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Hackers can be business guys, and other lessons from Paul Graham
11–20 of 52 posts
Re: Hackers can be business guys, and other lessons from Paul Graham
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well yes and no. Obviously for most things you will get better with practise but it's certainly also true that you are genetically predisposed to learn some things faster than others and be able to get to a higher level quicker and have a higher chance of becoming one of the best in that field. So it makes sense to specialise in those things. For example I'm sure I could run pretty fast if I trained but I'm never goi…
I think its more like people get fixated on certain subjects and automatically spend more time on the subject.
That's sort of a positive feedback loop, if you find yourself doing well at something then it's easier to stay motivated which makes you work even harder at it.
Personally I spent a lot of time playing FPS games when I was younger but never quite got to the standard for serious tournament play. OTOH I have a friend who got a spot in a well ranked sponsored counterstrike clan after only about 2 months of play.
On the flipside I never put much effort in at school because most it didn't interest me but I still managed to get better grades than many of the kids who worked much harder and had private tutoring etc.
Re: Hackers can be business guys, and other lessons from Paul Graham
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Personally I don't believe in natural aptitude. Most of what others tend to see as natural aptitude is in fact just attitude. If someone really enjoys something they put in the hours of practice and the effort to be awesome in that field, and they can become the "rock star".
"Talent is willingness to practice" is how I've heard that described.
"Golf is a game of luck. The more I practice, the luckier I get."
Ben Hogan, one of my favorite quotes.
Re: Hackers can be business guys, and other lessons from Paul Graham
#14Yes. And many top notch business guys can become great programmers if they want to. Hard working people can shine anywhere.
Re: Hackers can be business guys, and other lessons from Paul Graham
#15I am surprised that Shenglong is down voted - it strikes me that the idea of 10x "business-people" is just as valid as 10x developers. Certainly Branson for example seems better at it than, say, me. @Andrew_quentin Want my take on the 5 or so business rules: 1. Budget. Don't spend more than you plan to, plan to make a profit. 2. Clarity. Be clear what you offer and why it benefits the target market 3. ABS - Always Be…
Number 6 seems like the odd one out , there are plenty of businesses that were successful because they kept figuring out how to get things done cheaper and passing those savings on to consumers and undercutting the competition. Or companies who ate their margins to lower prices and gain market share.
Re: Hackers can be business guys, and other lessons from Paul Graham
#16As an aspiring business guy, my biggest problem seems to be accessing information about different models.
Say I want to build a web community around a particular kind of video game. Estimating the value of that market is pretty damn opaque to an outsider.
Re: Hackers can be business guys, and other lessons from Paul Graham
#17I always thought this was PG's greatest gift to the tech world. To horribly generalize - prior to YC "business" people had a patronizing attitude toward developers. They were expensive assets - comparable to hw/sw and data-centers - that were required to successfully launch and grow a startup. But they weren't invited to the strategic table too often. They didn't get business.
I don't know this to be a fact but I always felt like PG responded with a "I'll show you!" after one too many patronizing comments from the old boys club of VC's or CEO's or SVP's of BD's. And show us he has. Certainly other factors (the lower entry cost to starting a startup) contributed to the rise of the wide spread geek business leader. But PG deserves a lot of credit.
Having said all that I almost feel like developers today are similar to women in the 80's (stick with me I know this is getting weird) Women in the 80's were supposed to have fulfilling careers and still be great mother's/spouses. They could have both! They just ended up with 2x the pressure to be great at what they did vs before. It seems today every developer is supposed to have a real side project that could blossom into it's own business at any point. Come to think of it; non technical startup folks are implored to "learn to code!" So maybe it applies to both devs and non devs in startups.
It's an interesting time. I think it's great developers can now lead companies with little or not stigma attached. In the long run though I believe in teams and specialization vs individuals and doing it all. I think we'll return to a more natural balance. And that tends to be that people who can build and nurture a forest tree by tree and row by row aren't the same people who can see the entire forest and what the seasons will bring. The forest does best when each person is in the right role.
Re: Hackers can be business guys, and other lessons from Paul Graham
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Talent is willingness to practice" is how I've heard that described.
"Golf is a game of luck. The more I practice, the luckier I get." Ben Hogan, one of my favorite quotes.
Although the wording is different, that line comes from the 1920s writer Coleman Cox, who specialized in producing pithy quotes like it:
Re: Hackers can be business guys, and other lessons from Paul Graham
#19"We fire up that video the second we start reading an application, usually."
As a new applicant, it makes me curious. Does that mean that (usually) if I haven't seen views on the video yet, the application hasn't been read yet?
Re: Hackers can be business guys, and other lessons from Paul Graham
#20Right. Business things, like hacking is mostly experience. But much like hacking, I would argue, there are rockstar/ninja/superstar/10x/ business people as well. A lot of it has to do with natural aptitude; just as how coding doesn't simply click for everyone, business things (which is mostly just dealing with people) simply doesn't either.
Personally I don't believe in natural aptitude. Most of what others tend to see as natural aptitude is in fact just attitude. If someone really enjoys something they put in the hours of practice and the effort to be awesome in that field, and they can become the "rock star".
The flip side is, when you're naturally good at something, it becomes fun to do. So you do it a lot.
I tried for 2 years to get good at guitar. Never got good. But didn't practice very often either.
Then one I sat down at a drum set and was immediately better than the drummer in my band. I had a knack. It was so fun to play those beats that I practiced almost every day for many years, and still do. And have gotten pretty darn good.
Natural ability turns into learned skills.