You Are the Exception to the Rule • Hacker News Board

Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule

#11

Post by UK-AL » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 7:10 PM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #10

waterlesscloud wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are several orders of magnitude between getting famous and founding a sustainable business.

Getting famous is easier than reaching the level of competence that will give a person the ability to reliably found sustainable businesses. (I'm not kidding.)

Competence? Yes. Actually getting famous vs Founding a company? I'd say founding a sustainble company is more much more likely.

There tons of sustainble small businesses around. Probably won't start the next apple, but tons of fogcreek style companies are around.

Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule

#12

Post by unimpressive » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 7:16 PM UTC

apl wrote: post #3

This type of saccharine feel-good prose irritates to no end. No, chances are you're not the exception to the rule of mediocrity; that's just a matter of statistics. Believing so in absence of hard evidence to the contrary is delusional and won't make things better. Entrepeneurs fail every day. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Don't fall for the cheap words of encouragement. [ADDENDUM: I still don't trust the "Most coders c…

> I still don't trust the "Most coders can't do FizzBuzz" meme that generally accompanies the flowery you're-a-special-snowflake-talk.

Well of course, such talk misses the point. A "Coder" who can't do Fizzbuzz isn't a coder, or a programmer, or a hacker, or a computer scientist. It's a negative test, if you can't do it, then your not ready for a real programming gig yet.

From http://imranontech.com/2007/01/24/using-fizzbuzz-to-find-dev... (Which appears to be the source of the infamous fizzbuzz question.)

"This sort of question won’t identify great programmers, but it will identify the weak ones. And that’s definitely a step in the right direction."

Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule

#13

Post by michaelochurch » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 7:17 PM UTC

UK-AL wrote: post #11

michaelochurch wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting famous is easier than reaching the level of competence that will give a person the ability to reliably found sustainable businesses. (I'm not kidding.)

Competence? Yes. Actually getting famous vs Founding a company? I'd say founding a sustainble company is more much more likely. There tons of sustainble small businesses around. Probably won't start the next apple, but tons of fogcreek style companies are around.

Getting famous is actually pretty easy if that's what you focus on. It is, however, also pretty pointless.

Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule

#14

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 7:20 PM UTC

apl wrote: post #3

This type of saccharine feel-good prose irritates to no end. No, chances are you're not the exception to the rule of mediocrity; that's just a matter of statistics. Believing so in absence of hard evidence to the contrary is delusional and won't make things better. Entrepeneurs fail every day. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Don't fall for the cheap words of encouragement. [ADDENDUM: I still don't trust the "Most coders c…

[deleted]

Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule

#15

Post by nadam » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 7:36 PM UTC

Just go to donwload.com or Apple's appstore and look at the tens of thousands of applications/apps there. All those programmers who created those applications/apps can do FizzBuzz and more. But only a fraction of them make good money from these applications. Making good money from a software product is hard. Yes, go for it, but these kind of motivational posts will be a bit irritating after your first failure.

Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule

#16

Post by kaybe » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 7:38 PM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #10

waterlesscloud wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are several orders of magnitude between getting famous and founding a sustainable business.

Getting famous is easier than reaching the level of competence that will give a person the ability to reliably found sustainable businesses. (I'm not kidding.)

It probably depends on what you want to be famous for...

Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule

#17

Post by chrischen » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 7:40 PM UTC

apl wrote: post #3

This type of saccharine feel-good prose irritates to no end. No, chances are you're not the exception to the rule of mediocrity; that's just a matter of statistics. Believing so in absence of hard evidence to the contrary is delusional and won't make things better. Entrepeneurs fail every day. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Don't fall for the cheap words of encouragement. [ADDENDUM: I still don't trust the "Most coders c…

Yea but if I am the exception then you may have discouraged and prevented me from succeeding. If not, not much harm done right? All for what, so you can say I told you so 99% of the time?

Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule

#18

Post by allardschip » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 7:50 PM UTC

smarx wrote: post #4

I have to say, my startup has struggled with this. We're a two-man shop, and neither of us buys phone apps, pays for virtual goods, clicks on ads, etc. It tends to make us think that other people don't do those things either, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Part of the article's conclusion is, "Get the product in front of your core audience," and I suspect that's the only way for the inexperienced…

It's the way for anyone, experienced or not.

Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule

#19

Post by jodrellblank » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 7:59 PM UTC

apl wrote: post #3

This type of saccharine feel-good prose irritates to no end. No, chances are you're not the exception to the rule of mediocrity; that's just a matter of statistics. Believing so in absence of hard evidence to the contrary is delusional and won't make things better. Entrepeneurs fail every day. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Don't fall for the cheap words of encouragement. [ADDENDUM: I still don't trust the "Most coders c…

Believing so in absence of hard evidence to the contrary is delusional and won't make things better.

Have you considered that if you had hard evidence, it wouldn't be a 'belief', it would be a known fact?

And from there, why humans have evolved an ability to believe ... at all? What function that provides in a mind? Beliefs don't have to accurately reflect reality for them to be useful in changing your behaviour for the better.

Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule

#20

Post by diego » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 8:02 PM UTC

chrischen wrote: post #17

apl wrote: post #3

This type of saccharine feel-good prose irritates to no end. No, chances are you're not the exception to the rule of mediocrity; that's just a matter of statistics. Believing so in absence of hard evidence to the contrary is delusional and won't make things better. Entrepeneurs fail every day. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Don't fall for the cheap words of encouragement. [ADDENDUM: I still don't trust the "Most coders c…

Yea but if I am the exception then you may have discouraged and prevented me from succeeding. If not, not much harm done right? All for what, so you can say I told you so 99% of the time?

If a comment like that can discourage you, you are not ready. It's like starting to train for a marathon and quickly forgetting the idea because you don't like your shoes, or something equally trivial.

If you think I exaggerate, try staying focused on your startup after months of investor rejection (which is the norm, by the way).