3 ms·

Absolutely golden. Paul Graham et al. are spewing out these godawful, borderline fucking idiotic ideas and he giggles as all the emptyheaded fucking idiots cop

Absolutely golden. Paul Graham et al. are spewing out these godawful, borderline fucking idiotic ideas and he giggles as all the emptyheaded fucking idiots copy it, try to interpret it and gospel it like some fucking world changing mantra. Wake the fuck up naive plus stupid mudabitches, those who have the brains often feed shit to you, so you won't succeed. Really, people are like pigeons. Walking around and picking up all kinds of debris, thinking that it will change their business or it has some groundbreaking idea enclosed within. Why? Because people are STUPID, utterly stupid, brainless monkeys. He said that the sky is not blue, but green. He is an established person with high net wealth, he must be right. So let's say the sky is green. Fake it till you make it, suuuuuure. Read books so you could hone your bullshit filter.

wg0 2y ago
And those"Lean Startup - million copies sold" pivot gurus.
- passion__desire 2y ago
  What about "Lean In"?
  - neerajdotname2 2y ago
    Fucking golden. I had forgotten about all this fucked up shit.
  - wg0 2y ago
    Now what is that? Didn't know about that.
jwr 2y ago
I wonder how many people understand your username (I my case, having a Hungarian friend helped).
- lofaszvanitt 2y ago
  That perfectly exemplifies my thoughts about certain happenings in this space.
nine_k 2y ago
Not really golden. Sounds like an annoyed teenager; it's sad because the author is smarter than that. Basically his message sounds like: "I build what I want and I don't care." Well, yes, it works, as long as you enjoy the ride and don't plan to make money off it. (You of course can make money off the result, with some luck, if you build a useful thing.) Most of things in the initial hate list are not useless. They just are not worth obsessing over. You don't need tons of SEO, market research, or analytics. A small but nonzero amount is still useful. That guy, for instance, used the overdose of profanities as a marketing tool to successfully get his product and his personality on the HN front page. Mocking onboarding though is a more serious mistake. Most of your users won't "figure it out" unless you care about it well beforehand. "Have you done market research to figure out your pricing?" is a very, very reasonable question. But likely the research for your (tiny) upcoming product should take under one hour. Looking at your competition's offers and at people's reactions along the way could give you an idea or two how to (slightly) improve your own product. And "this whole notion that you have to build something innovative and magical" mixes up two unrelated things. Actually "innovative" is rare. But absolutely go for "magical" if you can! I see "magical" as "friction-free". Say, Docker was not very innovative but "docker run" was magical. Dropbox was famously lambasted on HN for not being innovative; still it was magical enough to be a big success. Google Wave was genuinely innovative, but it sorely lacked magic, "You’re a startup. You’re a founder. Fucking act like it." Nope, nope. A startup is a "go big or go home" kind of deal. A founder's job is to convince VCs that the thing may go big, and do an honest effort to make it happen. But with this attitude, you're not a startup. You just have got a side project, or two. It's a completely fine thing to do. "My cushion is my consulting gig. Even if all my products tank, I’ll be fine." Good for you, sir. But this is a Wendy's.
- scrollaway 2y ago
  Agree with you until the last paragraph. Startups don't have to go for a VC and founders aren't VC pets unless they choose it. "Lifestyle startups" can absolutely be startups.
  - nine_k 2y ago
    I see. But I'm used to the notion of a "startup" being a vehicle to take over the world by explosive growth. A coffee shop is a fine lifestyle business, but not a startup. Theoretically explosive growth can be self-sustained, but usually it's impossible to grow fast enough (even when the market is ready for taking) without taking some external funding, as an investment or at least as a loan.
namaria 2y ago
The bear is sticky with honey
tim333 2y ago
This seems to fit quite well with Paul Graham's main 'Make something people want' mantra. Here the guy is making a version of Calendly at 1/10th the price which he says people in India want as they can't afford the normal one.

wg0 2y ago

And those"Lean Startup - million copies sold" pivot gurus.

passion__desire 2y ago
What about "Lean In"?
- neerajdotname2 2y ago
  Fucking golden. I had forgotten about all this fucked up shit.
- wg0 2y ago
  Now what is that? Didn't know about that.

jwr 2y ago

I wonder how many people understand your username (I my case, having a Hungarian friend helped).

lofaszvanitt 2y ago
That perfectly exemplifies my thoughts about certain happenings in this space.

nine_k 2y ago

Not really golden. Sounds like an annoyed teenager; it's sad because the author is smarter than that. Basically his message sounds like: "I build what I want and I don't care." Well, yes, it works, as long as you enjoy the ride and don't plan to make money off it. (You of course can make money off the result, with some luck, if you build a useful thing.) Most of things in the initial hate list are not useless. They just are not worth obsessing over. You don't need tons of SEO, market research, or analytics. A small but nonzero amount is still useful. That guy, for instance, used the overdose of profanities as a marketing tool to successfully get his product and his personality on the HN front page. Mocking onboarding though is a more serious mistake. Most of your users won't "figure it out" unless you care about it well beforehand. "Have you done market research to figure out your pricing?" is a very, very reasonable question. But likely the research for your (tiny) upcoming product should take under one hour. Looking at your competition's offers and at people's reactions along the way could give you an idea or two how to (slightly) improve your own product. And "this whole notion that you have to build something innovative and magical" mixes up two unrelated things. Actually "innovative" is rare. But absolutely go for "magical" if you can! I see "magical" as "friction-free". Say, Docker was not very innovative but "docker run" was magical. Dropbox was famously lambasted on HN for not being innovative; still it was magical enough to be a big success. Google Wave was genuinely innovative, but it sorely lacked magic, "You’re a startup. You’re a founder. Fucking act like it." Nope, nope. A startup is a "go big or go home" kind of deal. A founder's job is to convince VCs that the thing may go big, and do an honest effort to make it happen. But with this attitude, you're not a startup. You just have got a side project, or two. It's a completely fine thing to do. "My cushion is my consulting gig. Even if all my products tank, I’ll be fine." Good for you, sir. But this is a Wendy's.

scrollaway 2y ago
Agree with you until the last paragraph. Startups don't have to go for a VC and founders aren't VC pets unless they choose it. "Lifestyle startups" can absolutely be startups.
- nine_k 2y ago
  I see. But I'm used to the notion of a "startup" being a vehicle to take over the world by explosive growth. A coffee shop is a fine lifestyle business, but not a startup. Theoretically explosive growth can be self-sustained, but usually it's impossible to grow fast enough (even when the market is ready for taking) without taking some external funding, as an investment or at least as a loan.

namaria 2y ago

The bear is sticky with honey

tim333 2y ago

This seems to fit quite well with Paul Graham's main 'Make something people want' mantra. Here the guy is making a version of Calendly at 1/10th the price which he says people in India want as they can't afford the normal one.