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I'm not convinced. He says: "There are great startup ideas lying around unexploited right under our noses. One reason we don't see them is a phenomenon I call

by diego 15y ago

I'm not convinced. He says: "There are great startup ideas lying around unexploited right under our noses. One reason we don't see them is a phenomenon I call schlep blindness. Schlep was originally a Yiddish word but has passed into general use in the US. It means a tedious, unpleasant task." I wouldn't say we don't see them. The problem is we don't want to take on them. Founders know that the odds of getting rich are slim, so they (we) want to have fun during the journey. Investors on the other hand, want to make money. They don't care if founders have fun. They need to convince founders to do unpleasant things that have a chance of doing spectacularly well.

nostrademons 15y ago
I think you're interpreting "don't see them" in a way different from how PG meant it. Of course we "see them", as in "are aware of them". There're pretty common threads on HN and Reddit where people lament "Oh, wouldn't be awesome if <big hairy audacious goal> were solved!" I think he meant "see them" as "see them as something that could realistically be solved by my startup". And that's not really divorceable from being willing to take them on. After all, if you recognize that something is a problem and recognize that you can solve it - why wouldn't you? What's holding you back?
- diego 15y ago
  I could solve problems that are extremely unrewarding to me. Some problems are very unsexy to most people. In order to tackle those problems you must be motivated by either extreme altruism, or a belief that your odds of success are high. The latter is probably unrealistic and irrational for most problems worth solving.
  - AznHisoka 15y ago
    Some problems are also beyond most of our scope. Most people here think they're extremely smart. smarter than the average person. But all we really possess are superior technical skills. In reality, we just own a tool others don't. But solving those hairy problems requires special insight/research outside of technology. Having those technical skills(coding, design, user experience, etc) is just a pre-requisite and let's you into the arena.

by diego 15y ago

nostrademons 15y ago

I think you're interpreting "don't see them" in a way different from how PG meant it. Of course we "see them", as in "are aware of them". There're pretty common threads on HN and Reddit where people lament "Oh, wouldn't be awesome if <big hairy audacious goal> were solved!" I think he meant "see them" as "see them as something that could realistically be solved by my startup". And that's not really divorceable from being willing to take them on. After all, if you recognize that something is a problem and recognize that you can solve it - why wouldn't you? What's holding you back?

diego 15y ago
I could solve problems that are extremely unrewarding to me. Some problems are very unsexy to most people. In order to tackle those problems you must be motivated by either extreme altruism, or a belief that your odds of success are high. The latter is probably unrealistic and irrational for most problems worth solving.
- AznHisoka 15y ago
  Some problems are also beyond most of our scope. Most people here think they're extremely smart. smarter than the average person. But all we really possess are superior technical skills. In reality, we just own a tool others don't. But solving those hairy problems requires special insight/research outside of technology. Having those technical skills(coding, design, user experience, etc) is just a pre-requisite and let's you into the arena.