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How much to read as an entrepreneur

micaelwidell.com

1–10 of 32 posts

Re: How much to read as an entrepreneur

#3
I have not yet created a sustainable business, but I know for sure that if I had tried without reading HN, articles and books every day for 2 years I would have had to learn those things "on the job", by creating failed start-ups.

In particular, what I think I have gained most from reading is developing my ability to search for good problems and solutions in the idea space, while in the past I was just adept at developing technical solutions without thinking enough about what else I could be doing. It took a while to change the mind set from "I want to build cool technology and hope it can make money somehow" to "I want to build something useful that people are willing to pay for, that is perhaps also interesting technology wise".

Re: How much to read as an entrepreneur

#4
I think the key here is to not take time away from more important things to read. When you are sitting in front of a computer there are a million things you could be doing to push your startup forward.

What I've done a lot of recently is play the audio of articles (using Apple text-to-speech) while exercising, stuck in traffic, etc. Allows me to "read" a ton while not taking any time away from normal work time.

I almost never read articles sitting in front of my computer anymore.

Re: How much to read as an entrepreneur

#5

I think the key here is to not take time away from more important things to read. When you are sitting in front of a computer there are a million things you could be doing to push your startup forward. What I've done a lot of recently is play the audio of articles (using Apple text-to-speech) while exercising, stuck in traffic, etc. Allows me to "read" a ton while not taking any time away from normal work time. I alm…

Text to speech? I wish Apple would allow me to do that with my ebooks.

Re: How much to read as an entrepreneur

#7
A rule I've found helpful is generally to read nothing except what applies to your current or next step or two.

Otherwise you risk reading stuff you can't act on, and forget by the time you need it.

Instead bookmarking and categorizing using a tool like delicious/diigo gives peace of mind that nothing will be lost and when I need it, it'll be there.

Re: How much to read as an entrepreneur

#8
Reading also has an additional cost, which is if you read things that are wrong it can teach you incorrect things in addition to wasting your time reading it. Especially in the startup space, a lot of people like to write their experiences into lessons when they have no basis for doing so. I imagine they want more people to read their article/blog post and it is some manner of self promotion. That is fine, but as a reader, you can just ignore whatever their have to say, it probably isn't useful.

Paul Graham is an obvious exception. He writes semi infrequently (1-2 essays a month as of recently), goes to great lengths to have them edited by people with diverse viewpoints and based on his position and experience has a great perspective to give useful lessons. There are other good writers, but not many, and pg is probably the best due to his unique perspective. And in my opinion, HN voters seem to vote up "entertainment" stories more than useful ones. So you can't assume if something is on the top of HN, it is useful in any way.

Re: How much to read as an entrepreneur

#9
Articles and blog posts are usually not worth reading, some are even poisonous, as they promote some fad or groupthink. Books, especially those that people whom you trust have recommended do worth the time to read, older books, even better.
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