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Perhaps I haven't framed my confusion into a proper verbal frame, but there were quite a few books in my life screaming "try this!", and I was unable to find ti

by tx 18y ago

Perhaps I haven't framed my confusion into a proper verbal frame, but there were quite a few books in my life screaming "try this!", and I was unable to find time/application for them in this crazy-fast pace of startup life. Startups I worked in were all hungry, fast and aggressive predators, consuming other people's code (open source), other people's research, algorithms and even ideas for products. I haven't been inside of something genuinely new, let alone doing my own, truly mine, thing. What I've done, and companies I was a part of, was just that - a bunch of incremental improvements based on 4-6 months release cycle. How can I be not sad about that?

timr 18y ago
Nearly every scientist I know is doing "a bunch of incremental improvements based on a 4-6 month release cycle". They just call the results of the releases "publications".
dbrush 18y ago
"I haven't been inside of something genuinely new, let alone doing my own, truly mine, thing." That is why what you're saying here and in the above is a rant rather than advice. "You've gotta try, because if you haven't tried then you haven't lived."
gruseom 18y ago
I haven't been inside of something genuinely new, let alone doing my own, truly mine, thing. Sounds like that's what you're really sad about, and with reason. Doing something you don't want isn't any more fun at a startup than elsewhere. It might even be less fun since startups are more intense. You're right that startups don't solve this problem, but they don't cause it either. We cause it ourselves by not doing what we really want to do. I struggle with this myself. "Make something people want" isn't the axiom to invoke here. "Do something you want" is more like it. Gruntwork is inevitable, but when you're doing something that is truly your own thing, it doesn't feel so bad; the connection to what you care about is much closer at hand.

by tx 18y ago

timr 18y ago

Nearly every scientist I know is doing "a bunch of incremental improvements based on a 4-6 month release cycle". They just call the results of the releases "publications".

dbrush 18y ago

"I haven't been inside of something genuinely new, let alone doing my own, truly mine, thing." That is why what you're saying here and in the above is a rant rather than advice. "You've gotta try, because if you haven't tried then you haven't lived."

gruseom 18y ago

I haven't been inside of something genuinely new, let alone doing my own, truly mine, thing. Sounds like that's what you're really sad about, and with reason. Doing something you don't want isn't any more fun at a startup than elsewhere. It might even be less fun since startups are more intense. You're right that startups don't solve this problem, but they don't cause it either. We cause it ourselves by not doing what we really want to do. I struggle with this myself. "Make something people want" isn't the axiom to invoke here. "Do something you want" is more like it. Gruntwork is inevitable, but when you're doing something that is truly your own thing, it doesn't feel so bad; the connection to what you care about is much closer at hand.