What does "it's a good start" really mean. • Hacker News Board

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#11

Post by viscanti » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 4:24 AM UTC

jcampbell1 wrote: post #5

This strikes me as very true, but irrelevant. As an American I say something positive to every startup founder I encounter, but secretly think they are nuts. Had I met the founders of these companies, below is what I would have thought: Heroku: Sounds nice but impossible to deliver. Even if you do, no one is going to trust their business to your startup's platform. Dropbox: Yet another backup solution that is going n…

Tech events can be a good way to network and recruit likeminded people. Unless your startup is doing something tech specific (building tools for tech people), then it's probably not a place that will drive much business. I don't see the harm in doing tech events if the goal is networking.

I think the bigger strategic mistake is startups who focus on getting tech press. The PR isn't going to help recruiting much (certainly not on the level of meeting someone face-to-face as you might at a tech event), and it's not going to help much from a marketing standpoint. The pursuit of tech press, just to be written about seems like a waste of effort.

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#12

Post by inopinatus » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 4:30 AM UTC

TamDenholm wrote: post #4

I'd like to see a graph for British people.

We say "that's nice" for everything up to about the 99th %ile, where it's "Jolly good, carry on".

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#13

Post by Spenny » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 4:30 AM UTC

I am not sure that the American viewpoint is necessarily bad in this case, especially as it pretains to working on projects. I think it is pretty safe to assume that people are more likely to pursue something further if they have positive encouragement. Thus, if "it's a good start" generally means that it is an awesome idea to a group of people, couldn't that be translated into meaning that those people continue working on something after they have shown it to others more often? I have nothing to back this up with, but it is just how I would interpret the idea.

Additionally, I always hear the line "it's a good start" as an acknowledgement that the person sees some potential in the idea, but that it needs a lot of work to achieve said potential. In fact, I can't remember a time that I have heard "it's a good start" by itself in a sentence. It is usually accompanied by a ", but ...", and I think the person behind the idea would know that this is coming, as he/she should know that there is still a lot of work that can be done.

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#14

Post by Okvivi » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 4:35 AM UTC

inopinatus wrote: post #12

TamDenholm wrote: post #4

I'd like to see a graph for British people.

We say "that's nice" for everything up to about the 99th %ile, where it's "Jolly good, carry on".

There :-) http://okvivi.com/i/stuff_british_people.png

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#15

Post by rwhitman » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 4:53 AM UTC

Continuing the generalizations depicted in this post - I would say that the politely disingenuous "this is awesome" response is actually endemic to the West Coast. I've found folks in the Bay Area in particular have a strong aversion to "negative energy".

Having spent some time on both coasts I'd say its not necessarily an "American" thing, its more a "Californian" thing. Here in NYC, I'm learning that negative feedback is pretty common and often encouraged.

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#16

Post by CeiII » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 4:55 AM UTC

jcampbell1 wrote: post #5

This strikes me as very true, but irrelevant. As an American I say something positive to every startup founder I encounter, but secretly think they are nuts. Had I met the founders of these companies, below is what I would have thought: Heroku: Sounds nice but impossible to deliver. Even if you do, no one is going to trust their business to your startup's platform. Dropbox: Yet another backup solution that is going n…

"This strikes me as very true, but irrelevant"

Not in the context of other people (specifically non-Americans) trying to understand feedback. I find I can say something to an American that is "fantastic!" only to be told by a German "that it would never work". It just emphasises the need to get feedback from multiple avenues, ideally from people who have different world-views. Your example reactions to the three startups backs this point up.

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#17

Post by eel » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 5:05 AM UTC

I'm fascinated by cultural nuances like this. I really, really wish there was a website where you could look up things like this based on culture. I don't know how one would start to gather the data for a site like that.

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#18

Post by kslimbs » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 5:09 AM UTC

TamDenholm wrote: post #4

I'd like to see a graph for British people.

Feedback from us Brits is even harder to parse. I always point those who are struggling to this handy table:

http://yfrog.com/z/gy5gxvxj

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#19

Post by jcampbell1 » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 5:15 AM UTC

Okvivi wrote: post #9

jcampbell1 wrote: post #5

This strikes me as very true, but irrelevant. As an American I say something positive to every startup founder I encounter, but secretly think they are nuts. Had I met the founders of these companies, below is what I would have thought: Heroku: Sounds nice but impossible to deliver. Even if you do, no one is going to trust their business to your startup's platform. Dropbox: Yet another backup solution that is going n…

I think there are benefits and drawbacks to both being supportive even if you don't think that the idea is good, and to being brutally honest. After living here long enough I'm no longer trying to judge, it's just the way things are, and I just learned to translate. That's why I made the graphs. I think it's only irrelevant if you understand this difference of translation and adapt to it. Not everybody understands it…

I think your piece is interesting, informative, useful, and well written. I just don't think others' opinion on ideas are particularly relevant. My opinion on Dropbox/Heroku/AirBnb's ideas would have all fallen on the left side of the bell curve, which only shows my opinion on ideas is irrelevant. I am just saying that the position one is placed on the bell curve is not important. Understanding different cultures is very important.

I won't address the relative merits of different cultural norms on being supportive vs being brutally honest.

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#20

Post by younata » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 5:26 AM UTC

palish wrote: post #8

jcampbell1 wrote: post #5

This strikes me as very true, but irrelevant. As an American I say something positive to every startup founder I encounter, but secretly think they are nuts. Had I met the founders of these companies, below is what I would have thought: Heroku: Sounds nice but impossible to deliver. Even if you do, no one is going to trust their business to your startup's platform. Dropbox: Yet another backup solution that is going n…

Mm.. I don't think you could have seen Drew's original Dropbox screencast and thought "This is going nowhere". But I suppose that's why I have Dropbox account #314...

> I have Dropbox account #314

Did you wait until they had 313 accounts before you signed up, or was it by random chance?