The credentials trap
cdixon.org
The credentials trap
1–10 of 26 posts
Re: The credentials trap
#2> optimizing for external validation is a dangerous trap. You’re fighting over a fixed pie against well-credentialed peers. The most likely outcome is a middle management job where you’ll have little impact and never seriously attempt to realize your ambitions.
That should be in every college freshman's welcome packet.
Re: The credentials trap
#3I think one of the big draws of credentials is the ability to measure your success.
Getting into a great school or landing an important job is a lot easier to quantify than startup success.
A credentialed life might be much less exciting, but it removes a lot of doubt.
Re: The credentials trap
#4The post from Sivers' blog[1] a few days talked optimistically about how, at least in some ways, we're beginning to see a fix for this.
You can break out of the credentials trap by making and doing stuff and by looking for people who make stuff. Public creations and contributions, even as simple as blogging, are becoming much more of an accepted credential (offering more external validation in Dixon's words) and that's great.
(Well, mostly great. Great that people might look at your github as a credential, perhaps going a tad too far when people proclaim that Github replaces resumes.)
I'm nothing but a wee programmer from New Hampshire, and while hating on Stack Overflow is cool around here[2], it allowed me to help thousands of people and create a (literal and S.O.) reputation. I wasn't thinking about career with all my days and nights contributing to StackOverflow, it was more of plain old poor time management mixed with some desire to be useful to someone. Yet SO and a tad of blogging landed me a book deal, which is a far more interesting outcome than anything my regular career-minded things (getting a degree and getting a job/experience) have done. By miles.
Unlike the external validation in the post (getting a degree), making stuff encompasses a much bigger pie. You aren't competing against the other people with law degrees. You're showing tangible reasons you might be useful. Really, if your field allows it, making stuff publicly is the best credential we've got.
[1] "It's all who you know?" - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5198956
[2] As of writing the first comment is bashing the SO system, which is a typical top-comment for these sort of stories: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5210648
Re: The credentials trap
#5"But optimizing for external validation is a dangerous trap"
You dont think this is strongly present in the startup world as well? In a number of ways I think many in the current form of the startup world are even more hungry for external validation but perhaps in a different way and from a different crowd.
"You’re fighting over a fixed pie against well-credentialed peers."
This also present in startups but instead of fighting for the next rung on the latter you are battling others for a piece of a limited number of funds, eyeballs, reporter coverage, demand, etc. The point being is that there is always a bottleneck or constraint in any field entrepreneurial or not. I'd agree that for an engineer, while quite rare, startup success has the potential to enhance your career probably more than being a smashing success in corp but both are funnels in different forms.
Re: The credentials trap
#6Following the Peter Thiel point, I think that the education system is currently flawed in the way that it sets up the end goal as being college. From the beginning (elementary), kids are trained to get good grades to get into a great college, but there's very little active discussion with students about careers and life in general at the early phases. Everything done at an academic level is to get into a good college, rather than learning for curiosity's sake and building something of value. I know this because I fell for it when I was in HS, and it's something that needs to change.
Re: The credentials trap
#7Are we actually going to have data for iteration #5,678,922 of this debate, or will we just play Anecdote Poker again?
Re: The credentials trap
#8"But optimizing for external validation is a dangerous trap" You dont think this is strongly present in the startup world as well? In a number of ways I think many in the current form of the startup world are even more hungry for external validation but perhaps in a different way and from a different crowd. "You’re fighting over a fixed pie against well-credentialed peers." This also present in startups but instead o…
Maybe there's always a bottleneck to the wealth you receive, but there's no such bottleneck to the wealth you create. You're not limited in in your creation just because some other startup is doing well.
That's also true of working at a larger company, except that larger companies usually have their wealth (product, service, whatever it may be) created and are trying to get more money out of it. Working at one is generally going to involve less raw wealth generation than working at a startup, which I think is part of what the author is trying to say.
Re: The credentials trap
#9"But optimizing for external validation is a dangerous trap" You dont think this is strongly present in the startup world as well? In a number of ways I think many in the current form of the startup world are even more hungry for external validation but perhaps in a different way and from a different crowd. "You’re fighting over a fixed pie against well-credentialed peers." This also present in startups but instead o…
Maybe there's always a bottleneck to the wealth you receive, but there's no such bottleneck to the wealth you create. You're not limited in in your creation just because some other startup is doing well. That's also true of working at a larger company, except that larger companies usually have their wealth (product, service, whatever it may be) created and are trying to get more money out of it. Working at one is gen…
I have to respectfully disagree although I hear your what you are saying. If you are a lone coder you have the potential to create something pretty valuable but small with not too many constraints. The game changes when you start to have to utilize "resources" whether that is hiring other people or raising money. Right now for example in the so-called series A crunch many startups are definitely dying because another startup fighting for the same funding is doing better. Same with hiring, if you need other engineers to increase the value of your business and you cant hire the right ones because they are taking other offers it can severely limit your potential.
Re: The credentials trap
#10"But optimizing for external validation is a dangerous trap" You dont think this is strongly present in the startup world as well? In a number of ways I think many in the current form of the startup world are even more hungry for external validation but perhaps in a different way and from a different crowd. "You’re fighting over a fixed pie against well-credentialed peers." This also present in startups but instead o…
The only validation that matters for the success of your startup is validation from your customers. And the list of things customers want is endless. Reporters, investors, bloggers, commenters on HN are second order at best, and most of the time don't really matter. There's no fixed pie you're competing for in startups.
If you don't believe me, try looking at which YC startups have the most "external validation" after demo day (a lot of blogs publish "top 10" lists, so that might be a good place to start). Then look at those same startups two years later. You'll find the correlation of "external validation" and real success is near zero.