4 ms·

What Silicon Valley startups can learn from West African kidnappers

10 points by denisu 17y ago

pgbovine 17y ago
i didn't find any insights that were unique to West African kidnappers; the same comparisons could be made to any risky enterprise with an intense and tightly-knit team. did anyone else find that article a bit creepy to read? i'm afraid of the slippery slope where people continue to push more and more absurd yet uninsightful analogies. i'm sure someone could've written a similar article entitled "What Silicon Valley startups can learn from Nazi commanders" and made those same points.
- philk 17y ago
  I found the bit about West African kidnappers interesting without the assortment of generic startup advice.
pw 17y ago
Notice at the end: "Follow me on twitter. I make 30k a month selling shareware."
- slig 17y ago
  Has he disclosed some of the softwares that he sells yet?
- pw 17y ago
  And that's up from "$12k a month" at the end of December. (http://blog.cubeofm.com/im-not-an-enterpreneur-im-a-dirty-hack http://blog.cubeofm.com/im-not-an-enterpreneur-im-a-dirty-ha...)
sperry 17y ago
This guy's a joke. His novelty is wearing off fast. His startup advice is stale and it seems like he's tryig too hard to build up his Internet persona.
- pw 17y ago
  That seems harsh. This post wasn't that great, but his others were pretty good. He's certainly working at building his online persona, but there's nothing wrong with that. Though with the mention of making "30k a month", I'm beginning to worry that his story might be fabricated for the sake of publicity. Regardless, I look forward to seeing more writing from Max.
- mahmud 17y ago
  Yeah, I pretty much started ignoring maxklein after he trolled HN.
josephd 17y ago
Re-echoing what someone above said, the analogy in the article is quite stale, without bearing fresh insight in relation to startups. It tries too much to cash in on tabloid like sensationalism ''Kidnappers'' while pretending to educate its readers. It is also wordy. There are a few writers on here who try to share insightful messages in fewer words (Sivers etc.,) and they are modest about the attention they get. Focusing the readers' attention on the amount of shareware money one earns is the equivalent of cyber bling: very suspect.
keefe 17y ago
Link didn't work for me? I wonder if Max regretted the "attention grabbing" title of this one...
- cx01 17y ago
  There's a link on his twitter that still seems to work: http://blog.cubeofm.com/private/miEcmBmtdd http://blog.cubeofm.com/private/miEcmBmtdd
  - keefe 17y ago
    I've said it before and I'll say it again about his posts. I'm highly skeptical that the anecdote held much truth. His stuff would be a lot more interesting if he cut about 50% of each article.
SteveC 17y ago
This is a link to an article about hemorrhoids.
crc5002 17y ago
This made me laugh: http://twitter.com/maxklein/status/11417407961 http://twitter.com/maxklein/status/11417407961 (from 2 days ago)

10 points by denisu 17y ago

i didn't find any insights that were unique to West African kidnappers; the same comparisons could be made to any risky enterprise with an intense and tightly-knit team. did anyone else find that article a bit creepy to read? i'm afraid of the slippery slope where people continue to push more and more absurd yet uninsightful analogies. i'm sure someone could've written a similar article entitled "What Silicon Valley startups can learn from Nazi commanders" and made those same points.

philk 17y ago
I found the bit about West African kidnappers interesting without the assortment of generic startup advice.

pw 17y ago

Notice at the end: "Follow me on twitter. I make 30k a month selling shareware."

slig 17y ago
Has he disclosed some of the softwares that he sells yet?
pw 17y ago
And that's up from "$12k a month" at the end of December. (http://blog.cubeofm.com/im-not-an-enterpreneur-im-a-dirty-hack http://blog.cubeofm.com/im-not-an-enterpreneur-im-a-dirty-ha...)

sperry 17y ago

This guy's a joke. His novelty is wearing off fast. His startup advice is stale and it seems like he's tryig too hard to build up his Internet persona.

pw 17y ago
That seems harsh. This post wasn't that great, but his others were pretty good. He's certainly working at building his online persona, but there's nothing wrong with that. Though with the mention of making "30k a month", I'm beginning to worry that his story might be fabricated for the sake of publicity. Regardless, I look forward to seeing more writing from Max.
mahmud 17y ago
Yeah, I pretty much started ignoring maxklein after he trolled HN.

josephd 17y ago

Re-echoing what someone above said, the analogy in the article is quite stale, without bearing fresh insight in relation to startups. It tries too much to cash in on tabloid like sensationalism ''Kidnappers'' while pretending to educate its readers. It is also wordy. There are a few writers on here who try to share insightful messages in fewer words (Sivers etc.,) and they are modest about the attention they get. Focusing the readers' attention on the amount of shareware money one earns is the equivalent of cyber bling: very suspect.

keefe 17y ago

Link didn't work for me? I wonder if Max regretted the "attention grabbing" title of this one...

cx01 17y ago
There's a link on his twitter that still seems to work: http://blog.cubeofm.com/private/miEcmBmtdd http://blog.cubeofm.com/private/miEcmBmtdd
- keefe 17y ago
  I've said it before and I'll say it again about his posts. I'm highly skeptical that the anecdote held much truth. His stuff would be a lot more interesting if he cut about 50% of each article.

SteveC 17y ago

This is a link to an article about hemorrhoids.

crc5002 17y ago

This made me laugh: http://twitter.com/maxklein/status/11417407961 http://twitter.com/maxklein/status/11417407961 (from 2 days ago)