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did not listen people very well. I've heard them but did not actually listen. I kept on talking and talking. I couldn't care less if you're some guy with a fan
by Peroni 14y ago
did not listen people very well. I've heard them but did not actually listen. I kept on talking and talking.
I couldn't care less if you're some guy with a fancy idea in his head with no clue on how to do anything about it or if you're Paul Graham himself, as soon as you stop listening to what others have to say, you're failing.
My father rarely had anything insightful to say but one thing he did say that really stuck with me was "As soon as you believe you're the smartest man in the room, you're in the wrong room". His point being that you should never stop learning from others and always seek out opinions of those more experienced or simply those with alternative experience to your own.
- kappaknight 14y ago^^^ This is a good point. I knew he'd fail at the first line when he claimed to know everything. That's not a good attitude to jump into any situation.
- mkuhn 14y agoI guess that was exactly his point.
- thirdtruck 14y agoAgreed. Not only does an active listening habit reward you with more efficient learning, but the body language that results comes off as much more charismatic.
- ataleb52 14y agoLove your fathers lesson. Just goes to show us that the moment we choose to stop learning is the moment we've chosen to fail.
- santaragolabs 14y agoedit: clarification I wholeheartedly agree with you; some personal other side of the story regarding the link in OP's article. Lack of listening? That's not my experience with Bado. I know him in real life and I've worked together with him at a very young company/startup right when he came from Turkey to the Netherlands. That was a blast, both on a professional and a personal level. I also got to experience the Turkish hospitality when I had to work for three weeks in beautiful Istanbul myself. After both of us moving on to greener pastures we kind of lost contact though. Last time I met him (and another former co-worker) was several months ago in Amsterdam; we had a great night; much booze was had and we bounced around from pub to bar to nightclub. But we also bounced back and forth all these ideas on entrepreneurship and all that. I remember telling him I was worried that he had a lot on his plate and that especially with his potential visa problems he was quite vulnerable. But then again; you shouldn't take everyone's advice either. If Larry and Sergey had done that they wouldn't have started a search engine either ("too hard; Yahoo is king already"). But carefully weighing outside's viewpoints is a good idea. In my personal experience Bado never acted like the smartest man in the room; he was always willing to learn and exchange books/ideas with me. But when starting to go down one road with your company one might close itself off a bit though. Sometimes it does pays to be stubborn though :)
- Peroni 14y agoDon't get me wrong, my statement wasn't directed at Bado specifically. It was more of a general point aimed at those who feel they have little to learn from others. But then again; you shouldn't take everyone's advice either. You're right but again, that wasn't my point. My point is you should always listen. Sometimes you can learn more from other peoples mistakes (even if they don't consider it a mistake) than their successes.
- santaragolabs 14y agoYeah, I didn't even interpret your statement as to mean that. Edited and hopefully clarified my post now.
- hef19898 14y agoSomehow along pg's lines in one of latest essays, the thing about being the wave even you are not actually leading or luching the wave, but try to be part of the wave. That's were new ground is broken and new things happen. My believe is that there are also personal waves that are not necessarily general waves. Once you out-learned, change the environment maybe to radical but gives at least a good direction.