5 ms·

"While thinking about this on a plane to England, my mind makes the natural leap from my motley collection of python functions to turning down acquisition offer

"While thinking about this on a plane to England, my mind makes the natural leap from my motley collection of python functions to turning down acquisition offers from Amazon and being invited to talk at Davos." haha happens all the time, who else suffers from this?

moconnor 16y ago
It's my one weakness ;)
pierrefar 16y ago
Delusions of grandeur, IMHO, are a key part of the drive entrepreneurs need to slug through the pain of building a new business.
- BrandonM 16y ago
  Wouldn't those delusions also be a source of the emotional rollercoaster ride that pg talks about? It seems to me that an entrepreneur that can keep a level head and realistic expectations will not only have lower highs but higher lows. I would expect that the delusions may help with building a large-scale business: in order to achieve the desired grandeur, a big exit will be necessary. VCs and wealthy entrepreneurs are better off expecting to change the world. The first-time entrepreneur (and some angel investors), on the other hand, would probably be better served by having realistic projections and reasonable goals.
  - philwelch 16y ago
    "It seems to me that an entrepreneur that can keep a level head and realistic expectations will not only have lower highs but higher lows." http://sivers.org/horses http://sivers.org/horses
saurabh 16y ago
Came here to quote the same thing. I too suffer from this and it's unbearable after it happens. It's exactly what my stupid brain does. And then I get angry on my brain for doing it. I think it is a symptom of a deeper problem in the way I think about developing something. While day dreaming, I have made a better search engine than Google, a better operating system than existing ones, a game played by millions and each of the projects having a "situation room" like the one in Bourne Ultimatum. It's all fun and games while I am dreaming though.
dholowiski 16y ago
Hah, I usually do that before I even write the first line of code! Actually I think Jeff Bezos might be ringing my doorbell right now, gotta go...
adbge 16y ago
[One of my favorite excerpts from Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby] Today I was at this Italian restaraunt, Granado’s, and I was paying my bill. Happened to notice (under glass) a bottle of balsamic vinegar going for $150. Fairly small. I could conceal it in my palm. Aged twenty-two years. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that bottle. It is often an accessory in some of these obsessive fantasies. In one fantasy, I walk into the restaraunt, toss a stack of greenery on the counter and earnestly say to the cashier, “Quick! I have an important salad to make!” In another, related fantasy, I am throwing away lettuce. Such roughage isn’t befitting of my new vinegar. No, I will have come to a point where the fame and the aristocracy will have corrupted me to my core. My new lettuce will be cash. Cold, hard cash, Mrs. Price. Soon, I will be expending hundreds for a block of myzithra cheese. My imaginations have now gone beyond posessions, though. Certainly, I have thought through my acquisition of grecian urns, motorcades, airlines, pyramids, dinosaur bones. Occassionally I’ll see wind-tossed cities on the news and I’ll jot down on my shopping list: Hurricane. But, now I’m seeing a larger goal. Simply put: what if I amassed such a fortune that the mints couldn’t print enough to keep up with my demand? So, everyone else would be forced to use Monopoly money as actual currency. And you would have to win in Monopoly to keep food on the table. These would be some seriously tense games. I mean you go to mortgage St. James Place and your kids start crying. In addition, I think you’ll begin to see the end of those who choose to use the Free Parking square as the underground coffers for city funds. You’ve got to hand it to fun money, though. Fake money rules. You can get your hands on it so quickly. For a moment, it seems like you’re crazy rich. When I was a kid, I got with some of the neighborhood kids and we built this little Tijuana on our street. We made our own pesos and wore sombreros and everything! One kid was selling hot tamales for two pesos each. Two pesos! Did this kid know that the money was fake? Was he out of his mind? Who invited this kid? Didn’t he know this wasn’t really Tijuana? Maybe he was really from Tijuana! Maybe these were real pesos! Let’s go make more real pesos! I think we even had a tavern where you could get totally hammered off Kool-Aid. There’s nothing like a bunch of kids stumbling around, mumbling incoherently with punchy red clown lips.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
bengl3rt 16y ago
On the way to England I'm much more likely to think about Davros...

moconnor 16y ago

It's my one weakness ;)

pierrefar 16y ago

Delusions of grandeur, IMHO, are a key part of the drive entrepreneurs need to slug through the pain of building a new business.

BrandonM 16y ago
Wouldn't those delusions also be a source of the emotional rollercoaster ride that pg talks about? It seems to me that an entrepreneur that can keep a level head and realistic expectations will not only have lower highs but higher lows. I would expect that the delusions may help with building a large-scale business: in order to achieve the desired grandeur, a big exit will be necessary. VCs and wealthy entrepreneurs are better off expecting to change the world. The first-time entrepreneur (and some angel investors), on the other hand, would probably be better served by having realistic projections and reasonable goals.
- philwelch 16y ago
  "It seems to me that an entrepreneur that can keep a level head and realistic expectations will not only have lower highs but higher lows." http://sivers.org/horses http://sivers.org/horses

saurabh 16y ago

Came here to quote the same thing. I too suffer from this and it's unbearable after it happens. It's exactly what my stupid brain does. And then I get angry on my brain for doing it. I think it is a symptom of a deeper problem in the way I think about developing something. While day dreaming, I have made a better search engine than Google, a better operating system than existing ones, a game played by millions and each of the projects having a "situation room" like the one in Bourne Ultimatum. It's all fun and games while I am dreaming though.

dholowiski 16y ago

Hah, I usually do that before I even write the first line of code! Actually I think Jeff Bezos might be ringing my doorbell right now, gotta go...

adbge 16y ago

[One of my favorite excerpts from Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby] Today I was at this Italian restaraunt, Granado’s, and I was paying my bill. Happened to notice (under glass) a bottle of balsamic vinegar going for $150. Fairly small. I could conceal it in my palm. Aged twenty-two years. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that bottle. It is often an accessory in some of these obsessive fantasies. In one fantasy, I walk into the restaraunt, toss a stack of greenery on the counter and earnestly say to the cashier, “Quick! I have an important salad to make!” In another, related fantasy, I am throwing away lettuce. Such roughage isn’t befitting of my new vinegar. No, I will have come to a point where the fame and the aristocracy will have corrupted me to my core. My new lettuce will be cash. Cold, hard cash, Mrs. Price. Soon, I will be expending hundreds for a block of myzithra cheese. My imaginations have now gone beyond posessions, though. Certainly, I have thought through my acquisition of grecian urns, motorcades, airlines, pyramids, dinosaur bones. Occassionally I’ll see wind-tossed cities on the news and I’ll jot down on my shopping list: Hurricane. But, now I’m seeing a larger goal. Simply put: what if I amassed such a fortune that the mints couldn’t print enough to keep up with my demand? So, everyone else would be forced to use Monopoly money as actual currency. And you would have to win in Monopoly to keep food on the table. These would be some seriously tense games. I mean you go to mortgage St. James Place and your kids start crying. In addition, I think you’ll begin to see the end of those who choose to use the Free Parking square as the underground coffers for city funds. You’ve got to hand it to fun money, though. Fake money rules. You can get your hands on it so quickly. For a moment, it seems like you’re crazy rich. When I was a kid, I got with some of the neighborhood kids and we built this little Tijuana on our street. We made our own pesos and wore sombreros and everything! One kid was selling hot tamales for two pesos each. Two pesos! Did this kid know that the money was fake? Was he out of his mind? Who invited this kid? Didn’t he know this wasn’t really Tijuana? Maybe he was really from Tijuana! Maybe these were real pesos! Let’s go make more real pesos! I think we even had a tavern where you could get totally hammered off Kool-Aid. There’s nothing like a bunch of kids stumbling around, mumbling incoherently with punchy red clown lips.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

bengl3rt 16y ago

On the way to England I'm much more likely to think about Davros...