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Ask HN: Do super smart people avoid entrepreneurship?
Perhaps it's not a rational thing for them to do given the risks. They would probably have much better opportunities as employees.
- davemounce 16y agoIt seems to me there are 3 basic components to "smart" 1) How fast your processor is. 2) How big your data base is. 3) How refined your algorithms are.
- blhack 16y agoThis is 100% anecdotal, but based on everything I've really ever seen: absolutely not.
- _delirium 16y agoI think it depends more on other aspects of the person's interests and personality than a linear smartness factor. For example, not many top physicists historically have been entrepreneurs (Einstein dabbled in a Freon-free refrigerator, but mostly because he was repeatedly lured by an entrepreneur who wanted Einstein's assistance on it, as opposed to great entrepreneurial interest on Einstein's part). A lot of top computer-science types have been, but a lot also haven't been. You've got some Sergey Brin / Larry Page types, who start businesses, and some Ken Thompson / Dennis Ritchie types, who don't.
- jdietrich 16y ago> They would probably have much better opportunities as employees. Nope. Nobody ever made a billion dollars working for someone else, but more to the point very few employees actually get to decide their own destiny. Imagine what Steve Wozniak's life would look like if he had never met Steve Jobs. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts he'd still be designing test equipment for some asshole boss. Arguably he ended up designing microcomputers for some asshole boss, but there were a few perks. Plenty of people don't have the constitution or the inclination for entrepreneurship and that's fine, but they're never going to see a tenth of the opportunities as an employee than they would as an entrepreneur. The obvious counterexample would be the likes of Xerox PARC and Bell Labs, but I think they're weak examples. PARC may have invented the WIMP interface, but it was Apple that changed the world with it. Alan Kay is a hell of a thinker and has been hugely influential, but he doesn't get to organise rock festivals or go Dancing With The Stars.
- yummyfajitas 16y agoBut quite a few people made $20 million working for someone else. Unless you have a strong desire to be a Global Corporate Titan, you don't gain much utility going from $20 mil to $1 bil.
- eugenejen 16y agoJust a fack check. There is at least one person who have worked for others and becomes a billionaire because of that: Charles Simonyi. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Simonyi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Simonyi). But he is probably the only 1 in 6,697,254,041 human beings who achieve billionairehood by working for others. And yes, he worked one time in Xerox PARC before Microsoft.
- quellhorst 16y agoYet from your link it says: "He now heads his own company, Intentional Software,[1] with the aim of developing and marketing his concept of intentional programming."
- eugenejen 16y agoI was not talking about entrepreneurship, but "Nope. Nobody ever made a billion dollars working for someone else,".
- frisco 16y agoRumor has it that several extremely early and important Googlers are billionaires, including Marissa Mayer and Jeff Dean. Same for Facebook.
- cfpg 16y agoKeyword: early. Those employees were also risking by joining a new company.
- dolphenstein 16y agoI would think the obvious one is Eric Schmidt
- skowmunk 16y agoI don't think there is any correlation between smartness and a particular aspiration like, wanting to be an entrepreneurship. All of the most successful entrepreneurs, I am sure they are among the smartest people. Its just being a scientist, the typical tag for 'smartness', may not have been their aspiration. Jobs, Gates, Theil, these are all very smart people who went on to be entrepreneurs.
- jogle 16y agoThis isn't directly related to your question, but thought you'd find this 5 minute video interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU7Y6HiLXto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU7Y6HiLXto It's Art Williams (inspirational speaker guy) who mentions he doesn't think "smart" people are likely to "succeed" in business, because they try to figure things out too much. Instead, he preaches (almost literally) a "just do it" mentality. Worth the few minutes if you haven't seen it.
- chasingsparks 16y agoSuccessful entrepreneurs are more likely to be smarter than less successful entrepreneurs, but the most successful people in any field are more likely to belong to the set of "super smart." I think to some degree, "super smart" people are less likely to be interested in entrepreneurship because they find the business aspects of entrepreneurship dull. (I don't think you could classify me as "super smart," but I belong to the set of people bored by business.) Some people want to spend all their time solving problems that they find fascinating. Taking less financial risk -- and consequently reaping fewer financial rewards -- might be a worthwhile trade-off if it means you can spend all, or at least more of, your time tackling problems you find fascinating.
- bootload 16y ago"... Successful entrepreneurs are more likely to be smarter than less successful entrepreneurs, but the most successful people in any field are more likely to belong to the set of "super smart." ..." If you replaced "determined" for "smart" I'd probably agree ~ http://paulgraham.com/determination.html http://paulgraham.com/determination.html
- jiganti 16y agoYeah, I think I agree with this more. My guess would be that those with profound intellectual abilities gravitate towards fields with more "concrete complexity"- the math/science type careers that demand a considerable raw intelligence to have a good chance at making contributions. Fields like business/entrepreneurship don't necessarily require this sheer brainpower because it can be sacrificed for (and one might argue necessarily requires) things like street smarts/people skills, creativity, etc.
- ahoyhere 16y agoDo you have any reasons to believe this other than your own rationalizations? I'd like to see some evidence, please.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- ahoyhere 16y agoWell, super smart people probably don't ask such silly questions and then worry about the answers. They're out there doing something smart. Unless they're super smart AND have an anxiety problem, and thus want to be told whether they're normal (or not). What was your goal?
- Towle_ 16y agoTo answer this question, one would need to... a) accurately define intelligence (good luck), and b) know the motives of those who belong to that highest tier of intellegence (again, good luck).
- noelchurchill 16y agoIt depends on how you define smart.
- jarsj 16y agoDepends on your definition of "super smart". I had put a successful entrepreneur in "super smart" category.
- philwelch 16y agoEven if entrepreneurship is irrational, there's no requirement that smart people are necessarily rational.
- wlievens 16y agoActually I find that super smart people care very little about money, and more about what they're doing, so that's one reason a lot of them go into academia. Luckily I'm not super smart so I don't have to spend my days writing papers, instead I write code!