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I turned my entrepreneur journey into a game

fromdevtomaker.com

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Re: I turned my entrepreneur journey into a game

#31

Post by xwdv »

jascii wrote: post #30
peteforde wrote: post #8

I think that this site itself could be the basis of a SaaS product. It's awesome. However, I also know from painful experience that time spent on this is likely a distraction from actually building the thing. The happy exception would be if this was indeed the core idea of the thing that you're building. If so: well played. If not: get back to work. ps. Most books are also distractions, but I've heard excellent thing…

One of the major but rarely talked about causes of failure for startups is simply the entrepreneur getting demotivated. Gamefication could be an excellent way to deal with that. Beating yourself over the head and giving yourself a guild complex "Focus! Distraction! I should be..." Tend to build resentment and do more harm then good.

Except this isn’t how companies are built. If you have to rely on “motivation” to accomplish something, you’re finished. You’ll never do it, your motivation will run out. And then what’s going to carry you? This goes not just for companies, but for anything else in life, such as school or exercise.

The real way you build a company is by honing a hard discipline: getting up everyday and doing things you have to do whether you like it or not (and usually not). Whether you’re motivated or unmotivated, inspired or uninspired, sick or healthy, confident or afraid. You just get out there and fucking do it, and if you can’t, then be a failure.

A company can stay challenging longer than you can stay motivated.

Re: I turned my entrepreneur journey into a game

#32

Post by jascii »

xwdv wrote: post #31
jascii wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the major but rarely talked about causes of failure for startups is simply the entrepreneur getting demotivated. Gamefication could be an excellent way to deal with that. Beating yourself over the head and giving yourself a guild complex "Focus! Distraction! I should be..." Tend to build resentment and do more harm then good.

Except this isn’t how companies are built. If you have to rely on “motivation” to accomplish something, you’re finished. You’ll never do it, your motivation will run out. And then what’s going to carry you? This goes not just for companies, but for anything else in life, such as school or exercise. The real way you build a company is by honing a hard discipline: getting up everyday and doing things you have to do whe…

That is not really how human beings function. Motivation causes "hard discipline". It does not exist in a vacuum.

Re: I turned my entrepreneur journey into a game

#33

Post by xwdv »

jascii wrote: post #32
xwdv wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except this isn’t how companies are built. If you have to rely on “motivation” to accomplish something, you’re finished. You’ll never do it, your motivation will run out. And then what’s going to carry you? This goes not just for companies, but for anything else in life, such as school or exercise. The real way you build a company is by honing a hard discipline: getting up everyday and doing things you have to do whe…

That is not really how human beings function. Motivation causes "hard discipline". It does not exist in a vacuum.

Only initially, but motivation doesn’t last forever.

Re: I turned my entrepreneur journey into a game

#34

Post by jascii »

xwdv wrote: post #33
jascii wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not really how human beings function. Motivation causes "hard discipline". It does not exist in a vacuum.

Only initially, but motivation doesn’t last forever.

Some motivations last a lifetime, I don't think our desire to feed ourselves is going away anytime soon.. A lot of current thinking on the subject is based on Abraham Maslow's 1947 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation". Your "hard discipline" seems based on the "esteem" part of his "hierarchy of needs" while this might be a sufficient motivator for some, for many it will likely be beneficial to look for other motivators.

Re: I turned my entrepreneur journey into a game

#35

Post by johnnyfived »

bravura wrote: post #20

Would you build your startup, while following prompts from a dungeon master, and perhaps interact with other players, as part of an actual D&D game? If so, please drop me a message on this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScsQVowUDsIOYM4OaqR... I have been brainstorming this for a while and the design of this inspired me to post.

I think this is a super interesting idea. It feels like the natural progression of this would be a set of UI tools to rest on top of JIRA / Trello, or a new task management platform of its own. Basically, a way to create the "gameplay" automatically in the UI

Re: I turned my entrepreneur journey into a game

#36

Post by peteforde »

jascii wrote: post #34
xwdv wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only initially, but motivation doesn’t last forever.

Some motivations last a lifetime, I don't think our desire to feed ourselves is going away anytime soon.. A lot of current thinking on the subject is based on Abraham Maslow's 1947 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation". Your "hard discipline" seems based on the "esteem" part of his "hierarchy of needs" while this might be a sufficient motivator for some, for many it will likely be beneficial to look for other motivato…

Honestly, xwdv is more right than wrong. If you lose motivation to work on your startup, your startup didn't really fail so much as you're doing the wrong thing for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIYXaa9IcxA&t=28m5s

Re: I turned my entrepreneur journey into a game

#37

Post by em-bee »

bravura wrote: post #20

Would you build your startup, while following prompts from a dungeon master, and perhaps interact with other players, as part of an actual D&D game? If so, please drop me a message on this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScsQVowUDsIOYM4OaqR... I have been brainstorming this for a while and the design of this inspired me to post.

D&D is role playing, and role playing is interactive learning.

multi user dungeons were used as the basis for the first interactive online learning systems.

so most certainly this idea is a great fit, whether it's online or offline.

Re: I turned my entrepreneur journey into a game

#38

Post by jascii »

peteforde wrote: post #36
jascii wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some motivations last a lifetime, I don't think our desire to feed ourselves is going away anytime soon.. A lot of current thinking on the subject is based on Abraham Maslow's 1947 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation". Your "hard discipline" seems based on the "esteem" part of his "hierarchy of needs" while this might be a sufficient motivator for some, for many it will likely be beneficial to look for other motivato…

Honestly, xwdv is more right than wrong. If you lose motivation to work on your startup, your startup didn't really fail so much as you're doing the wrong thing for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIYXaa9IcxA&t=28m5s

Anecdotal evidence is no evidence. Here we have one, almost context-less, statement vs 50+ years of scientific research.

Besides, he doesn't really answer the question. Why does he choose to work on x rather than y? That's called motivation.

It's simple not to care about motivation when you have motivation..

I agree though that motivation primarily comes from aligning the purpose of your start-up with your values.

Re: I turned my entrepreneur journey into a game

#39

Post by jascii »

peteforde wrote: post #36
jascii wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some motivations last a lifetime, I don't think our desire to feed ourselves is going away anytime soon.. A lot of current thinking on the subject is based on Abraham Maslow's 1947 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation". Your "hard discipline" seems based on the "esteem" part of his "hierarchy of needs" while this might be a sufficient motivator for some, for many it will likely be beneficial to look for other motivato…

Honestly, xwdv is more right than wrong. If you lose motivation to work on your startup, your startup didn't really fail so much as you're doing the wrong thing for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIYXaa9IcxA&t=28m5s

PS> Your name sounds familiar, did you used to know a Sarah in Portland, OR?
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