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What Startups Are Really Like

paulgraham.com

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Re: What Startups Are Really Like

#91

Post by btilly »

patio11 wrote: post #39

I sometimes wonder if the Valley culture doesn't socially construct some of the startup pathologies. For example, startups taking over your life: why does this happen? Is this because startups take over your life and nothing can be done about this? I am skeptical of this: I run a small business, the time demands are rather modest, and I live a life outside of work. I'm surely not uniquely in a position to do this. No…

You are not alone. For an extreme example see http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090101/and-the-money-comes-rol....

However I think that most good business ideas require enough work, and are in landscapes that change quickly enough, that they really do require a larger time dedication from someone.

Re: What Startups Are Really Like

#92

Post by gcheong »

c00p3r wrote: post #76
cperciva wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are in an emotional low, it's very difficult to think, "I should just persist because PG says it usually works." I usually take the opposite approach: I should persist because PG says that single-founder startups don't work, and I'm going to prove him wrong, damnit.

There are a lot of explanations why one is not enough. Think about practicing a foreign language - how it's much better when you have someone to talk to. That's also correct for almost any kind of evolving processes. Even a reading (which is a classical example of a lonely activity) could do better if you will develop the habit of reading aloud, like Tibetan and many other cultures have.

I wonder though, with the comments about how the character and commitment of your co-founders matters so much more than ability or output that, in the case you can't get someone you know well to join you, that you would do better not having a co-founder rather than spending time looking for one.

Re: What Startups Are Really Like

#93

Post by [deleted] »

johnrob wrote: post #63
pg wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately Store doesn't give you access to the head. Is there something I could stick in the body that would work?

Here's how to get access to the head (took some googling and tinkering): 1) Put editor in advanced mode by clicking on red arrow on top right (you have to be in advanced mode to override a variable) 2) Click 'Variables' link (now it is possible to 'override' the missing Head-tags variable). 3) Override the 'Head-tags' variable by clicking the "Define New Variable" button (even though we want to override) 4) Now you c…

[deleted]

Re: What Startups Are Really Like

#94

Post by b3eck »

The reason not to put your all your eggs in one basket is not the usual one, which applies even when you know which basket is best.

The last paragraph of 7 has an extra 'your' (but otherwise you're not repeating yourself ;-)

Re: What Startups Are Really Like

#95

Post by Andys »

lloydarmbrust wrote: post #78
marcofloriano wrote: post #56

#13 My advice is generally pessimistic. Assume you won't get money, and if someone does offer you any, assume you'll never get any more. I´m a business wannabe from Brazil and i just laugh when i read that one. Here we dont have ANY chances of getting money from VCs so when we start something new, specially with technology, we never expect to get money. Ramen profit system is not an option at poor countries, it´s the…

I've been unconsciously practicing number #13 since the beginning of our start-up. Every time I close a deal I'm thinking, "it's not over until we start getting paid from these guys." That attitude has served me well, I mean, I've had groups back out on us after they signed an agreement. What are we going to do? Lawyers cost to much and who wants to work with someone who doesn't want to work with us? Our customers ar…

Absolutely: I don't tell family about, or celebrate, a new deal until the money is actually in the bank.

Re: What Startups Are Really Like

#96

Post by breck »

gcv wrote: post #60

I'd like to (slightly) challenge #8: it seems to me that Dropbox is a counterexample. The Dropbox guys took quite a long time and their first release was quite polished. Not perfect, certainly, but way, way ahead of just minimally functional.

instead of "counterexample", use "exception to the rule".

Re: What Startups Are Really Like

#97

Post by cperciva »

pg wrote: post #69
johnrob wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's how to get access to the head (took some googling and tinkering): 1) Put editor in advanced mode by clicking on red arrow on top right (you have to be in advanced mode to override a variable) 2) Click 'Variables' link (now it is possible to 'override' the missing Head-tags variable). 3) Override the 'Head-tags' variable by clicking the "Define New Variable" button (even though we want to override) 4) Now you c…

This is the weirdest thing. You're explaining my own software to me. (The editor is the part of Viaweb I wrote.) I'd forgotten there was a head-tags variable. But thanks to you I've finally been able to get rid of the annoying Yahoo favicon. Incidentally, you don't have to override head-tags. You can just change the global value on the Variables page. Sorry about the usability issues. It was pretty good for 1997.

This is the weirdest thing. You're explaining my own software to me.

I find that this happens to me quite often in FreeBSD. Usually the way it works is that someone asks me to add a feature which I had never considered before; I do so; and then I completely forget that I added said feature and revert back to thinking of my code as I originally wrote it.

I don't know if this is the situation here, but I think it's much easier to change code than it is to change one's mind.

Re: What Startups Are Really Like

#98

Post by cousin_it »

btilly wrote: post #88
arh wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not overanalyzing it - you're making generalizations about women that are naive and, in my view, offensive.

It seems to me that honest advice about what actually works in dating usually offends people. Go pick up virtually any book by and for pickup artists. (Or start with a website like http://www.seductiontuition.com/. ) You will find it full of incredibly crass generalizations about women that are guaranteed to offend. But it works! Pickup artists aren't worried about being politically correct, they are interested in ge…

Wow, your second link (remove the period from the end) made me feel exactly the way women say they feel about PUA/game advice. Good stuff.

Re: What Startups Are Really Like

#99

Post by 10ren »

patio11 wrote: post #39

I sometimes wonder if the Valley culture doesn't socially construct some of the startup pathologies. For example, startups taking over your life: why does this happen? Is this because startups take over your life and nothing can be done about this? I am skeptical of this: I run a small business, the time demands are rather modest, and I live a life outside of work. I'm surely not uniquely in a position to do this. No…

pg's definition of a startup is a small business that intends to get big. He says that this is the ordinary Valley definition. This is the kind of business that needs the funding and connections that are available in the valley. So the question becomes: why do people want to start that kind of business?

your definition of small business seems to be the logical/literal one, which includes all businesses that start small, including lifestyle businesses (nothing wrong with that; it's just a different definition of the word, and a different kind of business).

/me rides off into sunset

Re: What Startups Are Really Like

#100

Post by 10ren »

> [Over-engineering is] more like telling a lie that you then have to remember so you don't contradict it.

Meaning that you have to keep justifying that extra bit of complexity, by thinking in terms of it - and therefore making it "true", even if it's not appropriate? Like a theory you have committed to ahead of the facts?

Reminds me of YAGNI and "do the simplest thing that could possibly work" - except applied to solving a real-world problem, instead of a pre-specified technical problem. I would like to add that doing this also increases iteration speed - that is, the speed of learning and adaptation.

http://c2.com/xp/YouArentGonnaNeedIt.html - http://c2.com/xp/DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork.htm...

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