31–40 of 112 posts
>> you should try to work on what you really care about So Good They Can't Ignore You[1] calls this the Passion Hypothesis[2], and argues (very well) that this is the wrong way to think about finding a career. Instead, create a craftsman-like mentality and work ethic, and then use deliberate practice to get very, very good skills. With great skills, you will enjoy your work much more. I believe this advice aligns wit…
I agree, although this makes me think of the great number of people who have the potential to create value but cannot, because their ability to "do" is blocked. Most people I know who cannot create value have an issue of time. Most everyone is locked into their job with rent payments, student loans, and other debts. Its frustrating to see that those with wealth can also purchase time for themselves to use to get more…
For now, it looks like I'm going to be working for a while to pay off my student debt and save money before I can even dip my toes into working on something interesting.
I realize this is pointed out in the original post but it's important to state for those of us who only read comments and headlines. The longer I do this the more I believe that value isn't created by doing. It's created by selling. As hackers and engineers the idea of "creating value by doing" resonates with us. We're happy to hole up in a dark room and create. It feels great. Wish I could do that for the rest of my…
You can't sell something that doesn't have value to the buyer. Therefore, if someone buys a thing from you, it already had value before you sold it.
But don't get me wrong here, effective sales is an essential part of the value-creation process. It's the other side of the coin. Like the old tree-in-a-forest adage, if someone made a valuable thing and no one bought it, did it really have value? It's hard to say.
Selling something may not create value, but it does realize it: it quantifies the value -- value that already existed -- and turns it into money.
Writing software no one wants does not create value—that’s called a class project. My corollary to that is that if you write software that does create value, it doesn't matter what editor or language you use. So if you're super duper productive in Perl (or whatever) don't worry too much about chasing after whatever language HN is fetishizing at the moment. It will change in a few months anyway.
I think you misunderstood that comment. I don't think he was referring to writing IN A software no one wants, as in a specific programming language. I think he meant that if there's no demand for the software itself then it doesn't create value for anyone because, well, no one wants it.
I'm not trying to say learning new languages is not worth it. I'm just saying that if you stick with what you know well for your production code, you can probably generate value more efficiently than if you are switching to the new HN fad language every six months.
All advice is a two-way street. I think at this point, the proverbial "advice market" is saturated with this idea that "doing" is far superior to "thinking". This is because, traditionally, hackers tend to lie squarely on the "thinking too much" end of the spectrum. I'm interested to read at least one post on the opposite advice -- what happens when you're too heavy on the "doing" end of the spectrum? Are there examp…
I am of the opinion that "ideas are nothing, execution is everything" grows in part out of the lack of adequate language and mental models to distinguish amongst ideas of the armchair politician variety and ideas with legs. There are some words to distinguish such things, like hypothesis and theorem, but they mostly don't apply in the realm of business. I have been trying to sort out how to do a post on that very top…
Maybe it's because many of the ideas in the "ideas are nothing" category are twitbook/fourit/squaresnap/flickchat/... clones, rather than ideas like "let's build a product for market X using tech Y to reduce problem Z".
All advice is a two-way street. I think at this point, the proverbial "advice market" is saturated with this idea that "doing" is far superior to "thinking". This is because, traditionally, hackers tend to lie squarely on the "thinking too much" end of the spectrum. I'm interested to read at least one post on the opposite advice -- what happens when you're too heavy on the "doing" end of the spectrum? Are there examp…
technical debt
It’s easier to sit around and talk about building a startup than it is to actually start a startup. And it’s fun to talk about. But over time, the difference between fun and fulfilling becomes clear. Doing things is really hard—it’s why, for example, you can generally tell people what you’re working on without NDAs, and most patents never matter. The value, and the difficulty, comes from execution.
A corollary of this seems to be that investors (such as YC) provide little value because they don't execute. This seems incorrect on its face; most YC founders find the experience to be very beneficial. Maybe I'm missing your point, Sam?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am of the opinion that "ideas are nothing, execution is everything" grows in part out of the lack of adequate language and mental models to distinguish amongst ideas of the armchair politician variety and ideas with legs. There are some words to distinguish such things, like hypothesis and theorem, but they mostly don't apply in the realm of business. I have been trying to sort out how to do a post on that very top…
True indeed. Some ideas are really valuable, and I think it's mainly those that are well-informed, committed to a specific market (typically a niche) and ripe for execution. Maybe it's because many of the ideas in the "ideas are nothing" category are twitbook/fourit/squaresnap/flickchat/... clones, rather than ideas like "let's build a product for market X using tech Y to reduce problem Z".
(Edit: In some ways we do have such a framework. For example, I am sure that venture capitalists have a lot of paradigms for doing just that. But this meme of "ideas do not matter" still persists and is oft repeated by venture capitalists themselves.)
All advice is a two-way street. I think at this point, the proverbial "advice market" is saturated with this idea that "doing" is far superior to "thinking". This is because, traditionally, hackers tend to lie squarely on the "thinking too much" end of the spectrum. I'm interested to read at least one post on the opposite advice -- what happens when you're too heavy on the "doing" end of the spectrum? Are there examp…
The ones that pivot endlessly and run out of cash?