7 ms·
Stealth mode and other brilliant strategies
- engtech 14y agoLet's try to avoid at least half the unnecessary comments on this article: http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+sarcasm http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+sarcasm
- DanWaterworth 14y agoIf you hadn't pointed out that the article was being sarcastic, I wouldn't ever have know. (See what I did there?).
- zalew 14y agoat least he avoided unnecessary comments.
- TheSOB88 14y agoPlease don't make comments like this. You haven't made any points about the post itself; you're just trying for a laugh. HN is not meant for that sort of thing; it's a slippery slope that leads to less intellectual discussion on the site.
- Smudge 14y agohttp://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/slippery-slope.html http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/slippery-slope.html
- DanWaterworth 14y agoYou also didn't make any comments about the post, is this what you were talking about with the slippery slope?
- Evbn 14y agoThis is hardly the thread for this concerned comment. The OP itself is dragging discourse down the level of petty sarcasm.
- moonsoonmenu 14y agoSometimes we just need to hear the opposite to do the right thing. :-)
- smacktoward 14y agoSteve Jobs didn’t work constantly, Bill Gates had lots of hobbies, Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t tethered to his laptop, and Tim Ferris really did become a best-seller by writing and then promoting his book only 4 hours a week. Yeah, but Steve Jobs was kind of a legendary asshole who broke his relationships with his friends and loved ones into tiny little pieces, and Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are both talked about by their contemporaries as if they were aliens who'd been deposited on Earth by a wayward space Greyhound. Is there no way to lead people to success without asking them to check their humanity at the door? Startups don’t require obsession — that’s an unhealthy rumor perpetrated by all 300 startup founders ever interviewed on Mixergy. They’re all lying — they actually lead healthy, balanced lives. They don’t want you to know their secret, because this keeps potential competition at bay. Or the startup founders interviewed on Mixergy know that startup culture is macho and youth-oriented, so they tell tales of epic all-night code sprees and laser focus on the business in order to burnish their image as True Startup Heroes among their peers. I'm not saying that you shouldn't work hard at your business. It just annoys me to see examples like these held up as the One True Way To Success. Some startup founders who cut everything out of their lives but The Work will succeed, but most will fail, because most startup founders of all types fail. Even the Jack Dorsey-style "of course I can work three shifts a day without any negative consequences" übermenschen. And the ones that fail will not only not have a business, they also won't have a life as well, because they threw it away in pursuit of the dream.
- KevinEldon 14y agoI agree and if I figured out how to make a comfortable living working 30 or fewer hours a week I'm sure as hell not telling this lot.
- qq66 14y agoI know several people who make a comfortable living working under 10 hours a week. They've done two things: created a self-sustaining business with regularly paying customers, and adjusted their living situation to minimize expenses, by moving to low-cost-of-living areas, eating at home, and making use of the extra time so that it feels worth it.
- 255martyn 14y agoI almost didn't realize this was sarcasm :)
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- underwater 14y agoThe whole article was sarcasm.
- ChuckMcM 14y agoI thought it was hilarious. Especially the bit about not talking to anybody about your product, they will know soon enough how great it is :-) Of course the interesting question is whether or not the sarcasm comes through. Sadly I suspect there are people out there reading the blog and saying "Yeah, this guy really gets it!" In a way this totally screws that up because it might actually reinforce the wrong beliefs.
- phleet 14y agoPoe's Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poes_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poes_law
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- dabent 14y agoCan anyone think of an exception to the stealth mode rule? A company that was actually a big success, but spent the first few months intentionally under wraps? I think in general stealth mode isn't a good strategy, but there must be exceptions to the rule -- I just can't think of any right now.
- adunk 14y agoNot sure if this is true (and not sure if this counts as a big success), but from I've read [1], it appears that Android Inc was in stealth mode when it was acquired by Google in 2005. Would be great to hear more about the early history of Android Inc., if someone here has more insights. [1] "Little was known about this company even within its own industry: in fact, all that was available in terms of description was it was 'it developed software for mobile phones.'", from http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/a-complete-history-of-android-470327 http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobil...
- eli 14y agoI'm sure there are successes, but it's hard to know whether a given company started out in stealth mode since the whole point is that you wouldn't have heard of them until they were no longer in stealth mode.
- mulya 14y agoWhat kind of sold off the sarcasm for me was this sentence: " Once you launch, then millions of people will know about you, including competitors," yea, right, they all wait in line, just one techcrunch article / hacker news front page and the millions will flow. So being that obviously sarcastic, if someone reads it and doesn't get the sarcasm and follows the "suggestions", then, well, I guess, no harm done and they just deserve it.
- moocow01 14y agoThis is horrible advice... A startup will for the most part only be successful if... 1) You work 20 hours a day 7 days a week (give or take - the less sleep the better) 2) Release a product immediately (who cares if you end up pissing off early adopters - they'll see it through and be your biggest champions) 3) Ask people if they will pay for your imaginary product (if they tell you it looks great - its a guarantee they'll go right home and sign up for the monthly plan)
- mulya 14y ago4) All you need is a .io or .ly domain 5) Don't hire a designer, just do bootstrap (with bootswatch)
- RileyJames 14y agoWe decided not to pay $10k for dragonf.ly and instead went with dragonflylist.com. And we're looking for a designer... It's like I want us to fail...
- fitandfunction 14y agoI think you could easily tack on "Read more advice rather than execute and try to apply advice." Anecdotally, just about every combination of characteristics has survived / succeeded at least once. This leads to a wide range of maxims being spouted about startups. But, none of it is "worth much" until applied and put into action.
- msie 14y agoSarcasm was great for the first 100 articles I've read, but that was years ago.
- uvTwitch 14y agoI'm really glad that everything posted on the internet is both truthful, and also good advice. Life without critical thinking is much easier.