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From my years of startup experience: luck determines basically everything. What company you end up picking, what team you get placed on, how your interviews goe

From my years of startup experience: luck determines basically everything. What company you end up picking, what team you get placed on, how your interviews goes (remember merge sort)?, what problems you need to work on, who your boss is... even if your company survives. Your entire company can lose funding because of an argument on a golf course or Apple TOS change (sigh). At larger companies what team you are on is well.. everything. How were you picked for that team? Because the boss of the other department was on holiday that day. I smile when I hear people actually think they can control their own luck. That is how religion started. Whatever makes you happy. "I am going to pick my OWN boss, I am going to join the start up I want to join with MY purpose." No, you will pick the boss from a super small subset that has a position open and you are going to find a company that needs you 'currently'. Who gets promoted? Generally, lucky loud people. Who makes sales quota? People given the best accounts (luck). Who goes IPO? People that bumped into an untapped market. Do what you want. People's evaluation of you is just based on luck.

zip1234 10y ago
So are you a fatalist?
rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
Everything is based on luck. 99.9% of humans in history were born into what the average American today would consider extreme, abject poverty. I did not choose to be born into a family of upper-middle class American academics. I did not choose to be born on time with excellent health any more than my uncle's fetus chose to be exposed to lead paint, get born 3 months early, and become severely developmentally disabled for the rest of his life. Even if spmeone came from literal rags and made literal riches, they still benefited from a civil society, rule of law, access to education, and so on. I am fully convinced that the only healthy and ethical approach to live is to be grateful for everything you have, and empathetic for others whose needs are unmet.
- lutusp 10y ago
  > Everything is based on luck. ITYM chance, not luck. Luck describes a supernatural force. Chance describes simple randomness.
  - rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
    The way I see it, chance is what is out there, luck is getting what you didn't know you had.
marme 10y ago
the quote is still true that "luck is preparation meets opportunity" but what they dont say is that you can be the most prepared person in the world and still never get the opportunity
Cymen 10y ago
Or, you know, you could pick positions that require growth in skills you need to grow for your own side projects you're bootstrapping or plan on to bootstrap. I've used that strategy since college and it's worked well for me. I've had some really bad overall experiences [1] at startups here and some great ones but no matter what, I came out the other end with what I went in to get. Maybe this way of looking things is more useful as a software engineer. I've also mostly given up on the whole idea of VC and see bootstrapping as the best way once you have the experience you want/need, the plan and the cash to bankroll it. The reality of startups is if you're purely going into it with the roll of the dice for money, you're totally screwed. You're much better off getting experience and then jumping ship to megacorp, assuming you're good enough, to maximize real income. Or if you want to gamble or want to just do it, trying to do your own startup. Or going for experience and living cheap, then bootstrapping. You should always be getting something more than just money out of working at a startup. If you're not, you're wasting your time. [1] So far, worst thing is working for a startup where middle management comes from gaming industry. After 2 for 2 bad experiences, that is a deal breaker for me. In both cases, it didn't seem to work out well for the startups either.
Namrog84 10y ago
I do mostly agree. However "luck favors the prepared" How your interview goes, sure there is luck of whats a good question for you. But being prepared increases your chance of a question you know. There is a finite number of questions you could likely get asked. Being more prepared for an interview and having practiced those skills, you might have a better chance at a 'bad day interviewer'. I do agree luck or chance is a huge portion of it. But I wouldn't quite say 99% as some would say, all of the time.
dpc_pw 10y ago
Have you ever played Settlers of Catan? Every turn start with a roll of dice. One could say - the game is all about luck. Yet it's how you position yourself to gain best results from random blows of fortune, that make a difference. Life is just like that. Sure there are extreme cases of luck and misfortune (IPO billionairs and people who die in a car accident). But for most people the dice is rolled so many times, every day, every hour, in so many areas, that at some point it's about strategy and your past choices, and not about dice anymore.

zip1234 10y ago

So are you a fatalist?

rm_-rf_slash 10y ago

Everything is based on luck. 99.9% of humans in history were born into what the average American today would consider extreme, abject poverty. I did not choose to be born into a family of upper-middle class American academics. I did not choose to be born on time with excellent health any more than my uncle's fetus chose to be exposed to lead paint, get born 3 months early, and become severely developmentally disabled for the rest of his life. Even if spmeone came from literal rags and made literal riches, they still benefited from a civil society, rule of law, access to education, and so on. I am fully convinced that the only healthy and ethical approach to live is to be grateful for everything you have, and empathetic for others whose needs are unmet.

lutusp 10y ago
> Everything is based on luck. ITYM chance, not luck. Luck describes a supernatural force. Chance describes simple randomness.
- rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
  The way I see it, chance is what is out there, luck is getting what you didn't know you had.

marme 10y ago

the quote is still true that "luck is preparation meets opportunity" but what they dont say is that you can be the most prepared person in the world and still never get the opportunity

Cymen 10y ago

Or, you know, you could pick positions that require growth in skills you need to grow for your own side projects you're bootstrapping or plan on to bootstrap. I've used that strategy since college and it's worked well for me. I've had some really bad overall experiences [1] at startups here and some great ones but no matter what, I came out the other end with what I went in to get. Maybe this way of looking things is more useful as a software engineer. I've also mostly given up on the whole idea of VC and see bootstrapping as the best way once you have the experience you want/need, the plan and the cash to bankroll it. The reality of startups is if you're purely going into it with the roll of the dice for money, you're totally screwed. You're much better off getting experience and then jumping ship to megacorp, assuming you're good enough, to maximize real income. Or if you want to gamble or want to just do it, trying to do your own startup. Or going for experience and living cheap, then bootstrapping. You should always be getting something more than just money out of working at a startup. If you're not, you're wasting your time. [1] So far, worst thing is working for a startup where middle management comes from gaming industry. After 2 for 2 bad experiences, that is a deal breaker for me. In both cases, it didn't seem to work out well for the startups either.

Namrog84 10y ago

I do mostly agree. However "luck favors the prepared" How your interview goes, sure there is luck of whats a good question for you. But being prepared increases your chance of a question you know. There is a finite number of questions you could likely get asked. Being more prepared for an interview and having practiced those skills, you might have a better chance at a 'bad day interviewer'. I do agree luck or chance is a huge portion of it. But I wouldn't quite say 99% as some would say, all of the time.

dpc_pw 10y ago

Have you ever played Settlers of Catan? Every turn start with a roll of dice. One could say - the game is all about luck. Yet it's how you position yourself to gain best results from random blows of fortune, that make a difference. Life is just like that. Sure there are extreme cases of luck and misfortune (IPO billionairs and people who die in a car accident). But for most people the dice is rolled so many times, every day, every hour, in so many areas, that at some point it's about strategy and your past choices, and not about dice anymore.