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Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy

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Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy

#11

Post by dgabriel »

wtvanhest wrote: post #10
diego wrote: post #6

If there is one thing I dislike more than self-help, it's self-help based on anecdotal evidence from one person with no background in psychology. Even more so when the title of a post states an extreme personal hypothesis as if it were a fact obvious to everyone. If you want to know more about happiness from a scientific point of view, read or listen to experts like Daniel Kahneman. For example: http://www.ted.com/ta…

He says: "My theory is that a founder’s happiness is tied to the rate of change of their startup’s success. In other words, your happiness graph is the first derivative of your success graph." He is stating a theory, not a peer reviewed scientific journal. He isn't saying it is a fact, just a theory. Personally I found his first derivative theory to be interesting and in many ways true of my life. I know when things…

I believe the author is a woman.

Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy

#12

Post by ricardobeat »

wtvanhest wrote: post #10
diego wrote: post #6

If there is one thing I dislike more than self-help, it's self-help based on anecdotal evidence from one person with no background in psychology. Even more so when the title of a post states an extreme personal hypothesis as if it were a fact obvious to everyone. If you want to know more about happiness from a scientific point of view, read or listen to experts like Daniel Kahneman. For example: http://www.ted.com/ta…

He says: "My theory is that a founder’s happiness is tied to the rate of change of their startup’s success. In other words, your happiness graph is the first derivative of your success graph." He is stating a theory, not a peer reviewed scientific journal. He isn't saying it is a fact, just a theory. Personally I found his first derivative theory to be interesting and in many ways true of my life. I know when things…

She.

Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy

#13

Post by geuis »

wtvanhest wrote: post #10
diego wrote: post #6

If there is one thing I dislike more than self-help, it's self-help based on anecdotal evidence from one person with no background in psychology. Even more so when the title of a post states an extreme personal hypothesis as if it were a fact obvious to everyone. If you want to know more about happiness from a scientific point of view, read or listen to experts like Daniel Kahneman. For example: http://www.ted.com/ta…

He says: "My theory is that a founder’s happiness is tied to the rate of change of their startup’s success. In other words, your happiness graph is the first derivative of your success graph." He is stating a theory, not a peer reviewed scientific journal. He isn't saying it is a fact, just a theory. Personally I found his first derivative theory to be interesting and in many ways true of my life. I know when things…

It's not a theory, it's a hypothesis. Something doesn't become a theory until it can be experimentally tested from which inferences and conclusions can be formed.

Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy

#14

Post by kloncks »

I never understand this. Where are all these unhappy founders?

I'm a startup founder myself and I naturally know many others. This is the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Yes, it's stressful. No, I don't know what will happen tomorrow. Yes, it's a lot of work.

But I can tell you one thing. I wake up every day wanting to do one thing: go to the office and work until midnight. Again, this is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

And every other startup founder that I know is the same way.

Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy

#16

Post by RVijay007 »

First article I've seen approaching emotional state in this manner, so kudos to that. Back at MIT, I also came to this realization and my friends and I used to say "it's all about the ddt" whenever life got us down (or even up, as a cautionary tale to not get too excited and watch out). We were of course referring to d/dt of life, and how that had more influence on our states than the absolute position of our lives. Nothing proven, but an observation that held up very well in all our lives. We still have this saying amongst ourselves - glad to see others thinking along this path now.

Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy

#17

Post by rdl »

I've been a startup founder of one form or another for pretty much my whole adult life.

I have stress or anxiety when things are up in the air (positive or negative), but happiness or unhappiness has a lot more to do with factors other than the startup. Mostly because I believe in expected value and statistics -- there's a lot of randomness in everything, and you can do things which influence probabilities substantially, but if you've done that and there's an 80% chance of a good outcome, the actual result doesn't mean you're doing well or poorly as much as whether the odds were 80% or 30%.

My goal is to try to use skill, connections, effort, etc. to raise the expected returns as much as possible, then just take a lot of shots to get the right returns. Worry before things are resolved, not after.

Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy

#19

Post by wtvanhest »

geuis wrote: post #13
wtvanhest wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He says: "My theory is that a founder’s happiness is tied to the rate of change of their startup’s success. In other words, your happiness graph is the first derivative of your success graph." He is stating a theory, not a peer reviewed scientific journal. He isn't saying it is a fact, just a theory. Personally I found his first derivative theory to be interesting and in many ways true of my life. I know when things…

It's not a theory, it's a hypothesis. Something doesn't become a theory until it can be experimentally tested from which inferences and conclusions can be formed.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/theory?s=t

Her* sentence fits the second definition of theory.

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