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Startups in 13 Sentences

paulgraham.com

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Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#71

Post by jfarmer »

cperciva wrote: post #7

I have check marks next to 8 of these, and I'm working on a 9th (ironically, #9 -- "Get ramen profitable"); but I've broken 4 of these rules, and I don't regret it in the slightest. Rule #1 -- Pick good cofounders. I picked no cofounders, based largely on the fact that that I couldn't think of anyone who would be interested in joining me who wouldn't dramatically lower the average founder quality. (Ok, that's being a…

You're smart. Very smart. But you're also arrogant. It shows in a lot of your comments here on HN. That's no barrier to success, of course, but I've found arrogance to be counterproductive.

From a personal perspective arrogance blinds you to opportunities and your own shortcomings. From an interpersonal perspective it makes otherwise excellent people less interested in working with you.

Who would you work with?

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#72

Post by cperciva »

jfarmer wrote: post #71
cperciva wrote: post #7

I have check marks next to 8 of these, and I'm working on a 9th (ironically, #9 -- "Get ramen profitable"); but I've broken 4 of these rules, and I don't regret it in the slightest. Rule #1 -- Pick good cofounders. I picked no cofounders, based largely on the fact that that I couldn't think of anyone who would be interested in joining me who wouldn't dramatically lower the average founder quality. (Ok, that's being a…

You're smart. Very smart. But you're also arrogant. It shows in a lot of your comments here on HN. That's no barrier to success, of course, but I've found arrogance to be counterproductive. From a personal perspective arrogance blinds you to opportunities and your own shortcomings. From an interpersonal perspective it makes otherwise excellent people less interested in working with you. Who would you work with?

Who would you work with?

Someone who is smart; who doesn't hesitate to tell me if I'm wrong; and who doesn't get offended if I tell him that he is wrong.

If arrogance makes people more likely to speak up when they see something which is wrong or could be improved, I'd say that's a net positive. False modesty has merits in some circumstances; but a startup is not such a circumstance.

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#73

Post by jfarmer »

cperciva wrote: post #72
jfarmer wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're smart. Very smart. But you're also arrogant. It shows in a lot of your comments here on HN. That's no barrier to success, of course, but I've found arrogance to be counterproductive. From a personal perspective arrogance blinds you to opportunities and your own shortcomings. From an interpersonal perspective it makes otherwise excellent people less interested in working with you. Who would you work with?

Who would you work with? Someone who is smart; who doesn't hesitate to tell me if I'm wrong; and who doesn't get offended if I tell him that he is wrong. If arrogance makes people more likely to speak up when they see something which is wrong or could be improved, I'd say that's a net positive. False modesty has merits in some circumstances; but a startup is not such a circumstance.

There's a difference between being arrogant and being plain-spoken. There's also a difference between being falsely modest and behaving in a way that doesn't make people feel worthless. (If your inclination is to say "That's their problem," I respectfully disagree.)

You're awesome. Your skill speaks for itself. Being arrogant gets you nothing except a reputation for being difficult to work with. That's all I'm saying.

Of course, YMMV. I'm just some guy on the internet.

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#75

Post by cperciva »

webwright wrote: post #66
cperciva wrote: post #7

I have check marks next to 8 of these, and I'm working on a 9th (ironically, #9 -- "Get ramen profitable"); but I've broken 4 of these rules, and I don't regret it in the slightest. Rule #1 -- Pick good cofounders. I picked no cofounders, based largely on the fact that that I couldn't think of anyone who would be interested in joining me who wouldn't dramatically lower the average founder quality. (Ok, that's being a…

"...but I'm working in an area where domain knowledge is extremely important..." If you had a design/marketing/seo cofounder that was willing to hunt for sales/bizdev opportunities, domain knowledge for that person doesn't have to be THAT deep and would bring huge benefits. "The vision behind tarsnap, from 2.5 years ago -- an online snapshotted backup service with a tar front-end, a heavy emphasis on security, and a…

If you had a design/marketing/seo cofounder that was willing to hunt for sales/bizdev opportunities, domain knowledge for that person doesn't have to be THAT deep and would bring huge benefits.

I think you might be overstating things here. I've found my domain knowledge to be very important when selling tarsnap -- being able to convincingly explain why tarsnap is secure and efficient (and why the competition isn't!) has gained me a lot of customers.

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#77

Post by netcan »

cperciva wrote: post #72
jfarmer wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're smart. Very smart. But you're also arrogant. It shows in a lot of your comments here on HN. That's no barrier to success, of course, but I've found arrogance to be counterproductive. From a personal perspective arrogance blinds you to opportunities and your own shortcomings. From an interpersonal perspective it makes otherwise excellent people less interested in working with you. Who would you work with?

Who would you work with? Someone who is smart; who doesn't hesitate to tell me if I'm wrong; and who doesn't get offended if I tell him that he is wrong. If arrogance makes people more likely to speak up when they see something which is wrong or could be improved, I'd say that's a net positive. False modesty has merits in some circumstances; but a startup is not such a circumstance.

That is a defensive line of thinking.

False modesty is not the opposite of arrogance. Arrogance is not defined as that thing which makes someone more likely to speak up when something is wrong.

Arrogance (or modesty for that matter) is more to do with the mind then the mouth. By most people's definition, arrogance is a sort of emotional weakness that impairs judgement in various ways. Very few people who use the term equate it with outward honesty. The contrary, many would probably equate it with inward dishonesty.

I am not accusing you of arrogance myself. I do agree that many of those things that people use to diagnose arrogance might actually indicate steadfastness, confidence, straightforward honesty or some other mostly positive attribute. But as the argument turns in on itself, people's ability to diagnose each others' emotions is actually fairly evolved. Failure to recognise the possibility that they might have a point, might be..arrogant.

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#78

Post by helveticaman »

cperciva wrote: post #72
jfarmer wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're smart. Very smart. But you're also arrogant. It shows in a lot of your comments here on HN. That's no barrier to success, of course, but I've found arrogance to be counterproductive. From a personal perspective arrogance blinds you to opportunities and your own shortcomings. From an interpersonal perspective it makes otherwise excellent people less interested in working with you. Who would you work with?

Who would you work with? Someone who is smart; who doesn't hesitate to tell me if I'm wrong; and who doesn't get offended if I tell him that he is wrong. If arrogance makes people more likely to speak up when they see something which is wrong or could be improved, I'd say that's a net positive. False modesty has merits in some circumstances; but a startup is not such a circumstance.

I totally agree; arrogance is very important if you're an unrecognized badass. Caesar was kidnapped by pirates and held for ransom. He told them he was worth more than that ransom, so they obliged by raising it. Once he was free he pursued and executed the pirates.

Most people should not have that arrogance because most people are not Caesar. Thing is, if you are Caesar, you sometimes have to be arrogant to mediocre people (especially bureaucrats) because they will crush you if you're not. But it's hard to draw the line because it's so few people are true geniuses and it's hard to know for sure if you are one.

Being a genius (as far as I can tell, because I don't know if I am one) seems to be tough in this world. It's not like being a star athlete, because in that case the best know they're the best, say so, and bet their future on it. That is not the case with geniuses. You can't take out huge loans against your future wealth in order to buy status and get laid in high school, for instance. I'm sure there are Silicon Valley billionaires who wish they could get back a part of their nerdy lost youth, but it's impossible. On the other hand, it's much less likely for a genius to have the balls to bet on his brains, challenge the curriculum, and get people excited about his future the way athletes do. I guess it's because, at the end of the day, society doesn't like nerds as much as it likes athletes, and because people like to think they're better than others. In this case, it's old people who think they are better than young people, rationalizing that they are smarter.

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