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Check out the top comment to April 2015: Scientists skeptical about Theranos blood test (businessinsider.com): [1] > What stops the skeptics from doing their o

by rz2k 8y ago

Check out the top comment to April 2015: Scientists skeptical about Theranos blood test (businessinsider.com): [1] > What stops the skeptics from doing their own tests by walking into a service center and having their blood analyzed for all tests possible and doing the same with their blood for conventional tests? Or an even large scale test? > If their concern is genuine (rather than a way to get a look under the hood of a competitor for the current sellers of such services) there are multiple ways in which they could get their verification without inside information on how Theranos does its thing. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9440595 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9440595

SilasX 8y ago
And for everyone one of those I can find about a thousand HN comments telling you to push on even if you're unsure about whether you can deliver. Edit: For that reason, most of this "I told you so" sounds like hindsight bias if it comes from someone who would normally take the attitude of "fake it till you make it", "don't wait until you're sure you have a working product".
- learc83 8y ago
  Look at my comments on the April thread. I was incredibly sceptical about a 19 year old with no experience starting a biotech company. All of my comments had a large number of upvotes (for 2015), while many of the people disagreeing with me were downvoted into the negatives.
  - SilasX 8y ago
    Yes, being skeptical about a 19 year old is easy. The hard part is to do it in a way consistent with the rhetoric about “fake it till you make it”/“it’ll all work out”/“all self doubt is impostor syndrome”.
    - learc83 8y ago
      It's not hard if you just don't tell people to fake it till they make it in the first place. There's a sizeable contingent on HN that is sceptical of that mindset in general, which was my point.
      - SilasX 8y ago
        No. There's a sizeable contingent of people who will call out specific ideas as being "obviously BS", but who lack the insight to realize the dissonance with their mentality of "fake it till you make it". People who actually have a general answer for "when not to fake it, and give up instead" are the extreme exception.
- nsp 8y ago
  Generally that advice is not directed towards people starting medical device companies.
  - SilasX 8y ago
    If you can find even one such comment that also offers a heuristic for when your self-doubt is justified and you should therefore quit, I will be surprised.

by rz2k 8y ago

SilasX 8y ago

And for everyone one of those I can find about a thousand HN comments telling you to push on even if you're unsure about whether you can deliver. Edit: For that reason, most of this "I told you so" sounds like hindsight bias if it comes from someone who would normally take the attitude of "fake it till you make it", "don't wait until you're sure you have a working product".

learc83 8y ago
Look at my comments on the April thread. I was incredibly sceptical about a 19 year old with no experience starting a biotech company. All of my comments had a large number of upvotes (for 2015), while many of the people disagreeing with me were downvoted into the negatives.
- SilasX 8y ago
  Yes, being skeptical about a 19 year old is easy. The hard part is to do it in a way consistent with the rhetoric about “fake it till you make it”/“it’ll all work out”/“all self doubt is impostor syndrome”.
  - learc83 8y ago
    It's not hard if you just don't tell people to fake it till they make it in the first place. There's a sizeable contingent on HN that is sceptical of that mindset in general, which was my point.
    - SilasX 8y ago
      No. There's a sizeable contingent of people who will call out specific ideas as being "obviously BS", but who lack the insight to realize the dissonance with their mentality of "fake it till you make it". People who actually have a general answer for "when not to fake it, and give up instead" are the extreme exception.
nsp 8y ago
Generally that advice is not directed towards people starting medical device companies.
- SilasX 8y ago
  If you can find even one such comment that also offers a heuristic for when your self-doubt is justified and you should therefore quit, I will be surprised.