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Because they benefit from YC's value prop, it's in Sama's and PG's interest to beat the Big Startup, Fast Growth, VC train, Silicon Valley drum. It's not dising

by subdane 11y ago

Because they benefit from YC's value prop, it's in Sama's and PG's interest to beat the Big Startup, Fast Growth, VC train, Silicon Valley drum. It's not disingenuous, it's literally what they believe and are committed to. But it's not the only way to be happy as a technologist. I'm not even convinced it's the best way to be happy as a technologist. YC put those materials out 1) as a branding and marketing effort and 2) to be helpful (part of their brand). In order for us to get quality resources like these for doing something small instead of big, we need folks who have a sustained interest and experience in beating that drum as well. Maybe we need a "Slow Tech" movement akin to the Slow Food movement.

m_fayer 11y ago
Unlike the DHH rant linked above, I'm not condemning the Big Startup / Growth / VC approach. At a societal level, it has managed to spin up many game-changing companies very quickly. I think it's a movement that will go down in the history books for creating a lot of rapid progress in the first half of the 21st century. But I'm also not convinced that it's the best way to be happy as a technologist. The system produces two things - incredible wealth and power for the few winners and a large amount of (a certain kind of) technological innovation. And it produces a lot of bodies, empty hype, churn and overpriced housing in the process. You can enjoy the innovation without joining up, and if you do join up then statistically speaking you're way more likely to be a body than a winner. I marvel at this machine but I'm aware that my happiness (or that of my loved ones) is not something it's likely to produce. To his credit, Sama's post hints at this when he says that starting a startup actually "sucks." We should listen to him. And I would be a card-carrying member of the "slow tech" movement, where do I sign?
- stevesearer 11y ago
  I started my business 8 years ago and might be able to hire an employee soon and have been considering writing a post called "How I Hired My First Employee In Only 8 Years". The goal would be to balance out some of the other posts here about getting 10000 users in a week or "bringing in $500k of revenue in 3 months.
  - will_pseudonym 11y ago
    Please write that post!!! I would LOVE to read it! I am sure thousands of other people would too!
thewhitetulip 11y ago
Even I kinda feel like this, they make effort to make their name out in the market, but that doesn't mean that their advice is BS, some parts of them obviously will be a little bit too far fetched because they want to serve their purpose, but it is amazing to have free startup advice like the stanford lecture that YC took. Truly amazing content.

by subdane 11y ago

m_fayer 11y ago

Unlike the DHH rant linked above, I'm not condemning the Big Startup / Growth / VC approach. At a societal level, it has managed to spin up many game-changing companies very quickly. I think it's a movement that will go down in the history books for creating a lot of rapid progress in the first half of the 21st century. But I'm also not convinced that it's the best way to be happy as a technologist. The system produces two things - incredible wealth and power for the few winners and a large amount of (a certain kind of) technological innovation. And it produces a lot of bodies, empty hype, churn and overpriced housing in the process. You can enjoy the innovation without joining up, and if you do join up then statistically speaking you're way more likely to be a body than a winner. I marvel at this machine but I'm aware that my happiness (or that of my loved ones) is not something it's likely to produce. To his credit, Sama's post hints at this when he says that starting a startup actually "sucks." We should listen to him. And I would be a card-carrying member of the "slow tech" movement, where do I sign?

stevesearer 11y ago
I started my business 8 years ago and might be able to hire an employee soon and have been considering writing a post called "How I Hired My First Employee In Only 8 Years". The goal would be to balance out some of the other posts here about getting 10000 users in a week or "bringing in $500k of revenue in 3 months.
- will_pseudonym 11y ago
  Please write that post!!! I would LOVE to read it! I am sure thousands of other people would too!

thewhitetulip 11y ago

Even I kinda feel like this, they make effort to make their name out in the market, but that doesn't mean that their advice is BS, some parts of them obviously will be a little bit too far fetched because they want to serve their purpose, but it is amazing to have free startup advice like the stanford lecture that YC took. Truly amazing content.