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I don't get the hate for this. Caterina has worked hard before, and she's not slagging on it. What she is saying is that working hard may not be necessary, an

I don't get the hate for this. Caterina has worked hard before, and she's not slagging on it. What she is saying is that working hard may not be necessary, and certainly is not sufficient. Anyone who invests in startups knows that she's right: the market is the most important. Getting to product/market fit is important. The first you can't control at all; the second may not take forever/a ton of effort if you really understand the market. Working hard, in this construct, is essentially just "keep trying new things until you get to product/market fit". Sure, in that case, working harder means you get to try more things in any given period of hours/days/weeks/months. But if you're in the wrong market, or you can't get to product/market fit, no amount of hard work will lead to success.

einarvollset 17y ago
I think the hate is there because the stated YC/pg ethos is "work really hard so you can compress your working career into 4 years then don't worry about it".
Devilboy 17y ago
I don't get the hate for this Every front page article on HN gets a lot of hate, regardless of topic or viewpoint expressed. I hope nothing I write ever gets to the front page here.
ahoyhere 17y ago
You don't get why the hate? Really? Just think about it for a second. Someone who has had pretty big success wrote something that contradicts the many-times-chanted mantras of large groups of people yearning for success, who haven't found it yet. She just shot down their personal god. And what do beliefs do when they come under attack? Counter-attack! If Caterina's essay were all about how hard work is the god she worships, everyone would have loved this article. The dissenters would be few, and gentle. Because the realists, who are anti-hard-work-pr0n, on HN are the philosophical type. They have had more experiences to weather their blind devotion to any mantra and are more likely to say waffly things like "Well, good for him, but that's not true for everyone. Remember..."

einarvollset 17y ago

I think the hate is there because the stated YC/pg ethos is "work really hard so you can compress your working career into 4 years then don't worry about it".

Devilboy 17y ago

I don't get the hate for this Every front page article on HN gets a lot of hate, regardless of topic or viewpoint expressed. I hope nothing I write ever gets to the front page here.

ahoyhere 17y ago

You don't get why the hate? Really? Just think about it for a second. Someone who has had pretty big success wrote something that contradicts the many-times-chanted mantras of large groups of people yearning for success, who haven't found it yet. She just shot down their personal god. And what do beliefs do when they come under attack? Counter-attack! If Caterina's essay were all about how hard work is the god she worships, everyone would have loved this article. The dissenters would be few, and gentle. Because the realists, who are anti-hard-work-pr0n, on HN are the philosophical type. They have had more experiences to weather their blind devotion to any mantra and are more likely to say waffly things like "Well, good for him, but that's not true for everyone. Remember..."