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Is it better for your "Instant Millionaire" to spend a. 30 days or b. 2+ months ...learning that his idea "turns out to be crap?" It is better for the "legi

by mapgrep 15y ago

Is it better for your "Instant Millionaire" to spend a. 30 days or b. 2+ months ...learning that his idea "turns out to be crap?" It is better for the "legit hacker" to spend a. 30 days or b. 2+ months ...to learn that "there's a lot more to it than just building version 1?" You seem to think that failure is an unexpected outcome of rapid development. In fact it is a key GOAL of rapid development.

lwat 15y ago
[Failure] is a key GOAL of rapid development. In that case you are doing it wrong.
billpatrianakos 15y ago
I think failure as a goal is total nonsense and another one of those ideas that's become popular but is just bad advice. Failing teaches you what not to do. Instead people should be learning from success. Do your homework, put out something based on educated research and focus on what is working and repeat it. Learning from successes gives you something you can use again and again. Learning from failure gives you a one time lesson in what not to do which is far less valuable. There's more than enough information floating about on what works that people can easily access and fit to their needs. Even people with completely revolutionary ideas that have never been done before can benefit as lessons in marketing, design, and coding techniques apply to everyone. If you've ever met an Imstant Millionaire you'll notice they don't learn from their mistakes. There's always some excuse and enough blame to put on everyone but themselves. In the end they always end up pursuing another bad idea in the same way somehow convincing themselves that this time it'll be different. I've come across a bunch of these people and often they're working on several doomed ideas at once, going about each the same way. As for the legit hacker I really wonder what they really learn. You may be perfectly right but if I put myself in those shoes my mind works in a way that if my 30 day app failed I'd blame it on bad design, not enough buzz, or somehow blame my code for not being objected oriented or functional or maybe I just didn't use the right framework. Now, despite my disagreement with failure as a goal I think people with that mindset are much better off than others. The problem is the people I'm talking about don't have this mindset. They simply read about how someone else did it ans think "me too! I'll do it too!" with no understanding that what they're reading about is either a stroke of luck or was built by someone whos had the right plan and mindset.
spobo 15y ago
The goal is to quickly test what works and what doesn't. Not to fail. And actually, it is to test the assumptions you have about your potential customers. Sadly, you can't scale something you wrote in a couple of days. And the feature set will be just the basics, if that. For creating a product where you can actually start making a living you need to invest a little more time. But it's nice to know ahead that you are actually running with an idea that works. I also think the fad of "look what I wrote this morning!!" is absolutely ridiculous. But it is a good way to get some quick visitors to verify your new idea.

by mapgrep 15y ago

lwat 15y ago

[Failure] is a key GOAL of rapid development. In that case you are doing it wrong.

billpatrianakos 15y ago

I think failure as a goal is total nonsense and another one of those ideas that's become popular but is just bad advice. Failing teaches you what not to do. Instead people should be learning from success. Do your homework, put out something based on educated research and focus on what is working and repeat it. Learning from successes gives you something you can use again and again. Learning from failure gives you a one time lesson in what not to do which is far less valuable. There's more than enough information floating about on what works that people can easily access and fit to their needs. Even people with completely revolutionary ideas that have never been done before can benefit as lessons in marketing, design, and coding techniques apply to everyone. If you've ever met an Imstant Millionaire you'll notice they don't learn from their mistakes. There's always some excuse and enough blame to put on everyone but themselves. In the end they always end up pursuing another bad idea in the same way somehow convincing themselves that this time it'll be different. I've come across a bunch of these people and often they're working on several doomed ideas at once, going about each the same way. As for the legit hacker I really wonder what they really learn. You may be perfectly right but if I put myself in those shoes my mind works in a way that if my 30 day app failed I'd blame it on bad design, not enough buzz, or somehow blame my code for not being objected oriented or functional or maybe I just didn't use the right framework. Now, despite my disagreement with failure as a goal I think people with that mindset are much better off than others. The problem is the people I'm talking about don't have this mindset. They simply read about how someone else did it ans think "me too! I'll do it too!" with no understanding that what they're reading about is either a stroke of luck or was built by someone whos had the right plan and mindset.

spobo 15y ago

The goal is to quickly test what works and what doesn't. Not to fail. And actually, it is to test the assumptions you have about your potential customers. Sadly, you can't scale something you wrote in a couple of days. And the feature set will be just the basics, if that. For creating a product where you can actually start making a living you need to invest a little more time. But it's nice to know ahead that you are actually running with an idea that works. I also think the fad of "look what I wrote this morning!!" is absolutely ridiculous. But it is a good way to get some quick visitors to verify your new idea.