I don’t have any connections • Hacker News Board

Re: I don’t have any connections

#21

Post by auctiontheory » Thu, Oct 17, 2013, 11:43 PM UTC

ArekDymalski wrote: post #4

I'm pretty sure that for many people even such cold email can be intimidating. On rational level they know it's the necessary thing to do, but the fear of rejection drags them toward "I'm not ready yet. I'll mail them a week later when I build/write/learn more".

Read Improv Wisdom. Take an improv class. Practice makes perfect.

Re: I don’t have any connections

#22

Post by pnathan » Thu, Oct 17, 2013, 11:49 PM UTC

onepost51515 wrote: post #13

Heh. A rant, if I may: I lived in a small town in northern Canada until I was 17. I had had an interest in programming since I was 11, but the job most relevant to "computers" you could get up there was repairing them at BestBuy. My parents weren't particularly rich, and didn't encourage me to strive for high academics or anything of the sort; in fact, the only thing they really wanted me to do was to get a driver's…

If you are set up to take an occasional trip south, Vancouver is not far from Seattle or Bellingham, both of which have active developer communities. (I live in Bellingham).

Re: I don’t have any connections

#23

Post by inthesea » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 12:53 AM UTC

I'm not sure if I'm alone here but I just lack social skills. It's like everyone but me has this secret book of how to interact with people. I'm not autistic or anything but I had little social life when growing up. I was actually rather popular at the Internet but that didn't translate well to real life. I'm now trying to catch up in my early twenties. I meet interesting people every day but connecting with them non-superficially is the hardest part. I am too shy to talk about anything and I have low self-esteem. I literally start to mumble when telling a story if I don't know the person well. So far rationalizing about it hasn't helped.

It's a wonder I managed to get a few friends.

Re: I don’t have any connections

#24

Post by nraynaud » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 1:22 AM UTC

I'm still a bit wary of this kind of advice, because it's mostly pushing against the technological meritocracy. The loudest in the room gets the light, the most outspoken is raised as an example. All this effort is still not spent building the right product. I live in France, where the tradition is that money, marketing and sales people run the company. The only successful startups here now are selling advertisement, optimizing advertisement (or whatever retargeting is), dealing personal data and other user-bothering technology. Nobody is optimizing mousetraps or producing media content anymore. But hey, they worked their connections while you where making smoke in the lab.

Re: I don’t have any connections

#25

Post by trevoro » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 1:42 AM UTC

onepost51515 wrote: post #13

Heh. A rant, if I may: I lived in a small town in northern Canada until I was 17. I had had an interest in programming since I was 11, but the job most relevant to "computers" you could get up there was repairing them at BestBuy. My parents weren't particularly rich, and didn't encourage me to strive for high academics or anything of the sort; in fact, the only thing they really wanted me to do was to get a driver's…

Vancouver has quite a few talented engineers but the teams can be a bit insular. The meetups are good and you should definitely go to either the Ruby on Rails one, or Node Brigade. CascadiaJS is happening soon too.

If you want to get some introductions I'd be happy to grab a coffee.

Re: I don’t have any connections

#26

Post by exo_duz » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 2:14 AM UTC

beat wrote: post #5

Making contact with people isn't the hard part, I don't think. Motivating them to help you is the hard part.

I totally agree. After years being a lurker online I've decided to change my outlook to be able to get like minded people's ideas and opinions. I totally understand how it is. It's always easier to be alone then to get to know people as you have to make an effort to make first contact.

Re: I don’t have any connections

#27

Post by mnavada » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 3:08 AM UTC

We recently secured a small investment from an angel investor without prior connections. Having graduated from an Ivy League 12 years ago, I realized that more than school affiliation, it was our team, product, vision, and perseverance that made a difference. I used to regret not networking more in school, but quickly realized that in the startup world, you have to be a problem solver. No time for regrets or to crib about the present. Thanks for this article. I'm going to distribute this to my team.

Re: I don’t have any connections

#28

Post by dkuntz2 » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 4:03 AM UTC

nraynaud wrote: post #24

I'm still a bit wary of this kind of advice, because it's mostly pushing against the technological meritocracy. The loudest in the room gets the light, the most outspoken is raised as an example. All this effort is still not spent building the right product. I live in France, where the tradition is that money, marketing and sales people run the company. The only successful startups here now are selling advertisement,…

And knowing people or coming from money is the technological meritocracy?

Re: I don’t have any connections

#29

Post by beat » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 4:33 AM UTC

nraynaud wrote: post #24

I'm still a bit wary of this kind of advice, because it's mostly pushing against the technological meritocracy. The loudest in the room gets the light, the most outspoken is raised as an example. All this effort is still not spent building the right product. I live in France, where the tradition is that money, marketing and sales people run the company. The only successful startups here now are selling advertisement,…

Creating a startup isn't primarily technical. It's about business stuff - marketing, hiring, customer support, all sorts of soft skill things. All the clever code in the world won't make a startup succeed without the other stuff.

So really, "technical meritocracy" isn't what makes for successful startups. I think the concentration of technical founders in these parts gives us an unbalanced view.

Re: I don’t have any connections

#30

Post by akjetma » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 5:20 AM UTC

inthesea wrote: post #23

I'm not sure if I'm alone here but I just lack social skills. It's like everyone but me has this secret book of how to interact with people. I'm not autistic or anything but I had little social life when growing up. I was actually rather popular at the Internet but that didn't translate well to real life. I'm now trying to catch up in my early twenties. I meet interesting people every day but connecting with them non…

If somebody said to me what you just posted, I would want to talk to them. I feel the same way. It's often jokingly pointed out that two introverts will never engage each other. I think that in addition to being funny, it's also true.