Replace “(6) startup ideas” with “(6) noticing problems, making things to solve them, and iterating quickly.” The skill isn’t ideas, it’s identifying a problem

Replace “(6) startup ideas” with “(6) noticing problems, making things to solve them, and iterating quickly.” The skill isn’t ideas, it’s identifying a problem you or others have, making a very basic solution, shipping it, listening to user feedback, and deciding what to spend your very limited time on. If you want to start something, that skill is worth a lot of time. To get experience, make something on the side that gets you talking directly with users/customers. It doesn’t need to be software - as long as you’re identifying the problem and iterating to create something they like/use/buy, that’s what’s important. For a founder, this might be the most important skill. For an early-stage employee (say, after the first 5 or 10), it’s valuable but a lot less critical.