Smart People should do Stupid Stuff • Hacker News Board

Re: Smart People should do Stupid Stuff

#21

Post by zach » Sun, Dec 13, 2009, 6:19 AM UTC

amix wrote: post #16

davidwurtz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stupid does not mean "not worth it". Stupid means "obvious, and often overlooked". And plenty of "stupid" things do mankind some good. Amazon invested a whole lot in selling books online, and now they contribute significantly to our quality of life. That said, I acknowledge in the article that there should always be those aiming higher.

If you mean "obvious" then you should use "obvious" and not "stupid" - - because they are different words with different meaning... For example, selling books online is an obvious idea, but not "stupid" and it isn't easy either. Selling books online and creating Amazon is far from a simple achievement and something you could do without intellectual power or really hard work.

No, I think "stupid" is right because it speaks to the prejudice that bright people hold against these kinds of endeavors. It is social conditioning but rarely examined as such.

Re: Smart People should do Stupid Stuff

#22

Post by garply » Sun, Dec 13, 2009, 7:14 AM UTC

rebelvc wrote: post #8

Partly to self-promote but my easiest and more profitable business is a funny shirt site. http://BangBangPanda.com . I just put up the design and an company do the hard part of making the shirts, taking the payment, and shipping.

Since you've eaten some of our time with your promotion, will you tell us a little bit about the economics of your business? Are you ramen-profitable off of it? How long did it take to build? How severely do shipping costs eat your margins?

Re: Smart People should do Stupid Stuff

#23

Post by erikstarck » Sun, Dec 13, 2009, 9:10 AM UTC

There is a similar line of thought in how tech people always seem to think their startup idea has to be something completely new. It usually goes like this...

Person A: I got this great idea! If you do X to Y you will get Z which is of huge value for people working in M. Great, huh?

Person B: Yawn. Company SomeCorp did that in 1974.

Person A (spirit broken): Darn...

The idea that a new company has to come up with something completely new must be unique to our business. Even so, the number of successful web companies that did not have a unique idea when they started should be enough to kill the argument, but it lives on.

Probably because of the reason mentioned in this post: smart people just don't think it's smart enough to do something someone else has already done.

Re: Smart People should do Stupid Stuff

#24

Post by Confusion » Sun, Dec 13, 2009, 9:21 AM UTC

Eliezer wrote: post #5

I don't think this is good advice, and I wouldn't advise anyone to follow in this person's footsteps. Smart people should think about doing stupid stuff, not necessarily follow through and do it. Selling TV wall mounts online is not a very great contribution to human progress from someone who was experimenting with ferromagnetic fluids. This is advice on how to stay alive and make a living, not advice on how to achie…

Selling TV wall mounts online is not a very great contribution to human progress

It doesn't seem like it is, but it may very well be a great contribution. If you make it easier for many people to find something, what do they do with the aggregate free time they now have on their hands? If you make it cheaper, what do they do with the aggregate 'unused' money? If the time and money enables yet another 'simple' contribution to freeing up time and money, then how far does this snowball roll? Perhaps it will end up freeing us to do humanitarian work, because there is really nothing else that requires our time and money?

It's a similar question to: "What most reduces human suffering? If Eliezer keeps doing what he is doing or if he goes to Africa and helps people survive in a refugee camp?" It may turn out you are wrong about everything and helping in a camp would have been better for humanity. Hindsight is 20/20 here and the scale of effects does not allow one to properly estimate them.

Re: Smart People should do Stupid Stuff

#25

Post by eric_t » Sun, Dec 13, 2009, 11:01 AM UTC

The author makes a couple of assumptions that I don't agree with.

The first is that success is measured by the amount of money you earn. For me it is much more rewarding to work on interesting and inspiring problems than having a huge income.

The second is that people that are good at hard science problems are good at solving the "stupid" problems. You need a different set of skills to solve the latter.

Re: Smart People should do Stupid Stuff

#26

Post by FreeRadical » Sun, Dec 13, 2009, 11:20 AM UTC

Eliezer wrote: post #5

I don't think this is good advice, and I wouldn't advise anyone to follow in this person's footsteps. Smart people should think about doing stupid stuff, not necessarily follow through and do it. Selling TV wall mounts online is not a very great contribution to human progress from someone who was experimenting with ferromagnetic fluids. This is advice on how to stay alive and make a living, not advice on how to achie…

I think doing 'stupid' stuff to gain a first successful venture is a good strategy because it may a)make you financially comfortable and therefore can focus on difficult stuff b)give you better access to capital when doing something more difficult

Re: Smart People should do Stupid Stuff

#27

Post by AndrewWarner » Sun, Dec 13, 2009, 1:02 PM UTC

Alex3917 wrote: post #19

PG says this in one of his essays, I think the example was basically that the secret to making money is getting someone like Einstein to do something like designing refrigerators. It works for two reasons: 1) The reward for invention and innovation is basically the same, but the ROI on innovation is 10x better than the ROI on invention. (This is one of the main ideas of Seth Godin's book Free Prize Inside.) 2) The be…

Does anyone have a link to this pg essay?

Re: Smart People should do Stupid Stuff

#28

Post by RiderOfGiraffes » Sun, Dec 13, 2009, 1:08 PM UTC

AndrewWarner wrote: post #27

Alex3917 wrote: post #19

PG says this in one of his essays, I think the example was basically that the secret to making money is getting someone like Einstein to do something like designing refrigerators. It works for two reasons: 1) The reward for invention and innovation is basically the same, but the ROI on innovation is 10x better than the ROI on invention. (This is one of the main ideas of Seth Godin's book Free Prize Inside.) 2) The be…

Does anyone have a link to this pg essay?

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Awww.paulgraham.com+e...

http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html

http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html

Re: Smart People should do Stupid Stuff

#29

Post by Murkin » Sun, Dec 13, 2009, 1:31 PM UTC

Can someone explain to me, what is the connection between "Science smarts" and "Sales/Marketing smarts" ?

You really think a brilliant physics PhD can create a network that gets 1,000,000$/year in bowling ball sales ?

Or maybe that PhD should go and work as a lawyer, with his brain he can be the best lawyer ever !

Or he can do what he loves, and if money is an issue, work _in his field_ on something he understands and can contribute to.

Please don't send our PhDs to mend shoes. No matter how good they are at it.

Re: Smart People should do Stupid Stuff

#30

Post by nfnaaron » Sun, Dec 13, 2009, 6:32 PM UTC

Eliezer wrote: post #5

I don't think this is good advice, and I wouldn't advise anyone to follow in this person's footsteps. Smart people should think about doing stupid stuff, not necessarily follow through and do it. Selling TV wall mounts online is not a very great contribution to human progress from someone who was experimenting with ferromagnetic fluids. This is advice on how to stay alive and make a living, not advice on how to achie…

There is nothing wrong with making a living.