The quality of posts that make it to #1 on ycombinator lately leave me unmotivated to check the site as frequently as I used to. As a result I work more, cry less and quit whining.
i check about the same, but probably click and read a lot less.
Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining
41–50 of 131 posts
Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm in my early 20s. Startups seem to be the only way out of 40 years of mediocrity in TPS-land for me, so I don't really think I have much of a choice. It's startups or nothing for me. Or maybe I am being myopic? Are there more options to be had in life than mediocrity/wageslavery vs glory/startups?
"Are there more options to be had in life than mediocrity/wageslavery vs glory/startups?" Sure ... freelance. But depending on how you structure your work, you may end up with a similar work-load as a startup, or failure dropping you back into TPS-land.
Yeah I've considered freelancing+frugality as a viable alternative. My goal being to minimize the amount of "work" I have to do to survive, so that I can focus on getting interesting stuff done.
I just consider it such a damn waste to sit in an office all day and basically do jack shit. It's not even that I dislike the work all that much, it's just... all those wasted hours. All down the drain.
Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining
#43Your startup is not part of history. You couldn't find better evidence that SV is an intellectual bubble than this post.
Agreed, most people have an inflated view of their own startup seemingly because subconsciously they probably feel they deserve it for the hours they put in.
What will be a part of history is the bubble itself.
Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining
#44Work hard. Cry less. And realize you’re part of history No, sorry, but you probably aren't. Zynga isn't changing the world and neither are 99.9% of the startups coming out of SV. The over-working culture is exactly that - a culture. It has nothing to do with actual reality, and everything to do with perceived reality. Great, long-term companies aren't built by entrepreneurs who sleep 2 hours a night. P.S.: not gettin…
It's also worth mentioning that Jamie Zawinski, cited in the article, burned out and quit the industry. If your startup is really changing the world, fine. But is working on worth sacrificing your love for programming itself (not to mention the health effects and opportunity costs involved)?
Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining
#45I'm so glad I was pushing 30 before I really became aware of this startup scene. The general impression that comes off, to me at least, is work hard, stop moaning, accept pennies and one day you'll be rich - assuming that unlikely outcome happens and we don't use of the thousand ways possible to screw you out of any riches. To me at least, and as an outsider, I'd say things like this may hold up for founders, but as…
I'm in my early 20s. Startups seem to be the only way out of 40 years of mediocrity in TPS-land for me, so I don't really think I have much of a choice. It's startups or nothing for me. Or maybe I am being myopic? Are there more options to be had in life than mediocrity/wageslavery vs glory/startups?
You are believing exactly what investors and VCs want you to believe. You aren't escaping wage slavery, you are just substituting a different slavemaster. Wake up.
There are billions of people on this planet. Do you think that the ones who aren't in Silicon Valley startups are all miserable? Their lives aren't worth living?
Ok, but more specifically. Let's say you want to lead a creative existence, working with technology, and you love the SF scene so much you just have to live here. You don't need to be in a startup for that. As they tell you to be frugal with a startup, be frugal with you life and all sorts of possibilities open up.
I know a number of people living in "hacker homes" where they drift in between working on startups, technology jobs, and then working on projects that just interest them. Sometimes they'll take an entire year off work to do something with no monetary gain, like a Burning Man or an open source project. You might have to live in an less desirable area with a lot of housemates, but once your rent is sub-$1000 and you cook most of your own food, you can live for an entire year once you've pulled off a couple of consulting gigs.
You're young, and I presume you don't have a spouse or kids, so this option is very possible for you.
Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining
#46It's natural for people to whine. I do it all the time but in the end I'm far happier with my life than I was when I didn't work for myself.
Some whining is not justified and done by people who are in it solely for the money. Founders are a tough bunch but even we have to vent at times.
At the same time I'd submit that if you're working all night and day you're not doing it right. There are times we must put in a 16 hour day but constantly killing yourself over work hurts you in the long run. The more punishment you dole out to yourself the less productive you are and the longer you have to work to catch up.
A lot of whining would cease if people stopped trying to keep up with the other guy for the sale of keeping up. Become what you're meant to become and fuck expectations and what other people are doing. Grow to the size you need to be. Too many startups start taking money too soon and are run as if they're a huge company when all they need is a single server and a guy to write code. Premature scaling can probably account for a large portion of the whining and failure out there.
I see way too many startups trying to be something they're not and shouldn't be which leads to burn out and failure. This business is tough and a little whining is to be expected but if we quit making the mistakes I mentioned then the whining will cease to come from cry babies and will only be heard from hard working people who truly need to and should be allowed to vent.
Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining
#47Tim Ferriss described very much the opposite mentality of that of the 22-hour-work-day SV startup scene in his book "The 4 Hour Work Week." A takeaway that I've always held close is you have to be aware of whether you are working effectively vs. working efficiently. While Netscape reached their deadline (I assume) and enjoyed a successful launch, I have to wonder if they could have made the same amount of progress by equalizing their hours of sleep/hours of work, which would have made their work hours more effective. Just speaking from school experience, on 2 hours of sleep personally I know if I continue to try working much I start making mistakes that cost me a lot of time, and my pace just slows in general.
Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm in my early 20s. Startups seem to be the only way out of 40 years of mediocrity in TPS-land for me, so I don't really think I have much of a choice. It's startups or nothing for me. Or maybe I am being myopic? Are there more options to be had in life than mediocrity/wageslavery vs glory/startups?
You are believing exactly what investors and VCs want you to believe. You aren't escaping wage slavery, you are just substituting a different slavemaster. Wake up. There are billions of people on this planet. Do you think that the ones who aren't in Silicon Valley startups are all miserable ? Their lives aren't worth living? Ok, but more specifically. Let's say you want to lead a creative existence, working with tech…
Thanks, that's some cool ideas right there! Upvoted for truth and justice.
I'm all for exploring unconventional lifestyle design patterns. And I have been nursing certain plans of becoming a techno-hippie :)
Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining
#49Work hard. Cry less. And realize you’re part of history No, sorry, but you probably aren't. Zynga isn't changing the world and neither are 99.9% of the startups coming out of SV. The over-working culture is exactly that - a culture. It has nothing to do with actual reality, and everything to do with perceived reality. Great, long-term companies aren't built by entrepreneurs who sleep 2 hours a night. P.S.: not gettin…
> Great, long-term companies aren't built by entrepreneurs who sleep 2 hours a night. I'd add a qualifier to that. They aren't usually built by entrepreneurs who get very little sleep. They sometimes are, though, and sometimes it's because a person in good physical health has a very important task to complete in a short amount of time, like the example cited in the article of JWZ helping build a web browser.
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Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining
#50Meh - honestly working insane hours becomes unproductive and is foolishly glorified by many around SV. Getting 2 hours of sleep on a regular basis is just going to make you non-functional after a while and will lead to shooting yourself in the foot. This culture seems to be manufactured by VC-backed startups with limited runways and some of the more tyranical managers who hear about the greats like Steve Jobs and Bil…
People seem to only take part of the stories of those successful people as well. Steve Jobs was at times a workaholic, but at other times a total dilettante who moved to India to seek enlightenment from a guru, and did a lot of drugs.