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Kevin Rose Will Join Google

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Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#151

Post by runako »

xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

Not constructive at all. As far as I can tell, Kevin Rose struck gold at building a company through his efforts. As a hacker, you may value hiring developers, promotion, etc. at zero, but Digg's users do not. I'm willing to bet many HN readers could learn something useful from Kevin Rose, no matter what his formal or informal training.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#152

Post by ktsmith »

xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

To be fair in October of 2004 Rose interviewed Rob 'cmdrtaco' Malda and one of the questions included what Rob would have done differently with slashdot if he were to do it today. Digg appeared in December following that interview. You could argue that Rose paid someone to implement Rob's idea.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#153

Post by secretasiandan »

jayliew wrote: post #53
xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

To quote pg: "A hacker who has learned what to make, and not just how to make, is extraordinarily powerful." As a developer, it is frustrating to see fellow developers place too much importance on being able to code as a necessary ingredient for startup success. As a hacker, I'd say that most hackers know how to make, but don't know what to make. That is to say, most startups from these type of hackers with the "if I…

I think you've entirely missed his point. Note that he says: "It doesn't matter if they understand how to code or not."

His main point? "Once they have that reputation as being awesome it will stick around no matter how badly they perform after their initial success"

And I totally agree. In fact, after a success the odds are more in your favor. So if you can't succeed again, it calls into question your 'true' level of talent.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#154

Post by ojbyrne »

blhack wrote: post #122
mikeryan wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He had an idea and spent years working on it, iterating and improving until Digg finally hit the big time Um he had an idea, paid someone to build it (ojbyrne on HN). Promoted it on air in his role at TechTV and had it take off. Its not like he toiled in his basement for years slaving over it. (Though he did seem to spend a lot of time on it once it became his day job, I don't want to discredit that) You can also say…

He didn't start promoting it on air at techtv, he started promoting it on TWiT, Leo Laporte's podcast that was started after the screen savers was more-or-less cancelled.

You're incorrect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1_YoG7lqI4&context=C4763...

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#155

Post by xpose2000 »

jayliew wrote: post #53
xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

To quote pg: "A hacker who has learned what to make, and not just how to make, is extraordinarily powerful." As a developer, it is frustrating to see fellow developers place too much importance on being able to code as a necessary ingredient for startup success. As a hacker, I'd say that most hackers know how to make, but don't know what to make. That is to say, most startups from these type of hackers with the "if I…

I agree with you: "Just because you can't code, doesn't mean you can't build a business - and vice versa - just because you can code, doesn't mean you can build a business."

I have worked for start-ups where people told me what to do, and also have my own bootstrapped start-up. I prefer the later. I think it is important to be well rounded in abilities from coding to business development. That way, you can see through people's bullshit a lot easier, and there is plenty of that going around in the industry.

Having said that, you can be an ideas person, but those ideas better be successful more times than not. Success five years ago and failures at every turn since does not exactly invoke confidence.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#156

Post by freshfey »

xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

But isn't this like hating on the architect because he didn't actually build the beautiful building by hand? You still like the building and give the architect credit for it, not the builder(s).

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#157

Post by pknerd »

glanch wrote: post #128
pknerd wrote: post #106

So he collected consumer data from OInk and shut it by calling it test app and now joined Google. Google loves data Hope you all got it

And anyone who has ever been concerned about online privacy has been operating under the assumption that it doesn't exist. Your point?

Very simple. His plate is not empty. He offered the plate which was accepted. Simple.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#158

Post by musclman »

xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

You would understand what he brings to the table if you had any idea how difficult it is to create "one previous successful project" on the scale of Digg. Kevin has demonstrated an ability to create something with a huge following from nothing, which is a skill set that your average Google developer does not have.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#159

Post by ahlatimer »

herval wrote: post #108
jgrahamc wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. My view is that Rose has done a very good job of making a name for himself and translating that into personal wealth. It is not clear that that adds anything to Google and if Google thinks it does then my view of Google is diminished.

I'm sorry if the question is naive, but if he made such a great amount of personal wealth, why would he still want/need to "get a job" (regardless of company)?

Because there are people who work for reasons other than attaining monetary wealth.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#160

Post by dshanahan »

Timothee wrote: post #50
xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

There's a distinction to be made between "idea guys" and "product people". You're criticizing "idea guys", while it seems that Kevin Rose might be more of a product person. The "idea guy" is the guy who comes to a developer and start with "I've got this great idea for an app…", thinks it's genius but never dives down to all the details of said-app. A product person might or might not know how to code but s/he will(/s…

This is where I sit on Kevin Rose. He's mostly a product guy, and he brings past success and a big 'test-market' following to ANY product he touches.

I'm hard-pressed to discredit someone who got Digg the attention it got, then maintained and built a personal following that he unquestionably influences, and THEN spearheaded a product that you may not love but did get 150k users and was damn beautiful to boot.

I'm not a fanboy, but Kevin Rose is on a short list of people who can really fuel a product and it doesn't require technical knowledge or even 'having the idea' for that to be valuable.

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