Stop Focusing on What You Don't Have • Hacker News Board

Re: Stop Focusing on What You Don't Have

#11

Post by vitd » Tue, Aug 06, 2013, 7:20 PM UTC

While I agree with his premise, he doesn’t give a lot of useful advice on how to implement his suggestion. In the case of the menswear website, how does calling people and using a spreadsheet help? People on the phone can’t see the clothes. Also, who are you calling in that example?

In the case of the project management idea - again, who do you call to get a job implementing your idea?

The code idea is probably a reasonable one for some people, though coding is often much harder than it looks.

Finally he says, "The problem is not what you’re missing; it’s that you are not leveraging what you have,” but he gives no advice on how to do that practically. It’s good advice, just not useful without more information.

Re: Stop Focusing on What You Don't Have

#12

Post by armenarmen » Tue, Aug 06, 2013, 8:10 PM UTC

vitd wrote: post #11

While I agree with his premise, he doesn’t give a lot of useful advice on how to implement his suggestion. In the case of the menswear website, how does calling people and using a spreadsheet help? People on the phone can’t see the clothes. Also, who are you calling in that example? In the case of the project management idea - again, who do you call to get a job implementing your idea? The code idea is probably a rea…

I was thinking the same. Calling to sell suits might not be the best route, but setting up an etsy or something would be a pretty tech-free way to go about testing the market. Plus it would make you learn how to talk to people that could send you traffic.

Re: Stop Focusing on What You Don't Have

#13

Post by fourspace » Tue, Aug 06, 2013, 9:36 PM UTC

vitd wrote: post #11

While I agree with his premise, he doesn’t give a lot of useful advice on how to implement his suggestion. In the case of the menswear website, how does calling people and using a spreadsheet help? People on the phone can’t see the clothes. Also, who are you calling in that example? In the case of the project management idea - again, who do you call to get a job implementing your idea? The code idea is probably a rea…

My goal wasn't to give specific advice to people in certain situations. My examples are hypothetical; maybe I didn't make that clear.

Instead, the point of the article was to motivate you to go actually make sales, create value, and build relationships. None of these things require a developer. Do I know who you should specifically call to test the market in a given context? No; that's your problem to figure out. The point is that you CAN figure it out.

Re: Stop Focusing on What You Don't Have

#14

Post by mattm » Tue, Aug 06, 2013, 11:08 PM UTC

Like a lot of good advice, this is easy to say but sometimes difficult to implement. But it's good to be reminded of this. When you say "If I only had X, I could do Y" what you are really telling yourself is that now, you can't do Y. So you don't do it. Excuses are easy to come up but hard to get out of.

As a shameless self-plug, I've put together a course that helps developers reduce the tendency to think that the grass is always greener. If you're interested, see my profile for the link.