4 ms·

I find articles like this super interesting, but they remind me that I’m a deeply technical person and as such would never be able to thrive in the ‘business’ w

I find articles like this super interesting, but they remind me that I’m a deeply technical person and as such would never be able to thrive in the ‘business’ world. The modern YC startup philosophy of ‘make something people want’ seems to be only partially true. There’s this whole world of coffee dates, relationship building and salesmanship which always feels slimy to me.

cornfieldlabs 1y ago
Yep I'll never succeed in a world where I have to "dress the part". Luckily this is an era where it doesn't matter much
- sandeep1998 1y ago
  Do you run a business?
  - cornfieldlabs 1y ago
    Not yet :)
  - esperent 1y ago
    Yes. I never play fancy dress with suits. Formal for me means a nice, comfortable shirt and jeans or other clean trousers. On an average day I wear shorts and sandles because it's damn hot. I wear suits to funerals, and once to a wedding, but even most of the weddings I go to have a "smart casual" vibe them, no full suits required. I rarely meet with investors or anything like that, but when I do, not dressing up is a test. If they judge me for what I wear, beyond basic cleanliness, we're not a good fit for working together.
    - gsky 1y ago
      Wearing suits in a desert?
      - shash 1y ago
        With air conditioning... It's quite a prestige thing to be able to afford the amount of cooling needed to wear a suit in a desert...
        petesergeant 1y ago
        > It's quite a prestige thing to be able to afford the amount of cooling needed to wear a suit in a desert... I don’t believe you’ve ever been to Dubai if you think that cooling here is in any way a luxury. Your aircon breaking in the summer is treated like a health emergency. Nobody is living without aircon in the summer.
        shash 1y ago
        Yes of course. I meant as an answer to GP, it's not an issue because the whole society is run on the basis of access to air conditioning...
      - esperent 1y ago
        That's basically what the entire article is about, yes.
sandeep1998 1y ago
Same here. My career situation isn’t looking great, and I haven’t felt truly satisfied at any of the places I’ve worked. I do believe there’s a role out there that strikes a better balance between meaningful work and a sustainable lifestyle—but finding it feels almost as daunting as starting a business from scratch.
nicbou 1y ago
There is a gentler version of this that I, a technical person, deeply enjoy. Trust removes friction. Having an informal network of trusted peers makes everything easier. You get access to expert knowledge, helpful connections and opportunities simply because you're a friend. They also come to you when your knowledge is relevant to their task. I just see it as another community, except this one is centred around an industry. It's no slimier than introducing single friends to each other, borrowing tools from a friend, fixing a friend's computer or tipping them off when a flat frees up in your building. In my case, it means that I can call upon the knowledge of an immigration lawyer or a financial advisor for free. It also means that they get dozens of clients from me because they're my go-to experts.
shash 1y ago
You need to do those coffee dates and relationship building to figure out what (other) people want, so it's not even far removed from the philosophy you quote. Yeah, it's _ideal_ if you're your own customer and you have this intuitive knowledge of the product, but that's actually less common (and needn't be common either). As a tech person, I don't find it slimy (at least, anymore). On the pure tech front, it's a process of finding requirements, which flows into the this whole business conversation side of things. For example, if you view building a business that people want as a challenge, those requirements will vary from place to place and time to time, so finding that out is super important! Interestingly, I've always viewed the Indian business environment as one that requires a lot more relationship building than (say) a place like the valley, but this article seems to imply that the UAE probably views us the same way I view the US ecosystem...
roncesvalles 1y ago
This quote (or rather, "notion", since I no longer remember where I picked it up from) has stuck with me for over a decade: ultimately all business is based on trust; you can't encode everything in the contract.

cornfieldlabs 1y ago

Yep I'll never succeed in a world where I have to "dress the part". Luckily this is an era where it doesn't matter much

sandeep1998 1y ago
Do you run a business?
- cornfieldlabs 1y ago
  Not yet :)
- esperent 1y ago
  Yes. I never play fancy dress with suits. Formal for me means a nice, comfortable shirt and jeans or other clean trousers. On an average day I wear shorts and sandles because it's damn hot. I wear suits to funerals, and once to a wedding, but even most of the weddings I go to have a "smart casual" vibe them, no full suits required. I rarely meet with investors or anything like that, but when I do, not dressing up is a test. If they judge me for what I wear, beyond basic cleanliness, we're not a good fit for working together.
  - gsky 1y ago
    Wearing suits in a desert?
    - shash 1y ago
      With air conditioning... It's quite a prestige thing to be able to afford the amount of cooling needed to wear a suit in a desert...
      - petesergeant 1y ago
        > It's quite a prestige thing to be able to afford the amount of cooling needed to wear a suit in a desert... I don’t believe you’ve ever been to Dubai if you think that cooling here is in any way a luxury. Your aircon breaking in the summer is treated like a health emergency. Nobody is living without aircon in the summer.
        shash 1y ago
        Yes of course. I meant as an answer to GP, it's not an issue because the whole society is run on the basis of access to air conditioning...
    - esperent 1y ago
      That's basically what the entire article is about, yes.

sandeep1998 1y ago

Same here. My career situation isn’t looking great, and I haven’t felt truly satisfied at any of the places I’ve worked. I do believe there’s a role out there that strikes a better balance between meaningful work and a sustainable lifestyle—but finding it feels almost as daunting as starting a business from scratch.

nicbou 1y ago

There is a gentler version of this that I, a technical person, deeply enjoy. Trust removes friction. Having an informal network of trusted peers makes everything easier. You get access to expert knowledge, helpful connections and opportunities simply because you're a friend. They also come to you when your knowledge is relevant to their task. I just see it as another community, except this one is centred around an industry. It's no slimier than introducing single friends to each other, borrowing tools from a friend, fixing a friend's computer or tipping them off when a flat frees up in your building. In my case, it means that I can call upon the knowledge of an immigration lawyer or a financial advisor for free. It also means that they get dozens of clients from me because they're my go-to experts.

shash 1y ago

You need to do those coffee dates and relationship building to figure out what (other) people want, so it's not even far removed from the philosophy you quote. Yeah, it's _ideal_ if you're your own customer and you have this intuitive knowledge of the product, but that's actually less common (and needn't be common either). As a tech person, I don't find it slimy (at least, anymore). On the pure tech front, it's a process of finding requirements, which flows into the this whole business conversation side of things. For example, if you view building a business that people want as a challenge, those requirements will vary from place to place and time to time, so finding that out is super important! Interestingly, I've always viewed the Indian business environment as one that requires a lot more relationship building than (say) a place like the valley, but this article seems to imply that the UAE probably views us the same way I view the US ecosystem...

roncesvalles 1y ago

This quote (or rather, "notion", since I no longer remember where I picked it up from) has stuck with me for over a decade: ultimately all business is based on trust; you can't encode everything in the contract.