Live data from Hacker News

Ron Conway Explained

bhorowitz.com

21–30 of 42 posts

Re: Ron Conway Explained

#21
post #14

I love this quote from the post: "If Ron’s awake, he’s working. He can be at a party, in his pajamas, or at the Super Bowl. Ron is always on the job and the network is always on." That's the world I come from. You have to work your balls off to succeed (as I discuss in tip #6 here: http://bit.ly/5Gccio ). Fuck this part-time shit that Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (at 37signals) are pitching. Ask Larry Bir…

Crudely worded and some unnecessary finger pointing here, but your point is correct, to some extent. As they say, it's 99% perspiration. As far as DHH and JF pitching a part-time work ethic, I think you missed the point. DHH frequently talks about his building of Basecamp, and he said that you don't NEED to be working 90 hours a week to make a successful product. Since DHH only had 10 hours a week that he could use t…

Actually, I think both are right.

For a connections business like Ron's, he's got to be in more places at once, and as available as possible. This gives him a direct advantage.

For a creative business like DHH's, you simply can't work 90 hours a week sustained.

Re: Ron Conway Explained

#23

That is the most readable site layout I have ever seen.

I still used Readability on it. I appreciate that it's not gaudy or hard, but I couldn't resize the text to the size where I like it (which is a large size); after two Ctrl+Wheel-Up increments, the tab stops responding and has to be killed in Chromium on Linux. Just used Readability because it doesn't have the same problems.

Re: Ron Conway Explained

#24

That is the most readable site layout I have ever seen.

I still used Readability on it. I appreciate that it's not gaudy or hard, but I couldn't resize the text to the size where I like it (which is a large size); after two Ctrl+Wheel-Up increments, the tab stops responding and has to be killed in Chromium on Linux. Just used Readability because it doesn't have the same problems.

Is chromium good? I just did ctrl+wheel up 10 times on that site in Firefox and had no problems.

Re: Ron Conway Explained

#26
post #25

Am I the only one that loathes those link previews?

Huh? Not getting any link previews here.

On the article, if your mouse passes over a link (and you have JS enabled), it pops up a snapshot of what that page is, using http://www.snap.com/.

It appears to require you to have your mouse over the link for a little while (like a tenth of a second), so if you always move your mouse fast and never considered clicking a link, you wouldn't have seen it.

It's really annoying.

Re: Ron Conway Explained

#27
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they're not working hard enough. Larry Bird and Michael Jordan both said they were the first to the gym and the last to leave. My point here is simple: there are no shortcuts to success (other than rare exceptions).

But working hard isn't ever enough to reach the pinnacle of achievement. I could have worked my ass off at basketball, from age 3, and I would have never been an NBA player. Someone with more natural gifts than me, but fewer than Michael Jordan, might work hard his whole life and only brush the minor league/NBA border.

Probably, but you'd be surprised. I don't know if I would say Charles Barkley was "naturally talented" at basketball--his body type was all wrong, especially since he played in the era before everyone bulked up--but he worked his ass off and became one of the greats.

Re: Ron Conway Explained

#29
post #5

If anyone has read The Tipping Point, Ron Conway is an amazing example of a 'connector'. In this example, he made a single connection that Tipped Tellme towards success. Would be interesting to put together a list of angel investors that similarly stand out as connectors.

[deleted]

Re: Ron Conway Explained

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they're not working hard enough. Larry Bird and Michael Jordan both said they were the first to the gym and the last to leave. My point here is simple: there are no shortcuts to success (other than rare exceptions).

And for a contrasting view, from Allen Iverson: "We're sitting here, and I'm supposed to be the franchise player, and we're talking about practice. I mean listen, we're sitting here talking about practice, not a game, not a game, not a game, but we're talking about practice. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it's my last, but we're talking about practice, man! How silly is that?"

Thanks, now I have this stuck in my head again... :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exOxUAntx8I

I'm not sure why SWalker is being downvoted (unless it's just for his tone). We really need to clarify criteria/comparisons here. Iverson should not be compared to MJ or Bird (IMO), as 37signals should not be compared to Google.

Jerry Rice is probably the best counterexample to Iverson types. He's known for working harder than anyone. No one could keep up with him, and he was the best. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NFL_records_held_by_Jer...

If you want to be the next MJ, Bird, Rice, or Google, you better be working hard... I don't understand why it's trendy to believe otherwise (assuming SWalker is being downvoted in disagreement).

Post reply on HN