551–560 of 1001 posts
A big fact of the entrepreneur world is that it is hugely based on luck. Luck of finding the right idea, the right market, the right timing, the right connections, the right customers, the right employees, the right financing. The basic fact is that most startups and most entrepreneurial dreams fail or get consumed by another for their talent/clients. And as an entrepreneur you fight against all odds. Most will fail…
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> I really cannot grasp the individualism about "I know how to write code, I deserve a better life than 95% of the population". What if we worded this in a different way: "I have a skill which is more in demand than the skills of 95% of the population"
And this is why I say that I understand the economics behind it. Still, it doesn't mean I _deserve_ a high salary: I totally get why I get it, but I don't work harder, or studied harder, or really did anything more special than 95% of the population. So, while I am able to earn more, I am happy to share part of it with the society as a whole, and this is why I am happy about my level of taxes, compared to the service…
On a more ideological level it feels like you're looking for some sort of moral or "greater truth" behind the economics, but I'm not sure it's there. You've shared your personal beliefs and motivations, and seem to have lots of conviction to guide yourself, so why ask someone else to convince you there's a deeper cause? Just use your results to act how YOU want to impact the outcomes of others.
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> A big fact of the entrepreneur world is that it is hugely based on luck. And for anything with bigger ambitions than a lifestyle business, don’t forget connections. Most founders are still men from Ivies or Stanford. Just look at the “PayPal mafia” to see how inbred tech investing can be. Not that most entrepreneurs need or should expect VC funding, but this is HN, run by a VC. You can totally run a business and be…
I wasted a decade of my life on the notion that you can bootstrap a startup. It is hard mode and the folks that are so dismissive of VC funding should have that disclaimer.
A common thread is the celebration of how far they've come. One from living in a shed (with his wife) in a friends backyard. Another in an unused room of a 100 year old building.
Even with funding there are no guarantees.
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They're high trust societies in general, partially because they're small monocultures. As Robert Putnam's research shows, in multicultural societies, especially large ones, trust rapidly declines, surprisingly even within cultural groups. Trust in government falls even more rapidly as each group starts to perceive those in power as being more favorable to one group or another, even if those in power are from their ow…
"High trust" seems entirely contradictory to Danish society. Universal skepticism and a universal dislike for every other human in existence are the core ideologies here. Maybe a tendency to not interfere with tasks assigned to others to avoid having to deal with people is being misinterpreted as trust?
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>* move to a country …* I understand and agree with your overall point, but the fact that this an option underpins a certain amount of privilege.
How much privilege does it take to move to Guatemala or Pakistan?
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>* move to a country …* I understand and agree with your overall point, but the fact that this an option underpins a certain amount of privilege.
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I offered a service essentially undercutting what I do for my day job by $15-$30k and its been nearly impossible to market that and convince anyone of the value. Despite it being exactly the same work companies already pay (me) for, lol.
The effort required to attract new clients isn't something people that build want to spend time on. Its just a numbers game and ultimately entirely subjective.
Build for fun, build for yourself. That's the only way it doesn't beat you down.
Succeeding in the startup world reminds me of the funfair analogy: The rich kid will have a go at throwing the dart at the balloon, and miss. But, because they're a rich kid, they just take out their wallet (or parents' wallet), get more stubs, and try again (and again) until they hit the balloon. The middle class kid will have a go at throwing the dart at the balloon, and also miss. Then they will walk away, saying…
I was curious what books you were making a play on words for (since it wasn't immediately obvious), so asking ChatGPT: What are the real names of the books? For instance, "Zero To Plushy" is play on "Zero To One". List out the names for the other books. "The Dart Thing About Dart Things: Plushy Hunting When There Are No Easy Answers" is a play on "The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are N…
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It definitely is. Just because success mostly boils down to luck, doesn’t mean that people realize or acknowledge it, which leads to unhealthy obsession with “being successful” that permeates the society.
If everything being luck-based is generally acknowledged, I wonder if that generally leads to nihilism since there isn’t anything that could be done.
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One of the privileges people don't often think about is being able to afford to fail. If you don't risk destitution after your startup fails, you can try and fail many times, learn and try again. It's like continuously rolling two dice, and you only need to get double sixes once, and after that it's private jets until you die. One of the many reasons the rich get richer and the poor, well you know how it goes.
This is why societies should strive for more “inequality” (as in, more families with large fortunes). The rich have a safety net that allows them to take risks that ultimately benefit all of society. Let’s say with the best execution, a startup still only has 10% chance of success - so then the only thing to do is have more and more people “roll the dice.” And no, a strong welfare state is not a substitute - the dang…