7 ms·

I don't usually play the part of armchair psychologist, but this essay appears to me to be an excellent example of projection. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro

by goo 15y ago

I don't usually play the part of armchair psychologist, but this essay appears to me to be an excellent example of projection. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projection_bias http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projection_bias The author assumes that because he doesn't know what he's doing, other people also don't. I disagree. Sometimes people can know exactly what they're doing, and be fairly confident about the possible consequences. I made a viral hit similar to the author's YT instant, and I very much did not know what I was doing. Then I did it again with different code, without leveraging the existing user base, just to see if it was all luck. It wasn't. I think a better argument would be that "sometimes successful projects are successful by accident", but that would make a terrible post title.

SoftwareMaven 15y ago
I agree with you completely, but I do think the biggest thing holding people back is fear, either that they won't do the right thing or they will fail. As I told my kids tonight, be do-ers, not spectators.
- Alex3917 15y ago
  "We have to create culture. Don't watch TV, don't read magazines, don't even listen to NPR; create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe, and if you're worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered, you're giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that you want to dress like X or have lips like Y. This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told 'no', we're unimportant, we're peripheral. 'Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.' And then you're a player, you don't want to even play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTPFs1diXp0#t=1m19s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTPFs1diXp0#t=1m19s
- ericmoritz 15y ago
  Everyone has their own internal FUD generator, we just need to acknowledge our own FUD and ignore it because we all can do amazing things if we don't let it control us.
jeromec 15y ago
Yeah, according to the author I guess Einstein was "winging it" too.
- BasDirks 15y ago
  Don't know why you were downvoted, it's a decent point you make. There are people who dedicated their entire life to an idea or ideal, and succeed _that_ way. Perhaps it's useful to distinguish between "entrepreneurial" success-stories and achievements like Einstein's
  - jeromec 15y ago
    Well, yeah, I might give him some slack if he limited it to entrepreneurial success, although I still wouldn't agree with it. He contends the entrepreneurs behind Club Penguin (sold to Disney) or Mint (sold to Intuit) -- or to go old-school, Berkshire Hathaway -- "winged" their way to success. But he doesn't stop there: Even Fortune 500 CEOs, Nobel Prize winners, and U.S. presidents — all are really good at winging it. Proclaiming Nobel Prize winners in fields like Chemistry or Physics are "winging it" is, frankly, uninformed and insulting.
    - Alex3917 15y ago
      "He contends the entrepreneurs behind Club Penguin (sold to Disney) or Mint (sold to Intuit)" I can't speak for Mint, but Scott Cook (who founded Intuit) was definitely winging it: http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail523.html# http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail523.html#
      - jeromec 15y ago
        Yes, I didn't say all entrepreneurs have a clear idea of what they want to do, how they will do it, and how it's likely to come out -- many clearly don't. However, that's not always the case. I believe Club Penguin, a site that clearly targeted a demographic of youth, and Mint which targeted personal finance, are examples of companies set up from day one with a clear idea of what they were trying to accomplish.
vannevar 15y ago
Then I did it again with different code, without leveraging the existing user base, just to see if it was all luck. Did you post it under a different name and account that none of your friends or contacts knew about? Just curious how you were able to be sure none of the existing user base or any of the notoriety you gained from the first hit contributed to the second.
- goo 15y ago
  They were fairly different demographics- for the second one I did post a link to it from a small site I made that shared the demographic a tiny bit (ragecaptions.com), and that seeded it with like 100 visitors a day, but that was it. Also, I obviously told my friends about it, but I have just a modest social network. For the curious, the first site was mylifeisaverage.com, the second was mylifeisbro.com. I never connected the two in any way (other than obviously playing off of the "My Life Is..." meme that had begun, but anyone could do that. See my life is twilight, etc.) And fear not, I have no more 'mylifeis...' sites in production. I think a third one would just be sad.

by goo 15y ago

SoftwareMaven 15y ago

I agree with you completely, but I do think the biggest thing holding people back is fear, either that they won't do the right thing or they will fail. As I told my kids tonight, be do-ers, not spectators.

Alex3917 15y ago
"We have to create culture. Don't watch TV, don't read magazines, don't even listen to NPR; create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe, and if you're worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered, you're giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that you want to dress like X or have lips like Y. This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told 'no', we're unimportant, we're peripheral. 'Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.' And then you're a player, you don't want to even play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTPFs1diXp0#t=1m19s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTPFs1diXp0#t=1m19s
ericmoritz 15y ago
Everyone has their own internal FUD generator, we just need to acknowledge our own FUD and ignore it because we all can do amazing things if we don't let it control us.

jeromec 15y ago

Yeah, according to the author I guess Einstein was "winging it" too.

BasDirks 15y ago
Don't know why you were downvoted, it's a decent point you make. There are people who dedicated their entire life to an idea or ideal, and succeed _that_ way. Perhaps it's useful to distinguish between "entrepreneurial" success-stories and achievements like Einstein's
- jeromec 15y ago
  Well, yeah, I might give him some slack if he limited it to entrepreneurial success, although I still wouldn't agree with it. He contends the entrepreneurs behind Club Penguin (sold to Disney) or Mint (sold to Intuit) -- or to go old-school, Berkshire Hathaway -- "winged" their way to success. But he doesn't stop there: Even Fortune 500 CEOs, Nobel Prize winners, and U.S. presidents — all are really good at winging it. Proclaiming Nobel Prize winners in fields like Chemistry or Physics are "winging it" is, frankly, uninformed and insulting.
  - Alex3917 15y ago
    "He contends the entrepreneurs behind Club Penguin (sold to Disney) or Mint (sold to Intuit)" I can't speak for Mint, but Scott Cook (who founded Intuit) was definitely winging it: http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail523.html# http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail523.html#
    - jeromec 15y ago
      Yes, I didn't say all entrepreneurs have a clear idea of what they want to do, how they will do it, and how it's likely to come out -- many clearly don't. However, that's not always the case. I believe Club Penguin, a site that clearly targeted a demographic of youth, and Mint which targeted personal finance, are examples of companies set up from day one with a clear idea of what they were trying to accomplish.

vannevar 15y ago

Then I did it again with different code, without leveraging the existing user base, just to see if it was all luck. Did you post it under a different name and account that none of your friends or contacts knew about? Just curious how you were able to be sure none of the existing user base or any of the notoriety you gained from the first hit contributed to the second.

goo 15y ago
They were fairly different demographics- for the second one I did post a link to it from a small site I made that shared the demographic a tiny bit (ragecaptions.com), and that seeded it with like 100 visitors a day, but that was it. Also, I obviously told my friends about it, but I have just a modest social network. For the curious, the first site was mylifeisaverage.com, the second was mylifeisbro.com. I never connected the two in any way (other than obviously playing off of the "My Life Is..." meme that had begun, but anyone could do that. See my life is twilight, etc.) And fear not, I have no more 'mylifeis...' sites in production. I think a third one would just be sad.