What does "it's a good start" really mean.

This strikes me as very true, but irrelevant. As an American I say something positive to every startup founder I encounter, but secretly think they are nuts. Had I met the founders of these companies, below is what I would have thought:

Heroku: Sounds nice but impossible to deliver. Even if you do, no one is going to trust their business to your startup's platform.

Dropbox: Yet another backup solution that is going nowhere.

AirBnb: Have fun building a marketplace. Chicken and egg problems are impossible to solve.

I have learned to not trust my instincts. Now I tell startups, "Sounds cool, but why are you at a tech event? You should be at an event for fashion/teachers/bar owners/tour guides/whoever your customer is. Why are you clowning around seeking reassurance from from other programmers?"

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#6

Post by gojomo » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 3:59 AM UTC

I'm guilty of overusing 'great', especially as the first word (actually full sentence) of an email response.

In that colloquial context, it means, "total assent/acknowledgement with what you've proposed or reported", rather than a quality evaluation.

If aimed at a more concrete bit of work output, 'great' is more likely to be a superlative quality evaluation.

For example:

Q: "What about this general logo theme for exploration?" [a proposed abstract direction/plan]

A: "Great!" [means, I agree that's worth pursuing, let's see where it goes]

Q: "I've made this logo treatment."

A: "Great!" [Somewhat vague; definitely means I'm glad we've reached this point (regardless of the treatment quality), but might (if directly gesturing at the object) also imply some evaluative approval]

Q: "How would you rate logo treatment #2?"

A: "Great!" [this finally really means it's evaluated as great on the relevant scale]

Even 'excellent', 'fantastic', and other adjectives are often used this same way: casually used to signal sufficient approval, when describing something prospectively/abstractly/directionally, but only being strong signals of judgement when applied to specific, concrete, completed instances.

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#7

Post by coenhyde » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 4:04 AM UTC

As an Australian I can relate to this. Often American's think I'm putting our startup down, just because I'm not overly excited saying everything is awesome and fantastic. I'm extremely positive and have absolute confidence that we will succeed. But I prefer to look at things objectively and to tackle the problems. However American's translate my language into "my startup sucks".

So recently I've been training myself to talk roses when dealing with American's. :)

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#8

Post by palish » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 4:20 AM UTC

jcampbell1 wrote: post #5

This strikes me as very true, but irrelevant. As an American I say something positive to every startup founder I encounter, but secretly think they are nuts. Had I met the founders of these companies, below is what I would have thought: Heroku: Sounds nice but impossible to deliver. Even if you do, no one is going to trust their business to your startup's platform. Dropbox: Yet another backup solution that is going n…

Mm.. I don't think you could have seen Drew's original Dropbox screencast and thought "This is going nowhere".

But I suppose that's why I have Dropbox account #314...

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#9

Post by Okvivi » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 4:24 AM UTC

jcampbell1 wrote: post #5

This strikes me as very true, but irrelevant. As an American I say something positive to every startup founder I encounter, but secretly think they are nuts. Had I met the founders of these companies, below is what I would have thought: Heroku: Sounds nice but impossible to deliver. Even if you do, no one is going to trust their business to your startup's platform. Dropbox: Yet another backup solution that is going n…

I think there are benefits and drawbacks to both being supportive even if you don't think that the idea is good, and to being brutally honest.

After living here long enough I'm no longer trying to judge, it's just the way things are, and I just learned to translate. That's why I made the graphs.

I think it's only irrelevant if you understand this difference of translation and adapt to it.

Not everybody understands it though, specially when you first move here or when you first have contact with the US. I know it took me a non trivial amount of time to realize it.

Re: What does "it's a good start" really mean.

#10

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 4:24 AM UTC

jcampbell1 wrote: post #5

This strikes me as very true, but irrelevant. As an American I say something positive to every startup founder I encounter, but secretly think they are nuts. Had I met the founders of these companies, below is what I would have thought: Heroku: Sounds nice but impossible to deliver. Even if you do, no one is going to trust their business to your startup's platform. Dropbox: Yet another backup solution that is going n…

[deleted]