If you want to be productive it's less about technical skills (though they do matter) than about how you approach problem solving. You need to ask why, understa

If you want to be productive it's less about technical skills (though they do matter) than about how you approach problem solving. You need to ask why, understand goals, and execute in a way that achieves those goals with minimal effort. More at https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/08/25/the-01x-programmer/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/08/25/the-01x-programmer/ "Creating a startup" actually means two different things. 1. Create a VC-funded startup. This is all about making investors happy. AFAICT this is mostly about luck, in that you're being set up to fail and 5% of people happen to succeed. This is what Paul Graham writes about from his perspective as a VC, which is to say someone who wants a liquidity event. A liquidity event is not the same as business success, and having a large-scale liquidity event as a goal typically impedes your ability to create a successful business (e.g. you can't say "let's pursue this small, profitable niche" because it's too small for a VC to make money off of.) 2. Create a real business. In this case you need to identify an actual problem someone has. Then you need to solve it, and make sure people know about it (marketing). This is quite different than technical skills. It has some overlap with the productivity skills mentioned above (identifying problems and coming up with solutions) plus a whole additional set of skills (marketing, sales, etc.)