i am a web developer & startup founder based in Nigeria, West Africa, a place where there is hardly any electricity, so my startup is run on generators & inverters, broadband isnt available, dialup is the norm here. the computers we use are 5 years old, the list goes on. but i & my team still get stuff done, because of the passion we have and i guess its because we are 'relentlessly resourcefull'. Thanks pg for another excellent write up.
Be Relentlessly Resourceful
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Re: Be Relentlessly Resourceful
#12I'm curious what pg's thoughts are about whether "relentless resourcefulness" is what it takes to be good at programming, independent of making a startup. I value his insights on programming, business, and persuasion much more than I value his insights on writing and painting.
It's sort of reassuring to think that living in Argentina is helping me develop some kind of important skill.
Re: Be Relentlessly Resourceful
#13I'm curious about contextual dependence in this... For example, I can often be relentlessly resourceful in technical matters. If an approach doesn't work, then there's some other combination of code that may get us there, it just won't be as easy or elegant. But then we can usually simplify it after the fact to make it reasonably maintainable. But when it comes to social matters, I'm far more likely to just give up t…
> I'm far more likely to just give up than to keep pushing people or trying different approaches That's how I feel about marketing and self-promotion
I feel your pain, but that's what has to be done to make it all work.
Re: Be Relentlessly Resourceful
#14Sounds like "Be Relentlessly Resourceful" is version 2.0 of "Be An Animal".
Re: Be Relentlessly Resourceful
#15"Anyone who can muster their willpower for thirty seconds, can make a desperate effort to lift more weight than they usually could. But what if the weight that needs lifting is a truck? Then desperate efforts won't suffice; you'll have to do something out of the ordinary to succeed. You may have to do something that you weren't taught to do in school. Something that others aren't expecting you to do, and might not un…
You mentioned on your blog that you tested out of your bachelor's degree. So what's your experience getting your degree from a non-traditional university? You seem somewhat of an autodidact, so did you find that the coursework was an acceptable study plan, or did you end up supplementing the coursework to learn the material?
The school you mentioned seems to be credible, it even has a couple engineering technology programs accredited by TAC of ABET. But I haven't had great experiences with getting college credit through standardized tests. I took several CLEP tests before entering college. And while it was definitely worth it to get rid of some general ed requirements, the tests were extremely easy. All I ended up doing was reading the study books once or twice before the tests. I don't think I learned a significant from preparing for those tests.
Re: Be Relentlessly Resourceful
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm far more likely to just give up than to keep pushing people or trying different approaches That's how I feel about marketing and self-promotion
I feel your pain, but that's what has to be done to make it all work.
I know, but the question is "How?" Particularly because if you just do it naively - like calling the same prospect over and over again and begging them to buy - you tend not to get very good results. Relentlessly resourceful, not just relentless.
Re: Be Relentlessly Resourceful
#17I'm curious about contextual dependence in this... For example, I can often be relentlessly resourceful in technical matters. If an approach doesn't work, then there's some other combination of code that may get us there, it just won't be as easy or elegant. But then we can usually simplify it after the fact to make it reasonably maintainable. But when it comes to social matters, I'm far more likely to just give up t…
YMMV, but I've found that in interpersonal situations the kind of resourcefulness that pays off the most is actually internally directed. If I give closer attention to my own reactions, I start to see what I'm doing to create or maintain a problem. That gives me new choices I didn't have before. I can stop doing those things or I can add something new, whereas it's hard to directly change what others are doing.
I've often wondered why this (applying introspection to social matters) works. For one thing, if I'm experiencing a certain reaction, the other person is often experiencing something similar (or opposite, but opposite is similar). For another, human relationships are systemic, meaning if a shift occurs in one place (you), some corresponding shift often occurs in another (them), yielding an effect that would be hard to bring about directly.
I guess what I'm saying is that the kind of resourcefulness you use in technical matters can be applied to social ones, but you have to learn how those two fields differ. If you try to naively treat one like the other, people will resist you till the cows come home. But the underlying qualities, like curiosity and play and trying different things, bridge both areas.
Re: Be Relentlessly Resourceful
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel your pain, but that's what has to be done to make it all work.
I know, but the question is "How?" Particularly because if you just do it naively - like calling the same prospect over and over again and begging them to buy - you tend not to get very good results. Relentlessly resourceful, not just relentless.
I'm faced with similar issues, but I find that by reaching out to the people and other resources around me, things arise that I would have never otherwise considered.
When you face a dead end, that's exactly when you need to tap into the relentless (never giving up) resourcefulness (looking in places you have not yet considered).
Sounds great in theory, but it's much harder in practice.
It's like starring up a 70 foot wall and wondering how to get over it.
Re: Be Relentlessly Resourceful
#19Sounds like "Be Relentlessly Resourceful" is version 2.0 of "Be An Animal". http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html#People
Not so much version 2.0 as what happens when you apply that rule to the job of startup founder.
Re: Be Relentlessly Resourceful
#20I'm curious what pg's thoughts are about whether "relentless resourcefulness" is what it takes to be good at programming , independent of making a startup . I value his insights on programming, business, and persuasion much more than I value his insights on writing and painting. It's sort of reassuring to think that living in Argentina is helping me develop some kind of important skill.
Probably some kinds of programming, but not others. It depends how much of the effort is devoted to overcoming external constraints. Sometimes programming is like math, in which case the recipe may be more to be actively curious. But writing an app for end users on a buggy platform might require one to be relentlessly resourceful.