and then mix life with work so effectively it’s a combination of hanging out with friends, eating free food, and working, but it all goes into the work bucket when claims are made about how much they work. Nothing wrong with that per se, I basically did that in grad school. It’s completely different than actually grinding 100 hours a week though. Also tough to b…

I do this several times a year. It’s a lot of fun. You basically camp with colleagues and get a lot of collaborative work done. Then you detach and do your deep thinking. The problem is top performers eventually gain an ego and stop attending, and then it just turns into pathetic signaling.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#149

Post by harimau777 »

koolba wrote: post #137
FinnLobsien wrote: post #21

I think much of this comes down to wanting to be a type of person vs. wanting to do the actual thing. It’s easy to be consumed by “I’m the wealthy San Francisco founder guy” and doing everything that lifestyle requires, including things that may not be good for you.

The open source version of this has existed for decades as well. There’s the doers that actually enjoy the craft, want to share what they’ve done, and contribute to things they genuinely find intellectually stimulating. And for each of those true believers there’s many more fly by night wannabes that think it’s some kind of shortcut to social validation.

I think that a lot of that may come from the degree to which "contribute to an open source project" has been the advice for almost any job search problem. If people who are just looking for a job have to contribute to open source, then there's to be a lot of people who aren't passionate but have to do it.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#150

Post by FinnLobsien »

harimau777 wrote: post #149
koolba wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The open source version of this has existed for decades as well. There’s the doers that actually enjoy the craft, want to share what they’ve done, and contribute to things they genuinely find intellectually stimulating. And for each of those true believers there’s many more fly by night wannabes that think it’s some kind of shortcut to social validation.

I think that a lot of that may come from the degree to which "contribute to an open source project" has been the advice for almost any job search problem. If people who are just looking for a job have to contribute to open source, then there's to be a lot of people who aren't passionate but have to do it.

I guess this is a general problem where things that show you take initiative get converted into “thing to put on your resume”, and if that’s the primary motivation, you’ll do the bare minimum to check the box to put it on your resume.

Same thing happens to school extracurriculars.

Post reply on HN