Ask HN: Practical formula for being relentlessly resourceful?

Paul Graham wrote that good founders are relentlessly resourceful.[1]

I am starting a startup[2], so I am wondering:

Can you make a conscious effort to get better at it? Are there conscious ways for being relentlessly resourceful?

So far I've come up with one promising technique: try to think of new clever ideas/hacks assuming their cost of failure is zero. It seems to work. It allows you to see ideas you would otherwise miss because of some sort of block(though I am not 100% sure it's not an illusion -- I've been using this technique for only a couple of days).

Also, I suspect it should work better for social stuff(talking to users, acquiring users) than for programming.

HN, can you please share your own hacks/algorithms/techniques/methods, even small ones?

[1] «A couple days ago I finally got being a good startup founder down to two words: relentlessly resourceful» www.paulgraham.com/relres.html [2] In case anyone is interested: http://perunity.com (yes, we want your feedback)

Your first question is "can you make a conscious effort to get better at [being resourceful]?" The answer is almost certainly yes.

Techniques for being resourceful are very specific to the individual, so what works for one person may not for another. That being said...

The first thing I would do is meditate. It is becoming trendy, but I think for a good reason. By complete coincidence, http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237313 is a news article that showed up this morning. I think if a man like Steve Jobs arranges for a book on meditation (and self-actualization) to be given to the attendees of his own funeral, that is a powerful sign.

Talk to other people about challenges you face. This sounds simple, but it is effective. Another way of saying "I need a creative solution" is "I need a solution that I wouldn't have come up with". To me, that sounds like "I need a solution someone else came up with". Every successful business leader has advisors. So should you.

There is a talk by Charlie Munger (of Berkshire Hathaway fame) about decision making. It tends to focus on mistakes, but if you know what mistakes to avoid, it can help you find the right answer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqzcCfUglws

Tell me what you think about these.

Create artificial limitations.

Relentlessly resourceful only makes sense/sounds good in hindsight.

Before that there is simply "relentless" and "resourceful"--which are straight forward enought.

The "problem" is there is a tension/contradiction between the two: relentless meants "stopping at nothing". And resourceful means working within a set constraint (ie, an externally-imposed limit).

Needless to say, bringing/finding hidder or non-obvious resources to bear on problems with obvious/unavoidable constraints is the general gist of this problem.

"Never bring a knife to a gunfight" is also another take on it, although a bit more from the perspective of a negative proof.

1) Nothing will die if you can't kill it. Be like cockroach. 2) Take advantage of everything you can get ahold of. Dont ask for permission, but forgiveness. 3) Don't spend a dime until you're forced to. This means contractors sometimes, unfortunately. 4) (S)He who knows the most, wins. Its an infowar out there, so never stop reading/learning. Use triggers/web svcs to make the internet work for you. 5) https://diy.soylent.me/recipes and/or join a coworking space

If you follow this 5 step program, you too can be relentlessly resourceful... and lose a lot of weight :)