6 ms·

Every individual struggle is unique and personal, but if we zoom out, there seems to be an interesting emerging pattern in startup comms. I've recently seen man

by e1g 3y ago

Every individual struggle is unique and personal, but if we zoom out, there seems to be an interesting emerging pattern in startup comms. I've recently seen many similar "public vulnerability" essays come from similar elite business school-graduated, McKinsey-trained, YC-backed, VC-funded young founders framing their experience as an "underdog". I'm genuinely curious about the origin of this style - they are almost pitch-perfect and frequently follow the same playbook echoing the "trauma essay" that overtook college applications in the last decade (eloquently and succinctly described by a practitioner at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyD0m7JXgjA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyD0m7JXgjA).

angarg12 3y ago
The "self-made person" and "pulled by bootstraps" narrative is very American. People love to frame their success as the outcome of their own effort rather than from a source of privilege. If you read accounts from entrepreneurs, almost all of them will tell such a story, mostly glossing over attending elite schools, having connections, or receiving large amounts of funding. Even Cal Newport normalizes this in "so good they can't ignore you" by saying that "small breaks" such as connections to a VC are relatively common. I guess I must live in a different planet.
- kashyapc 3y ago
  On "framing personal success", Michael Sandel puts it very well[0], when he says: "Meritocratic hubris reflects the tendency of winners to inhale too deeply of their success, to forget the luck and good fortune that helped them on their way. It is the smug conviction of those who land on top that they deserve their fate, and that those on the bottom deserve theirs, too. This attitude is the moral companion of technocratic politics." * * * PS: I wouldn't give much weight to Newport's words—he's a clever marketer[1][2] and repeats the same few points ad nauseam in endless "books". The antidote to Newport is the classic originals that he's poorly paraphrasing from. I mentioned a few here[1] in the past. [0] In his book, The Tyranny of Merit — https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374289980/thetyrannyofmerit https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374289980/thetyrannyofmer... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29035998 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29035998 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20082125 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20082125
  - rqtwteye 3y ago
    That’s true. I have read same books of Newport and I thought they could be summarized on two pages probably. But I guess that applies to most self help authors. Their whole life work can usually be summarized on a few pages.
    - kashyapc 3y ago
      Absolutely. The aggravating thing with Newport is that for a guy advocating "minimalism", he churns out too much needless crap. The irony seems definitely lost on him. As for avoiding the plague that is the filler books, a robust solution is to pick books that have stood the test of time. Hard to beat that strategy. At least that's how I roll. The onus is us, as the reader, to be ruthless about picking the books that truly deserve our attention.
- aml702 3y ago
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ericmcer 3y ago
That’s a great point and kinda hilarious. Parents who pushed you too aggressively towards success being the biggest obstacle you faced on your path to success. The trauma.

by e1g 3y ago

angarg12 3y ago

The "self-made person" and "pulled by bootstraps" narrative is very American. People love to frame their success as the outcome of their own effort rather than from a source of privilege. If you read accounts from entrepreneurs, almost all of them will tell such a story, mostly glossing over attending elite schools, having connections, or receiving large amounts of funding. Even Cal Newport normalizes this in "so good they can't ignore you" by saying that "small breaks" such as connections to a VC are relatively common. I guess I must live in a different planet.

kashyapc 3y ago
On "framing personal success", Michael Sandel puts it very well[0], when he says: "Meritocratic hubris reflects the tendency of winners to inhale too deeply of their success, to forget the luck and good fortune that helped them on their way. It is the smug conviction of those who land on top that they deserve their fate, and that those on the bottom deserve theirs, too. This attitude is the moral companion of technocratic politics." * * * PS: I wouldn't give much weight to Newport's words—he's a clever marketer[1][2] and repeats the same few points ad nauseam in endless "books". The antidote to Newport is the classic originals that he's poorly paraphrasing from. I mentioned a few here[1] in the past. [0] In his book, The Tyranny of Merit — https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374289980/thetyrannyofmerit https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374289980/thetyrannyofmer... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29035998 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29035998 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20082125 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20082125
- rqtwteye 3y ago
  That’s true. I have read same books of Newport and I thought they could be summarized on two pages probably. But I guess that applies to most self help authors. Their whole life work can usually be summarized on a few pages.
  - kashyapc 3y ago
    Absolutely. The aggravating thing with Newport is that for a guy advocating "minimalism", he churns out too much needless crap. The irony seems definitely lost on him. As for avoiding the plague that is the filler books, a robust solution is to pick books that have stood the test of time. Hard to beat that strategy. At least that's how I roll. The onus is us, as the reader, to be ruthless about picking the books that truly deserve our attention.
aml702 3y ago
[dead]

ericmcer 3y ago

That’s a great point and kinda hilarious. Parents who pushed you too aggressively towards success being the biggest obstacle you faced on your path to success. The trauma.