markdjacobsen

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by markdjacobsen 10mo ago
My own experience presiding over startup failure was excruciating. I had a serious personal breakdown that took a couple years to recover from. There was the burnout, but also a deep sense of guilt, weakness, and personal failure. Articles
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by markdjacobsen 2y ago
On a related note, a science fiction short story anthology titled "Derelict" was published in 2021. When they were soliciting stories, I thought long and hard about how to put a creative twist on the topic. I wrote a story about a
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by markdjacobsen 3y ago
I spent a year and a half building a "startup" of my own (actually, a humanitarian nonprofit) that failed. I can relate to the author's painful emotions as he processes his experience. This emotional journey is common in entr
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by markdjacobsen 4y ago
I wrote a book called “Eating Glass” about the grueling emotional and psychological experience of presiding over a prolonged startup failure, coping with the aftermath, and finding my way back to health and growth. I wrote the book I wished
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by markdjacobsen 4y ago
I just replicated something very similar in a few minutes using the prompts in the article
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by markdjacobsen 4y ago
I have been successful by most standards, with a litany of professional and educational achievements, a wonderful wife, three beautiful kids, and a life of exciting new experiences. But age 35 was a crucible year in which I presided over th
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by markdjacobsen 4y ago
This is a good post, and I'm always glad to see discussions about mental health anywhere in the startup scene. However, I agree with the other commenters who note that healthy routines may not be enough to cope with the stresses of run
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
I have the dubious distinction of having burned down three acres of Stanford's Lake Lagunita with a Li Po battery after crashing a drone (this was a soft pack for a DIY drone). We had been meticulous about charging and handling safety,
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
The fact that you care about employee development and are deliberately seeking out ways to do it better puts you ahead of most managers. I can't directly address advancement within a company, but will share some of my own experience. I
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
I'm sorry you've been going through this. I can relate somewhat. I have been successful by most standards, but made large sacrifices for "paths less taken" that didn't work out like I'd hoped. That included a p
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
Zotero and Obsidian is a killer combination. If anyone is interested, I have some videos on research tools that include a Zotero->Zotfile/MDNotes->Obsidian workflow: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHmevVAA
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
I'm sorry you're going through this. I went through a dark night of the soul a few years ago amidst some professional setbacks. More recently, I've been on the edge of losing my 17-year marriage; we are still exploring whethe
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
I know your questions are practical, and you have not disclosed your emotional state, but I also know firsthand that shutting down a startup can be traumatic. Even as you address the practical issues, take care of yourself and do the inner
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
See https://www.c4isrnet.com/air/2020/10/09/the-air-force-update...
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
Other thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28407219
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
HN has two threads on this now. I just replied on the other but will copy here: I can't speak for Chaillan, but as a military member who led an agile software development team similar to his during the same timeframe, I think he's
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
I can't speak for Chaillan, but as a military member who led an agile software development team similar to his during the same timeframe, I think he's referring to DoD's fondness for buzzwords. Because "agile" is th
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
> burnout often involves pouring too much of your heart and soul into something that does not love you back. I describe burnout now as a kind of "unrequited love." I authored this comment but can't go back to edit. Given t
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
This is a powerful piece that resonates with my own experience. I went through a period of severe burnout that took me a couple years to recover from. One of my later insights was that burnout doesn't merely entail working too much (al
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
I'll echo others here; Obsidian is an amazing tool. For those who are curious about Obsidian, I recently created a YouTube video series for my graduate students titled "Tools for the Life of the Mind." [0] It covers some phil
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
This is good advice and absolutely true. I badly burned myself out with my first "startup" (a technical nonprofit) and needed a couple years to heal. I went into my second much wiser about boundaries and self-care and performed fa
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Show HN: Eating Glass, a book about entrepreneurial failure(markdjacobsen.com)
4 points by markdjacobsen 5y ago|1 comments
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
Author here. I recently released a book titled "Eating Glass: The Inner Journey Through Failure and Renewal", which I wrote in the aftermath of a painful entrepreneurial failure. Nothing in my experience or reading prepared me for
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
Thanks! That’s largely what I was trying to write in opposition to. You find a lot of “here’s how I failed my way to success, and you can too” pieces. That’s not particularly helpful to someone who feels like their life is coming apart.
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
A few years ago, I presided over the failure of a nonprofit I'd founded. It was the most devastating experience of my life and involved all the emotions here: grief, anger, depression, self-blame, guilt, etc. I came to realize that thi
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
If you're looking for good climbing autobiographies, try Tommy Caldwell's "Push" or Dierdre Wolownick's "The Sharp End of Life." Caldwell's book is well-written and shows deep insight, perhaps due to
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
I recently spoke with someone from Alpha Bridge Ventures ( https://www.alphabridge.vc ) after writing a book about entrepreneur mental health. They provide mental health services to their founders, and my understanding is that the
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
Your comment reminded me of research by Eva de Mol, Jeff Pollack, and Violet T. Ho that resonated with me.[0] They studied "destiny beliefs" as an explanatory variable for entrepreneur burnout. Those words perfectly captured what
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by markdjacobsen 5y ago
I'm a two-time failed founder. The first was a humanitarian drone nonprofit, and the second was a software development team internal to government. The first failure absolutely wrecked me. Your comment resonated because nothing prepare