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That's one of the aspects of the HN community that I most dislike. It's like Puritan divine providence, but applied non-religiously to business. X succeeded so

by btmorex 16y ago

That's one of the aspects of the HN community that I most dislike. It's like Puritan divine providence, but applied non-religiously to business. X succeeded so he/she must be great. HN sees these people as masters of business: smart, ambitious, persistent, etc. What if they were lucky? Unscrupulous? Manipulating? I'm not saying it has to be all one way or all the other, but I often think only one point of view gets seen here.

smakz 16y ago
"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." -- Eleanor Roosevelt Completely agree, the name dropping around here can get tiresome quick. There was a great article on Mint vs. Wesabe posted here recently - in my opinion we need more articles like that and less Jobs is a design master/Zuckerberg is a genius/etc.
- gruseom 16y ago
  Eleanor Roosevelt didn't say that. From Wikiquote, which is slowly approaching authoritativeness on quotes online: This has been quoted without citation as a statement of Eleanor Roosevelt. It is usually attributed to Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, but though Rickover quoted this, he did not claim to be the author of it; in "The World of the Uneducated" in The Saturday Evening Post (28 November 1959), he prefaces it with "As the unknown sage puts it..."
  - vdm 16y ago
    http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt#Disputed http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt#Disputed Its still a nice quote regardless of who its attributed to.
wensing 16y ago
Not sure what you think of Malcolm Gladwell, but I am finally reading Outliers and he casts new light on the many factors of success -- new in the sense that, contrary to mythos, success is not attributable primarily to personal greatness/willpower, but rather having the right-place-right-time + family upbringing + opportunities, etc. (things that are not in the person's direct control).

by btmorex 16y ago

smakz 16y ago

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." -- Eleanor Roosevelt Completely agree, the name dropping around here can get tiresome quick. There was a great article on Mint vs. Wesabe posted here recently - in my opinion we need more articles like that and less Jobs is a design master/Zuckerberg is a genius/etc.

gruseom 16y ago
Eleanor Roosevelt didn't say that. From Wikiquote, which is slowly approaching authoritativeness on quotes online: This has been quoted without citation as a statement of Eleanor Roosevelt. It is usually attributed to Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, but though Rickover quoted this, he did not claim to be the author of it; in "The World of the Uneducated" in The Saturday Evening Post (28 November 1959), he prefaces it with "As the unknown sage puts it..."
- vdm 16y ago
  http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt#Disputed http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt#Disputed Its still a nice quote regardless of who its attributed to.

wensing 16y ago

Not sure what you think of Malcolm Gladwell, but I am finally reading Outliers and he casts new light on the many factors of success -- new in the sense that, contrary to mythos, success is not attributable primarily to personal greatness/willpower, but rather having the right-place-right-time + family upbringing + opportunities, etc. (things that are not in the person's direct control).