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Even from a business perspective, what you're working on today, if it's tech or software related, will be horribly out-dated in 3 years. Imagine how many "pivot

Even from a business perspective, what you're working on today, if it's tech or software related, will be horribly out-dated in 3 years. Imagine how many "pivots" need to be made on a software product who's expected delivery is Fall 2023. That's what gave rise to the whole Lean Start-up movement - spend 3 months, get a working version out there, get some paying customers, start improving the software with new features. If you can't get any paying customers with an MVP, it's a sign your idea might not be worth a 3 year investment.

jstarfish 6y ago
Can't argue with you there, but I get the impression (from other pages on the site) the advice seems more geared to personal growth or soft-creative goals, not business/tech/software development. * A blog or novel isn't inherently outdated in 3 years, and good ones can certainly take that long to complete. * Any fitness regimen lasting less than 3 years is a waste of time (IMO). You don't get meaningful "credit" applied to your lifespan for doing yoga for three months. * Taking the time to develop your relationship with your children needs years of persistence, otherwise they'll just raise themselves and not respect you. Much of this is the same advice given to ADHD candidates. I don't know if he is one or just happened to be inspired by self-help books about the subject, but the advice does work. Breaking large tasks down into smaller ones that yield more immediate satisfaction/feedback and riding that dopamine train until it's second nature is the best way to stick to a project and avoid burnout.
istorical 6y ago
There are more ways to live life than with a lean startup model.
ZephyrBlu 6y ago
What I've realized about the Lean Startup methodology is that it only works for very specific businesses. Usually these are software-enabled service businesses (I.e. the software is not the essential part of the business). Standing up a pure SaaS business in 3 months just doesn't happen unless it's really straightforward and you already have it planned out.
adventured 6y ago
> Even from a business perspective, what you're working on today, if it's tech or software related, will be horribly out-dated in 3 years. Here's how outdated in tech usually works across three years: We gotta switch to NoSQL, it's the new new hot hot thing! It's going to save us money, it's going to make our service much faster, it's going to be easier to manage. It's revolutionary, everybody says so. Our competition is switching too. Three years later: we're going to switch away from NoSQL, turns out we didn't actually need to use that. It caused more problems than it solved in our case. Outdated in three years is mostly only true in a small echo chamber of the tech industry obsessed with chasing fads 24/7. It's an almost entirely self-imposed form of torture by that part of the industry. There are exceptions of course, cases where things legitimately get outdated in just three years, and they're rare. Was the NoSQL fad that so many people chased necessary? Nope. Are there great use cases for NoSQL systems? Of course. The legitimate use cases aren't fraudulent, it's the fad that is, the mania, the hype (which always implodes, then the headlines come rolling in about switching back). That's a microcosm of the three year fad hopping that you're talking about (and there are obviously a lot of examples of it, from big data to AI/ML, to the latest framework craze). A small segment of the tech industry is like a dog that never stops chasing fad cars.

jstarfish 6y ago

Can't argue with you there, but I get the impression (from other pages on the site) the advice seems more geared to personal growth or soft-creative goals, not business/tech/software development. * A blog or novel isn't inherently outdated in 3 years, and good ones can certainly take that long to complete. * Any fitness regimen lasting less than 3 years is a waste of time (IMO). You don't get meaningful "credit" applied to your lifespan for doing yoga for three months. * Taking the time to develop your relationship with your children needs years of persistence, otherwise they'll just raise themselves and not respect you. Much of this is the same advice given to ADHD candidates. I don't know if he is one or just happened to be inspired by self-help books about the subject, but the advice does work. Breaking large tasks down into smaller ones that yield more immediate satisfaction/feedback and riding that dopamine train until it's second nature is the best way to stick to a project and avoid burnout.

istorical 6y ago

There are more ways to live life than with a lean startup model.

ZephyrBlu 6y ago

What I've realized about the Lean Startup methodology is that it only works for very specific businesses. Usually these are software-enabled service businesses (I.e. the software is not the essential part of the business). Standing up a pure SaaS business in 3 months just doesn't happen unless it's really straightforward and you already have it planned out.

adventured 6y ago

> Even from a business perspective, what you're working on today, if it's tech or software related, will be horribly out-dated in 3 years. Here's how outdated in tech usually works across three years: We gotta switch to NoSQL, it's the new new hot hot thing! It's going to save us money, it's going to make our service much faster, it's going to be easier to manage. It's revolutionary, everybody says so. Our competition is switching too. Three years later: we're going to switch away from NoSQL, turns out we didn't actually need to use that. It caused more problems than it solved in our case. Outdated in three years is mostly only true in a small echo chamber of the tech industry obsessed with chasing fads 24/7. It's an almost entirely self-imposed form of torture by that part of the industry. There are exceptions of course, cases where things legitimately get outdated in just three years, and they're rare. Was the NoSQL fad that so many people chased necessary? Nope. Are there great use cases for NoSQL systems? Of course. The legitimate use cases aren't fraudulent, it's the fad that is, the mania, the hype (which always implodes, then the headlines come rolling in about switching back). That's a microcosm of the three year fad hopping that you're talking about (and there are obviously a lot of examples of it, from big data to AI/ML, to the latest framework craze). A small segment of the tech industry is like a dog that never stops chasing fad cars.