3 ms·

If you think about it isn't the success of YC and other venture firms predicated upon doing something roughly the same?

ced 15y ago
In as much as you're trying to predict which startup will succeed, the data from the genome project is perfectly acceptable. The problem comes when you decide "I will do X because that's what successful startups do." If you don't understand why they do it, then it's a cargo-cult. But maybe... Maybe imitating successful people is the best you can do when you don't know what you're doing? You have a point, and I softened up the language in my post.
- danielharan 15y ago
  Maybe imitating successful people still leads to success, even though you have no idea why it does. Hell, maybe they're imitating their mentors too.
- Alex3917 15y ago
  "Maybe imitating successful people is the best you can do when you don't know what you're doing?" I've done this before with good results. I think the ideal strategy is to pick someone better than you, imitate them, and then once you surpass them to pick a new person to imitate, and so on. It's only after imitating five or six different people that you're able to develop your own theories, which is ultimately necessary if you want to reach true mastery.
  - davidw 15y ago
    I don't know... I've been walking around in a polo shirt and shorts and my millions still haven't materialized :-)
- todayiamme 15y ago
  Thank you for doing that. It's just really rare that people admit their mistakes and actually challenge their assumptions. None of us are right all the time, but we love pretending otherwise. So, thank you. To tell you the truth I don't agree with any of this. I think that we're dealing with human beings and you just can't find data on this. What you're searching for is a set of emotional traits that leads to this sort of behaviour, but identifying those traits is something really, really hard (try identifying the traits behind Endymion by Keats. We all know it when we feel it, but can we identify it down to certain x variables of y quantities [whatever they may be]? I really don't think so]. Defining them is harder still ( i.e. narrowing them down to 1 pint of magical substance A + another quart of shiny liquid B + a sword that has been dipped into the holy grail...). So, in my mind all you can do is learn and try. Try again. I hope that this makes sense.
edanm 15y ago
Just because YC invests successfully doesn't mean this research will be good. It's possible that finding common traits to successful entrepreneurs is achievable, but just wasn't achieved by this team. NOTE: I'm just pointing this out. I haven't read the report, and even if I had, I still wouldn't be even close to qualified to talk about whether it is valid or not.

ced 15y ago

In as much as you're trying to predict which startup will succeed, the data from the genome project is perfectly acceptable. The problem comes when you decide "I will do X because that's what successful startups do." If you don't understand why they do it, then it's a cargo-cult. But maybe... Maybe imitating successful people is the best you can do when you don't know what you're doing? You have a point, and I softened up the language in my post.

danielharan 15y ago
Maybe imitating successful people still leads to success, even though you have no idea why it does. Hell, maybe they're imitating their mentors too.
Alex3917 15y ago
"Maybe imitating successful people is the best you can do when you don't know what you're doing?" I've done this before with good results. I think the ideal strategy is to pick someone better than you, imitate them, and then once you surpass them to pick a new person to imitate, and so on. It's only after imitating five or six different people that you're able to develop your own theories, which is ultimately necessary if you want to reach true mastery.
- davidw 15y ago
  I don't know... I've been walking around in a polo shirt and shorts and my millions still haven't materialized :-)
todayiamme 15y ago
Thank you for doing that. It's just really rare that people admit their mistakes and actually challenge their assumptions. None of us are right all the time, but we love pretending otherwise. So, thank you. To tell you the truth I don't agree with any of this. I think that we're dealing with human beings and you just can't find data on this. What you're searching for is a set of emotional traits that leads to this sort of behaviour, but identifying those traits is something really, really hard (try identifying the traits behind Endymion by Keats. We all know it when we feel it, but can we identify it down to certain x variables of y quantities [whatever they may be]? I really don't think so]. Defining them is harder still ( i.e. narrowing them down to 1 pint of magical substance A + another quart of shiny liquid B + a sword that has been dipped into the holy grail...). So, in my mind all you can do is learn and try. Try again. I hope that this makes sense.

edanm 15y ago

Just because YC invests successfully doesn't mean this research will be good. It's possible that finding common traits to successful entrepreneurs is achievable, but just wasn't achieved by this team. NOTE: I'm just pointing this out. I haven't read the report, and even if I had, I still wouldn't be even close to qualified to talk about whether it is valid or not.