4 ms·

Yes, that wasn't a very good article. "Timing." well duh. Might as well have said, "success," or "luck," or "having rich parents." Then the rest of it was a puf

Yes, that wasn't a very good article. "Timing." well duh. Might as well have said, "success," or "luck," or "having rich parents." Then the rest of it was a puff piece on how awesome the guy being interviewed was. I'm going to assume no one really knows, and everyone just pretends to know.

ahartman00 9y ago
To be fair, its different for every product. If you aren't a social network, I don't see how you could go viral. Search ads wont work if nobody searches for your product, ie if it is something completely new. You can't get users to refer friends if you have no incentive to give. This is why I pay closer attention to advice that is descriptive, rather than prescriptive. Tell me what your situation is, and what you did that worked, and let me extrapolate. Bonus points for what didn't work.
- rhizome 9y ago
  > To be fair, its different for every product. Doesn't that mean the entire idea is not generalizable?
michaelbuckbee 9y ago
I think timing is something you can actually reason about though? "Lots of people have tried a similar thing before, what's different this time?" Maybe it's that now there's millions more mobile users. Maybe there's a new regulation that got removed/got put in place. Maybe any of a hundred other things. But timing goes to an actual underlying reason. I'm kind of pushing this point as it's something I've screwed up a number of times. I'd write off some startup as doomed while really the problem was that I wasn't considering everything.
- Clubber 9y ago
  Sure, I mean Star Wars was/is such a cultural phenomenon because of timing, but it was so much more than that. It was a great story, it blended old style movies with new style movies, it had great music, great special effects, etc. 10 years earlier and it's Buck Rogers, 10 years later and it's Flash Gordon. Lucas went over budget and had to deal with the executives who wanted to bail and pulled it off. The article just wasn't very insightful, and it was on the top of the list. It's obvious this was a clickbait article to puff the guy they were interviewing. I suspect he is looking for clients and is using HN to get eyeballs and got some people to up vote it. That's more insightful than the article. I dunno, maybe I'm just grumpy today.
Nomentatus 9y ago
Having started a business without worrying enough about timing, I'd say it's a pretty good article. It's easy to (arrogantly) assume the world will make way for your excellence, regardless of your timing, but it ain't always so.

ahartman00 9y ago

To be fair, its different for every product. If you aren't a social network, I don't see how you could go viral. Search ads wont work if nobody searches for your product, ie if it is something completely new. You can't get users to refer friends if you have no incentive to give. This is why I pay closer attention to advice that is descriptive, rather than prescriptive. Tell me what your situation is, and what you did that worked, and let me extrapolate. Bonus points for what didn't work.

rhizome 9y ago
> To be fair, its different for every product. Doesn't that mean the entire idea is not generalizable?

michaelbuckbee 9y ago

I think timing is something you can actually reason about though? "Lots of people have tried a similar thing before, what's different this time?" Maybe it's that now there's millions more mobile users. Maybe there's a new regulation that got removed/got put in place. Maybe any of a hundred other things. But timing goes to an actual underlying reason. I'm kind of pushing this point as it's something I've screwed up a number of times. I'd write off some startup as doomed while really the problem was that I wasn't considering everything.

Clubber 9y ago
Sure, I mean Star Wars was/is such a cultural phenomenon because of timing, but it was so much more than that. It was a great story, it blended old style movies with new style movies, it had great music, great special effects, etc. 10 years earlier and it's Buck Rogers, 10 years later and it's Flash Gordon. Lucas went over budget and had to deal with the executives who wanted to bail and pulled it off. The article just wasn't very insightful, and it was on the top of the list. It's obvious this was a clickbait article to puff the guy they were interviewing. I suspect he is looking for clients and is using HN to get eyeballs and got some people to up vote it. That's more insightful than the article. I dunno, maybe I'm just grumpy today.

Nomentatus 9y ago

Having started a business without worrying enough about timing, I'd say it's a pretty good article. It's easy to (arrogantly) assume the world will make way for your excellence, regardless of your timing, but it ain't always so.