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Getting acquired and watching everything you built get rendered obsolete overnight. It's a good reminder that almost everything you build is fleeting. Especial

Getting acquired and watching everything you built get rendered obsolete overnight. It's a good reminder that almost everything you build is fleeting. Especially in a startup where you often pour your heart and soul into a product. Ecclesiastes: > For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

gurumeditations 8y ago
Ecclesiastes is so underrated.
mempko 8y ago
Make that shit Free Software as fast as possible.
- eropple 8y ago
  That becomes the decision of the acquiring company. Why would they do that?
  - adaml_623 8y ago
    You could say because the acquiring company might be motivated by a desire for staff OR customers. If that's the case then sometimes the software developed might still be of use in the public domain. It's very dependant on what is being created. Is it a tool, a product, or a community?
jorangreef 8y ago
Thanks for the Ecclesiastes quote, Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite wisdom books, and a classic for any startup founder. Just to add to your comment, I think the key to understanding the "meaningless" motif, and how the book works, is that the "meaningless" motif is used by the author to shut off every dead-end path, things that perhaps might be good things but good things which can't bear the weight of worship, things which can't in themselves give meaning or purpose to your life. It's like a rat maze, with the author helpfully shutting all the paths, except the one path that matters, "the conclusion of the matter", the path of the "firmly embedded nails" on which you can stake your life, the path which is the duty of man, the path which is truly good and which will ultimately be rewarded.
DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
+1 on the Ecclesiastes quote. A lot of people seem to find it depressing. But for me, who was already plagued by existential dread before reading Ecclesiastes, it was the first time I felt someone really speaking to where I was at.

gurumeditations 8y ago

Ecclesiastes is so underrated.

mempko 8y ago

Make that shit Free Software as fast as possible.

eropple 8y ago
That becomes the decision of the acquiring company. Why would they do that?
- adaml_623 8y ago
  You could say because the acquiring company might be motivated by a desire for staff OR customers. If that's the case then sometimes the software developed might still be of use in the public domain. It's very dependant on what is being created. Is it a tool, a product, or a community?

jorangreef 8y ago

Thanks for the Ecclesiastes quote, Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite wisdom books, and a classic for any startup founder. Just to add to your comment, I think the key to understanding the "meaningless" motif, and how the book works, is that the "meaningless" motif is used by the author to shut off every dead-end path, things that perhaps might be good things but good things which can't bear the weight of worship, things which can't in themselves give meaning or purpose to your life. It's like a rat maze, with the author helpfully shutting all the paths, except the one path that matters, "the conclusion of the matter", the path of the "firmly embedded nails" on which you can stake your life, the path which is the duty of man, the path which is truly good and which will ultimately be rewarded.

DoofusOfDeath 8y ago

+1 on the Ecclesiastes quote. A lot of people seem to find it depressing. But for me, who was already plagued by existential dread before reading Ecclesiastes, it was the first time I felt someone really speaking to where I was at.