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Take the Money and Run

nate.io

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Re: Take the Money and Run

#51

Post by bentcorner »

adaml_623 wrote: post #20
maxerickson wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are just making an extrapolation from minimal information. You seem to be aware of this, so maybe the best way to describe your post is "being cute". Plenty of Americans barely know how to fry an egg, plenty of others cook everything they eat.

I think the question about food is valid since the article talks a bit about lifestyle in Ohio with all the snow and not leaving the house. HN also has lots of articles about nutrition and exercise, etc. So I think some of us would love to know if these guys were head down coding surviving on soup for months because they were in the zone.

As a cheap-ass student I survived on soup. A can of soup is a bit over a dollar for the kinds that have stuff (veggies, pasta and meat) in them, you can heat it up on a stove and have a "meal" ready in a few minutes.

I wouldn't have qualms about doing it again. It was probably more expensive than buying fresh, but the time investment was low, it tasted way better than any frozen dinner, and it was way cheaper than doing any takeout.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#53

Post by themodelplumber »

exelius wrote: post #23

Aah, so it sounds like one of the big reasons you sold was because of imposter syndrome? I don't mean that negatively -- I feel one of the things that comes with experience is you realize that nobody knows what they are doing. This dispels the impostor syndrome pretty quickly. Once you think you know how a business or industry works, you develop patterns to solve it. This can sometimes work against you because it can…

Hahaha. That is true. One of my favorite ways of getting used to this is thinking of my biggest competitors as friends (or trying to).

I would say "keep your enemies closer" but I really don't think of them as enemies. On the advice of my business coach I usually call my competitors to chat every once in a while and I think we mutually realize that we're just trying our best not to go obsolete. We also need each other's help from time to time. And we usually don't have quite the same business interests, so this naturally makes our businesses each appeal to a slightly different type of client.

When a new competitor shows up, they are usually inexperienced and either won't last long or will end up joining our club of friends. That's just how it works.

(Small business owner)

Re: Take the Money and Run

#54

Post by nine_k »

waqf wrote: post #46
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #6

I'm probably being petulant or don't understand American culture, but: > To avoid spending money, we'd been subsisting on a diet consisting largely of soup. [...] But now, we'd gradually started to feel like we might be able to afford to eat at restaurants again. No middle ground?

If there's an item of American culture you may be missing, it's probably that American restaurants can be very cheap.

In particular, a McDonald's is considered a restaurant in the US, and there are restaurants that are lower-key and cheaper than McDonald's.

Of course, high-end restaurant also do exist.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#56

Post by Alleluja »

waqf wrote: post #46
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #6

I'm probably being petulant or don't understand American culture, but: > To avoid spending money, we'd been subsisting on a diet consisting largely of soup. [...] But now, we'd gradually started to feel like we might be able to afford to eat at restaurants again. No middle ground?

If there's an item of American culture you may be missing, it's probably that American restaurants can be very cheap.

not as cheap as some European ones. What he is missing is specialization in the US. If someone considers themselves "developer" in the US they won't spend 2 hours a day cooking. They think it is cheaper to spend money on someone else cooking for them and code for these 2 hours.

Blatantly idiotic.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#57

Post by AwesomeGorilla »

leftnode wrote: post #28

I loved AgileZen when it was first launched and I was a huge champion of it at Quickoffice. Definitely helped keep us organized and on track. Thanks for the write up and behind the scenes details - can't wait for part 2.

How does AgileZen compare to Trello? Looks like a very similar kanban-based product.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#58

Post by eropple »

bentcorner wrote: post #51
adaml_623 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the question about food is valid since the article talks a bit about lifestyle in Ohio with all the snow and not leaving the house. HN also has lots of articles about nutrition and exercise, etc. So I think some of us would love to know if these guys were head down coding surviving on soup for months because they were in the zone.

As a cheap-ass student I survived on soup. A can of soup is a bit over a dollar for the kinds that have stuff (veggies, pasta and meat) in them, you can heat it up on a stove and have a "meal" ready in a few minutes. I wouldn't have qualms about doing it again. It was probably more expensive than buying fresh, but the time investment was low, it tasted way better than any frozen dinner, and it was way cheaper than do…

In college, I'd boil some ramen and drop in a couple eggs. Tasty enough (if salty) and cheap.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#59

Post by polysaturate »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #40
ph0rque wrote: post #7

> Eventually, we'd come to learn how wrong we were, how hard the road ahead of us would be, and that selling the company would mean the end of what we'd worked so hard to build. But that night was for celebrating. So ominous... any hint as to what happened before the next blog post installment?

> So ominous... any hint as to what happened before the next blog post installment? Looks like they started a new company called TaskTorch. Considering this acquisition happened in 2010 and TaskTorch hasn't really launched yet I'm going to assume they stuck around big company for a few years, hated what they were doing to the software they loved to build and eventually quit after taking their sticking-around bonus. G…

Sounds like some 4 year vesting...
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