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You've detailed why those startups failed, but I don't think you've touched on whether you've learned anything from your failures. Maybe the time period went b

You've detailed why those startups failed, but I don't think you've touched on whether you've learned anything from your failures. Maybe the time period went by too fast but it seems like you kept making the same mistakes over and over again: 1. Not properly validating your ideas. 2. Working with other people with ADD. 3. Not marketing the idea, or hiring someone with marketing knowledge to push the ideas out. 4. Not building something you'd actually use and pay for yourself. Did I miss anything? Side note, I know tons of hackers that just build stuff for fun and are always "just getting by" with their ideas when partnering with a marketing or social media person would have done wonders for the startup. I never understood why they wouldn't just get the proper support system in place before drowning themselves in code (even when this step has been s-p-e-l-l-e-d out for them as a necessary step. Is the whole point just to code stuff and to solve unique problems they haven't solved before? I figured most hackers like to just crawl into a hole and code and not have to worry about anything else about the business - if that's the case, why not just stick w/ a 9-5 job?

derefr 15y ago
> I figured most hackers like to just crawl into a hole and code and not have to worry about anything else about the business - if that's the case, why not just stick w/ a 9-5 job? Because a 9-5 job also involves doing tons of things that aren't coding. Mostly, communicating your intent and your results to other people--not to convince anyone of anything, but because they need information you already have in order to work with you. And, unsurprisingly, having business partners also requires this... but being a single founder doesn't. Obscurity is the price many pay for being able to avoid socialization (with anyone except their customers, and perhaps not even them.)
foxylad 15y ago
I think a lot of hackers actually subconsciously sabotage projects when they've done the interesting coding. I think I detect a whiff of that in this article.
- kappaknight 15y ago
  LOL - I'm convinced this is why so many of Google's lab stuff are stuck in beta. The cool parts have been built but nobody wants to finish the last 20% that takes up 80% of the time. =)
funkah 15y ago
Indeed, why not. I like writing code, let someone else deal with the boring stuff.

derefr 15y ago

> I figured most hackers like to just crawl into a hole and code and not have to worry about anything else about the business - if that's the case, why not just stick w/ a 9-5 job? Because a 9-5 job also involves doing tons of things that aren't coding. Mostly, communicating your intent and your results to other people--not to convince anyone of anything, but because they need information you already have in order to work with you. And, unsurprisingly, having business partners also requires this... but being a single founder doesn't. Obscurity is the price many pay for being able to avoid socialization (with anyone except their customers, and perhaps not even them.)

foxylad 15y ago

I think a lot of hackers actually subconsciously sabotage projects when they've done the interesting coding. I think I detect a whiff of that in this article.

kappaknight 15y ago
LOL - I'm convinced this is why so many of Google's lab stuff are stuck in beta. The cool parts have been built but nobody wants to finish the last 20% that takes up 80% of the time. =)

funkah 15y ago

Indeed, why not. I like writing code, let someone else deal with the boring stuff.