81–90 of 128 posts
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Founders are not "workers" for YC. They're trying to do something exceptional with extremely scarce resources.
Founders are workers. They are the ones doing all the work and throwing years of their life away.
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From personal experience its very possible to believe you are obliged to sacrifice your own well being, and you are obliged to be passionate about something. This is my motivation here.
Ah. Yeah, I can see that. If the pressures are aligned too strongly in the other direction, and someone is feeling squeezed, they should focus on themselves and act accordingly. As you say, it's easy to forget that. Can we see eye to eye that my stance is the same thing, but from the opposite direction? It's very possible to believe you're obliged to do the safe thing, to worry about whether you're supporting yoursel…
There aren't many positive toplevel comments, and I don't think that's a reasonable situation for such a fine piece of writing. So: Your story is wonderfully illustrative, in-depth, and inspirational. Thank you for taking the time to share it. For what it's worth, I really like your writing style. I hope to see much more of it!
While I'm not a very educated in startups, this was a pleasant read and I loved the 'straight to the point' approach for discussing individual experiences.
> What I am working on will change the course of history if I even get close to succeeding. Don't tell me...an app that lets you pay for people to stand in line at Whole Foods for you?
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13901277 and marked it off-topic.
This is a life-changing read for me. I was debating if I should move to Seattle or Bay area to pursue my 'science project' or not. My current job is going to give me 7 weeks of severance starting in late April and I think it will be enough to at least make the leap and cross my fingers. What I am working on will change the course of history if I even get close to succeeding. I was wondering if YC or TechStars would b…
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Founders are workers. They are the ones doing all the work and throwing years of their life away.
They are only workers if they do not to reap the benefits of their work 100%.
Workers get paid for their work. Founders don't get a paycheck.
There aren't many positive toplevel comments, and I don't think that's a reasonable situation for such a fine piece of writing. So: Your story is wonderfully illustrative, in-depth, and inspirational. Thank you for taking the time to share it. For what it's worth, I really like your writing style. I hope to see much more of it!
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Haha. Looks like the punch bowl is empty. Somebody make another round of kool-aid! You know, I've heard this type of irritating comment so many times over the years. I've been on HN since day two of its public launch, back when it was called Startup News. It was a magical time, mostly because everyone was universally supportive. This isn't a rose-tinted view of the past, or selective memory. It was the reason I was b…
I'm not saying that pursuing a startup is always a bad idea. I'm saying that romanticizing living in somebody else's closet as part of the startup journey is wrong. Building something that people what is what counts. Getting customers to pay you for it is what counts. Having profits is what counts. Software (and startups in general) doesn't get created because you're eating beans and rice, heated off a hot-plate, in…
I actually disagree with this. Living in near-poverty gives two distinct advantages:
- Reduced number of available ways to occupy your time.
- Visceral hunger to improve your situation.
I'm reminded of the Hikikomori thread here; these individuals withdraw from society because society gives them enough to survive and be entertained. If you withdrew their preferred method of passing the time -- say you can live alone, but no video games -- I suspect many would lead a different lifestyle.
So you could plot people on a graph of the ambitiousness of how they would ideally like to spend their time vs how badly they want to get there. For the sake of discussion, let's say one of the axes goes:
- Books
- Video Games
- Travel, sports, friends
- Yachting
- Going to Mars
For me personally, I enjoy books, video games, travel, and friends, but these in a way seem "not enough" for me to lead a fulfilling life. So I'm making plans to do more.
Yacht-class recreation wasn't enough for Elon Musk, so now he's going to Mars.
In a way, startup poverty is an interesting motivational hack -- living well below your earning potential gives you the hunger, but you apply that hunger to something with a higher potential rate of return, instead of just getting a market-rate job.
This is a life-changing read for me. I was debating if I should move to Seattle or Bay area to pursue my 'science project' or not. My current job is going to give me 7 weeks of severance starting in late April and I think it will be enough to at least make the leap and cross my fingers. What I am working on will change the course of history if I even get close to succeeding. I was wondering if YC or TechStars would b…