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Ask HN: Follow your passion or be realistic and practical?

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Re: Ask HN: Follow your passion or be realistic and practical?

#11

Post by magicianred »

breakinggood wrote: post #6

You talk of passion, but speak in terms of escapism. It sounds like you have some personality flaws. From your short description, the writing describes someone who appears unfocused, impulsive and unreliable. If you were slave to your clients (working on your own startup), would those traits magically disappear? Also your root motivation for quitting is suspect. Don't quit because of boredom or from feeling empty. Qu…

I do have personality flaws.

>> If you were slave to your clients (working on your own startup), would those traits magically disappear?

No. But I can pick and choose people to complement my weakness. People who are reliable and are finishers.

Re: Ask HN: Follow your passion or be realistic and practical?

#12

Post by magicianred »

FD3SA wrote: post #7

One word: strategy. Both quitting your job and engaging in a startup are absurdly risky if you don't have a very cushy safety net. Steve jobs was a hippie who was fine with living homeless and dumpster diving for food, so there was no downside for him in screwing around with startups. Paul Graham completed his PhD in CS from Harvard, so he had a very solid alumni network he could turn to if he ever found himself unem…

Thanks for the perspective. The most likely thing that can happen will usually happen, I guess.

One of my coworker quit to do a startup. Now all he is doing is sitting at home and updating Facebook all the time. That is a position I definitely don't want to be in.

Re: Ask HN: Follow your passion or be realistic and practical?

#13

Post by akulbe »

Pick something, get good at it... then the passion will follow.

The follow your passion part, is starting to be shown as bad advice.

Refer to "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport.

He turns conventional advice on this topic on its head. Excellent book, in my opinion.

Re: Ask HN: Follow your passion or be realistic and practical?

#14

Post by breakinggood »

magicianred wrote: post #11
breakinggood wrote: post #6

You talk of passion, but speak in terms of escapism. It sounds like you have some personality flaws. From your short description, the writing describes someone who appears unfocused, impulsive and unreliable. If you were slave to your clients (working on your own startup), would those traits magically disappear? Also your root motivation for quitting is suspect. Don't quit because of boredom or from feeling empty. Qu…

I do have personality flaws. >> If you were slave to your clients (working on your own startup), would those traits magically disappear? No. But I can pick and choose people to complement my weakness. People who are reliable and are finishers.

I can pick and choose people to complement my weakness. This is commonly preached advice, and is somewhat true. Think about all the business types with "brilliant" ideas that are only a technical cofounder away from millions. When you're rare and in demand (in your case people who are reliable and finishers, and in the previous case idea guys who need technical people), you don't just go with the first bloke that makes an offer. You need to offer something compelling that they can't get elsewhere.

This is only a suggestion, but think about optimizing for lifetime happiness instead of focusing most of your energies on the now and the short term. So with respect to these personality flaws, it might also affect other areas of your life. If you spend the necessary effort now, you'll experience the compounded effects of these benefits over a longer time horizon.

This post may seem overly critical. In actuality I'm trying to have a conversation with my earlier self who was about to make similar missteps as you. I sincerely hope you find what you are looking for.

Re: Ask HN: Follow your passion or be realistic and practical?

#15

Post by [deleted] »

breakinggood wrote: post #6

You talk of passion, but speak in terms of escapism. It sounds like you have some personality flaws. From your short description, the writing describes someone who appears unfocused, impulsive and unreliable. If you were slave to your clients (working on your own startup), would those traits magically disappear? Also your root motivation for quitting is suspect. Don't quit because of boredom or from feeling empty. Qu…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Follow your passion or be realistic and practical?

#17

Post by magicianred »

breakinggood wrote: post #14
magicianred wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do have personality flaws. >> If you were slave to your clients (working on your own startup), would those traits magically disappear? No. But I can pick and choose people to complement my weakness. People who are reliable and are finishers.

I can pick and choose people to complement my weakness. This is commonly preached advice, and is somewhat true. Think about all the business types with "brilliant" ideas that are only a technical cofounder away from millions. When you're rare and in demand (in your case people who are reliable and finishers, and in the previous case idea guys who need technical people), you don't just go with the first bloke that mak…

When you're rare and in demand (in your case people who are reliable and finishers, and in the previous case idea guys who need technical people), you don't just go with the first bloke that makes an offer. You need to offer something compelling that they can't get elsewhere.

You raise a valid point. But I am hardly ever naive. I live a pretty frugal life and saved up quite a bit of money ($xx,000). I usually hire people from codementor.io/airpair/railshotline (this is free) and pair program. This was the secret to finishing my last two products on time and landing my first paying customer for the last product.

Please don't apologize for stating your opinion. I always seek feedback and I am not easily discouraged.

Re: Ask HN: Follow your passion or be realistic and practical?

#18

Post by tutufan »

mikek wrote: post #2

28 is still young, particularly if you don't yet have kids. Go for it. Starting a company will only get harder as you have more responsibilities later in life.

This. Doing a startup is way harder once you get older, unless you've already made your nut and no longer need a salary.
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