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Quote from the article: So you set up your easel and get out your paints in front of a nice-looking house and start to puzzle over how to start. Suddenly 500 o

by jenius 15y ago

Quote from the article: So you set up your easel and get out your paints in front of a nice-looking house and start to puzzle over how to start. Suddenly 500 other people all arrive -- some of them who actually know how to paint -- and set up all around you. Not only is it annoying, it's also distracting. And it can lead to a kind of herd mentality where everything is attempted, but nothing is really tried. This is called "competition" - you will find it everywhere you go. Is it "annoying" and "distracting" that you are not the only one thinking about or working on something? Maybe. But it will never happen that way in life. And even if you are the only one and you finish your work, as soon as it's out and someone sees it, they will copy you. The way that you deal with competition is to be better than everyone else - not seek a place where there's no competition. The approach this guy advocates and the way he complains about competition is not the way to approach problems. If someone shows up at the house who actually knows how to paint and you don't, it's time to bow out - you just lost. Practice up and come back next time knowing how to paint.

geoffw8 15y ago
You are not wrong, however, I think the you have maybe missed the main point in the article which is yeah, competition is inevitable, but at least while your getting started its probably best not to share your idea (yes, just an idea) with a massive audience of hungry biz/coders/wannabe's/veterans and instead keep things hush hush until your ready to put it out there.
ed209 15y ago
I agree with the sentiment of your comment, but being better than everyone else is not enough [1]. I'm sure there a lots of better alternatives to things you use in your life, but you're not using them because you never heard of them (marketing) or it never got to market (bad financial management) or many other areas where that better product got beaten. [1] I'll take better than everyone in this case to mean better at painting and not better at everything.
temphn 15y ago
But what if you are better than everyone else at coming up with ideas, but slower at executing (say in the 90th rather than the 99th percentile)? Just as in mathematics, solving a problem vs. simply checking that the solution is right do not have the same degree of difficulty.

by jenius 15y ago

geoffw8 15y ago

You are not wrong, however, I think the you have maybe missed the main point in the article which is yeah, competition is inevitable, but at least while your getting started its probably best not to share your idea (yes, just an idea) with a massive audience of hungry biz/coders/wannabe's/veterans and instead keep things hush hush until your ready to put it out there.

ed209 15y ago

I agree with the sentiment of your comment, but being better than everyone else is not enough [1]. I'm sure there a lots of better alternatives to things you use in your life, but you're not using them because you never heard of them (marketing) or it never got to market (bad financial management) or many other areas where that better product got beaten. [1] I'll take better than everyone in this case to mean better at painting and not better at everything.

temphn 15y ago

But what if you are better than everyone else at coming up with ideas, but slower at executing (say in the 90th rather than the 99th percentile)? Just as in mathematics, solving a problem vs. simply checking that the solution is right do not have the same degree of difficulty.