3 ms·

Was your startup successful? Knowing that would help readers decide whether your advice is credible.

jcc80 14y ago
That would be interesting but anecdotal. It wouldn't establish credibility of the advice one way or the other. Similar to survivorship bias examples. Most famous example I can think of is the 37Signals guys. DHH has talked about how he wasn't exactly burning the midnight oil when he built Basecamp, but instead did it part-time. That worked for him but may not for others. Beyond that, it depends on what you value in life. The commenter probably doesn't care about being the richest guy in the cemetery while someone else may be obsessed with keeping score. Not saying one way is better than another - to each his own.
- fearless 14y ago
  It's more about context. GP could be saying "I wish I hadn't worked as much on this startup because it failed and the time was wasted" or "I wish I hadn't worked as much on this startup because it was a huge success and would have been successful even if I worked less".
  - Shamanmuni 14y ago
    Maybe it's not about succeeding or failing, and he is talking about how you spend your time; your life. I read the article as "you are a startup founder, forget about having a life and get to work!"; I would be surprised if the writer turned out to be older than 25, it's a mindset typical of that age. Perhaps in the future, even succeeding, you'll look back to those younger days in which you put aside everything for your pet project and realise you lost the opportunity to have great experiences with your friends, boy/girlfriends, spouse, kids and/or family. Remember, working passionately in what you love is great, but forgeting that you are not a working machine, and that you work to live, not the reverse, are perhaps more valuable advice for your future self than all the books on productivity in the world combined.
drumdance 14y ago
The startup was successful in that it had a good exit for me and my investors. As a going concern it was a failure. My point was that, as I've gotten older, I've found that my most meaningful experiences have come from seemingly random encounters with people. The startup world is full of interesting people, but they all are kind of the same in terms of their daily lives and motivations. I wish I had spent more time in my twenties connecting with people who care about things besides venture capital, IPOs and the latest technology stack. To that end, I now go out of the way to stimulate more random encounters. I'd rather take a salsa dance class than go to a big data meetup.

jcc80 14y ago

That would be interesting but anecdotal. It wouldn't establish credibility of the advice one way or the other. Similar to survivorship bias examples. Most famous example I can think of is the 37Signals guys. DHH has talked about how he wasn't exactly burning the midnight oil when he built Basecamp, but instead did it part-time. That worked for him but may not for others. Beyond that, it depends on what you value in life. The commenter probably doesn't care about being the richest guy in the cemetery while someone else may be obsessed with keeping score. Not saying one way is better than another - to each his own.

fearless 14y ago
It's more about context. GP could be saying "I wish I hadn't worked as much on this startup because it failed and the time was wasted" or "I wish I hadn't worked as much on this startup because it was a huge success and would have been successful even if I worked less".
- Shamanmuni 14y ago
  Maybe it's not about succeeding or failing, and he is talking about how you spend your time; your life. I read the article as "you are a startup founder, forget about having a life and get to work!"; I would be surprised if the writer turned out to be older than 25, it's a mindset typical of that age. Perhaps in the future, even succeeding, you'll look back to those younger days in which you put aside everything for your pet project and realise you lost the opportunity to have great experiences with your friends, boy/girlfriends, spouse, kids and/or family. Remember, working passionately in what you love is great, but forgeting that you are not a working machine, and that you work to live, not the reverse, are perhaps more valuable advice for your future self than all the books on productivity in the world combined.

drumdance 14y ago

The startup was successful in that it had a good exit for me and my investors. As a going concern it was a failure. My point was that, as I've gotten older, I've found that my most meaningful experiences have come from seemingly random encounters with people. The startup world is full of interesting people, but they all are kind of the same in terms of their daily lives and motivations. I wish I had spent more time in my twenties connecting with people who care about things besides venture capital, IPOs and the latest technology stack. To that end, I now go out of the way to stimulate more random encounters. I'd rather take a salsa dance class than go to a big data meetup.