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> Sorry, but that kind of super-hero is a very, very rare breed. First start-up success is very rare as well, so perhaps it should follow that it involves a ra

by strlen 18y ago

> Sorry, but that kind of super-hero is a very, very rare breed. First start-up success is very rare as well, so perhaps it should follow that it involves a rare breed of people. As for multi-threaded programming-- that is one skill that universities generally teach well as a part of undergraduate computer science programs (although I can only speak for mine). It's also generally about recognizing patterns (consumer/producer problem, dining philosopher problems) and being able to see them irrespective of the implementation (I first began playing with POSIX threads before college, learned the formal concepts in a class which used Solaris threads and am now working through Doug Lea's book about concurrency in Java: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/cp/ http://java.sun.com/docs/books/cp/). There are many people who go into MBA and JD programs with CS and EE undergraduate degrees (it's excellent preparation in the sense that it's a lot of brain gymnastic; statistics also show many undergraduate engineer majors also go on to medical school as well). So one may not necessarily be a hacker (they don't code for fun) but have a CS education -- or they may even be a hacker (they do code for fun) without being a professional developer (they've never worked in a software engineering organization). Incidentally, I can describe people that fit all of those molds (many CEOs of big companies generally fit the "has a technical undergraduate background, climbed the technical ladder at big-co, got an MBA and switched to management or sales" pattern; start-up founders frequently fit the "worked on Wall-Street by day, coded for fun by night" pattern).

DarkShikari 18y ago
First start-up success is very rare as well, so perhaps it should follow that it involves a rare breed of people. I didn't say all his startups were successful ;) His third (I think) startup, the current one, is quite successful though, and he hopes to be able to sell it for at least a billion eventually. Current estimated valuation is a quarter of a billion with at least 50m in VC (don't know the exact numbers). About ~60 employees. On the topic of the GP post: you talk about a "businessperson who magically acquired hacker skills"--but is it somehow more likely to have a "hacker who magically acquires businessperson skills"?
- donaq 18y ago
  Yes, I do think it is more likely, because "businessperson skills" are skills that an observant and intelligent person might pick up in the normal course of his life, for example, arithmetic. I think business is very simple. Profit. Loss. Take the sales, subtract the costs, you get this big positive number. The math is quite straightforward. - Bill Gates Then there's negotiation/persuasion/deal-making/people skills. Most people engage in activities involving variations of those everyday. You'd almost have to be a hermit to avoid picking up some people skills. While some hackers may halfway fit that description, I doubt that most do. Acquiring hacker skills, OTOH, involves rather more specialized effort.

by strlen 18y ago

DarkShikari 18y ago

First start-up success is very rare as well, so perhaps it should follow that it involves a rare breed of people. I didn't say all his startups were successful ;) His third (I think) startup, the current one, is quite successful though, and he hopes to be able to sell it for at least a billion eventually. Current estimated valuation is a quarter of a billion with at least 50m in VC (don't know the exact numbers). About ~60 employees. On the topic of the GP post: you talk about a "businessperson who magically acquired hacker skills"--but is it somehow more likely to have a "hacker who magically acquires businessperson skills"?

donaq 18y ago
Yes, I do think it is more likely, because "businessperson skills" are skills that an observant and intelligent person might pick up in the normal course of his life, for example, arithmetic. I think business is very simple. Profit. Loss. Take the sales, subtract the costs, you get this big positive number. The math is quite straightforward. - Bill Gates Then there's negotiation/persuasion/deal-making/people skills. Most people engage in activities involving variations of those everyday. You'd almost have to be a hermit to avoid picking up some people skills. While some hackers may halfway fit that description, I doubt that most do. Acquiring hacker skills, OTOH, involves rather more specialized effort.