5 ms·

"I agree with Mark Zuckerberg that most of us will only have one really good business idea in our lives." I think the founders of Microsoft, Dropbox, Zynga, an

by justin 14y ago

"I agree with Mark Zuckerberg that most of us will only have one really good business idea in our lives." I think the founders of Microsoft, Dropbox, Zynga, and many, many others would disagree. Even if we do on average only have one good business idea in our lives, it probably won't be the first one you work on. The author uses Twitter as an example, which was actually a spinoff of Evan Williams' second company.. he'd already had one great idea, Blogger, which was sold to Google.

smalter 14y ago
This reminds me of my logic professor in college. He would often tell us stories about Kurt Godel, who he'd worked with at the IAS. My prof blew me away one day when he said that Godel had 3 good ideas -- Godel numbering, and two more that I can't remember. He didn't say it in a way that was meant to put down Godel at all. I took it as an homage to original thought and what it really meant to have a good idea.
- cb18 14y ago
  Godel numbering, and two more that I can't remember. hmm... That list seems incomplete.
  - dllthomas 14y ago
    Better than inconsistent.
- mafribe 14y ago
  Gödel numbers were invented by Leibniz a few hundred years earlier. It's not known whether Gödel knew about this when he proved incompletness, but given that Gödel was a serious Leiniz scholar especially later in life, and held him in highest esteem, it is not impossible that he did. That said, Gödel had many more great ideas.
  - Confusion 14y ago
    It's probably more accurate to say that his great idea was to recognize what you could do with Gödel numbers: meta-mathematics.
edwinnathaniel 14y ago
Meanwhile Wordpress is eating the blogging world not by spoon but by a HUGE bowl _and_ making money, creating community of users and consultants to live off Wordpress. Was Broadcast.com a great idea? :D
- confluence 14y ago
  It sure as hell was. Just way too early. Look at Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Vimeo and Veoh for some recent examples. It was also a success for its shareholders, with a perfectly timed sale just as the dotcom bubble reached its final crescendo. Not a good idea for Yahoo! though - but then again - you win some, you lose some.
  - anigbrowl 14y ago
    Hmmm. Drop me a line.
gnaritas 14y ago
When someone says most X, responding with anecdotes about exceptions doesn't really work as a means of disputing them. That there are exceptions are implicit in the fact that he said most.
- blafro 14y ago
  He says most X, and then supports that with anecdotal evidence some of which is false. In fact I can come up with more examples of exceptions than he can come up with examples that conform to his thesis. Jack Dorsey (twitter,square), Elon Musk (paypal, tesla,spacex), Tony Hsieh (linkexchange, zappos), justin kan (justin.tv, twitch,socialcam) are some examples of entrepreneurs with serial success. I can think of a lot more. Not disputing the thrust of the article but he doesn't support it with a lot of solid examples.
  - larrys 14y ago
    I think the fact that we don't hear more about the serial successes and we can name them on one hand says something. These founders have everything going for them the second time around with being able to attract money and talent as two very important things to have. And even with that it seems at least from what I've read the the second time big successes are few and far between.
  - gnaritas 14y ago
    You could name a hundred, it still doesn't dispute "most" as there are tens of millions of businessmen out there, the vast majority of which aren't serial successes. Regardless, when someone says "most" they are already conceding the point that there are likely many exceptions. Rebutting with examples to make an argument they've already conceded is simply pointless and shows you aren't really paying attention to what they're trying to say.
    - blafro 14y ago
      And you can keep saying "most", it still doesn't dispute the fact that without hard data or more solid anecdotal evidence to back your claim, you're mostly talking out of your arse.
tomasien 14y ago
Square! Path! For God's sake you can kind of throw Spotify in there!
- mikeryan 14y ago
  Color! oh. wait... ;-)
mikeryan 14y ago
The author uses Twitter as an example, which was actually a spinoff of Evan Williams' second company Its also a bit disingenuous to completely ignore Jack Dorsey who's founded and working full time for two of the most successful startups around.
larrys 14y ago
"which was actually a spinoff of Evan Williams' second company." I think (as I remember the story about this) he didn't believe in that idea enough to even want to keep the investors money. Assuming of course he was being truthful about his thoughts on the spinoff.

by justin 14y ago

smalter 14y ago

This reminds me of my logic professor in college. He would often tell us stories about Kurt Godel, who he'd worked with at the IAS. My prof blew me away one day when he said that Godel had 3 good ideas -- Godel numbering, and two more that I can't remember. He didn't say it in a way that was meant to put down Godel at all. I took it as an homage to original thought and what it really meant to have a good idea.

cb18 14y ago
Godel numbering, and two more that I can't remember. hmm... That list seems incomplete.
- dllthomas 14y ago
  Better than inconsistent.
mafribe 14y ago
Gödel numbers were invented by Leibniz a few hundred years earlier. It's not known whether Gödel knew about this when he proved incompletness, but given that Gödel was a serious Leiniz scholar especially later in life, and held him in highest esteem, it is not impossible that he did. That said, Gödel had many more great ideas.
- Confusion 14y ago
  It's probably more accurate to say that his great idea was to recognize what you could do with Gödel numbers: meta-mathematics.

edwinnathaniel 14y ago

Meanwhile Wordpress is eating the blogging world not by spoon but by a HUGE bowl _and_ making money, creating community of users and consultants to live off Wordpress. Was Broadcast.com a great idea? :D

confluence 14y ago
It sure as hell was. Just way too early. Look at Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Vimeo and Veoh for some recent examples. It was also a success for its shareholders, with a perfectly timed sale just as the dotcom bubble reached its final crescendo. Not a good idea for Yahoo! though - but then again - you win some, you lose some.
- anigbrowl 14y ago
  Hmmm. Drop me a line.

gnaritas 14y ago

When someone says most X, responding with anecdotes about exceptions doesn't really work as a means of disputing them. That there are exceptions are implicit in the fact that he said most.

blafro 14y ago
He says most X, and then supports that with anecdotal evidence some of which is false. In fact I can come up with more examples of exceptions than he can come up with examples that conform to his thesis. Jack Dorsey (twitter,square), Elon Musk (paypal, tesla,spacex), Tony Hsieh (linkexchange, zappos), justin kan (justin.tv, twitch,socialcam) are some examples of entrepreneurs with serial success. I can think of a lot more. Not disputing the thrust of the article but he doesn't support it with a lot of solid examples.
- larrys 14y ago
  I think the fact that we don't hear more about the serial successes and we can name them on one hand says something. These founders have everything going for them the second time around with being able to attract money and talent as two very important things to have. And even with that it seems at least from what I've read the the second time big successes are few and far between.
- gnaritas 14y ago
  You could name a hundred, it still doesn't dispute "most" as there are tens of millions of businessmen out there, the vast majority of which aren't serial successes. Regardless, when someone says "most" they are already conceding the point that there are likely many exceptions. Rebutting with examples to make an argument they've already conceded is simply pointless and shows you aren't really paying attention to what they're trying to say.
  - blafro 14y ago
    And you can keep saying "most", it still doesn't dispute the fact that without hard data or more solid anecdotal evidence to back your claim, you're mostly talking out of your arse.

tomasien 14y ago

Square! Path! For God's sake you can kind of throw Spotify in there!

mikeryan 14y ago
Color! oh. wait... ;-)

mikeryan 14y ago

The author uses Twitter as an example, which was actually a spinoff of Evan Williams' second company Its also a bit disingenuous to completely ignore Jack Dorsey who's founded and working full time for two of the most successful startups around.

larrys 14y ago

"which was actually a spinoff of Evan Williams' second company." I think (as I remember the story about this) he didn't believe in that idea enough to even want to keep the investors money. Assuming of course he was being truthful about his thoughts on the spinoff.