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Comment by riebschlager | Hacker News Reader

I certainly was at the wrong company. But I didn't leave for a company I believed in more. I went to a company that allows me to make things I enjoy making. Then we get paid and I get the chance to make more things. We're not trying to change the world or "disrupt" anything. And I'm truly grateful that I haven't heard a single person utter the phrase "corporate culture".

We're all just people who want to spend our days doing and making things in a way that feels valuable. That's why I code, that's why a founder..um..founds (?) Why can't we just leave it at that? Why do we have to bring faith and belief structures into it?

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"We're all just people who want to spend our days doing and making things in a way that feels valuable."

This means you believe in spending your days doing and making things in a way that feels valuable.

The belief systems are there even if you ignore them or use other language to describe them.

There is a qualitative difference between using the language of "belief", as in "a founder must create believers" (or to "believe" in a "vision" or "mission statement"), and simply saying you believe you are doing a good job and that you deserve the next paycheck. They require different mindsets and it's disingenuous to pretend otherwise.

Or, as the joke goes: "everyone should believe in something... and I believe I'll have another drink!"

The main difference is one of perspective. From the inside, it is simply belief; you believe what you do, and there is no need to argue it. From the outside, it's "belief", because others do not necessarily believe as you do. The article is targeting unbelievers and so needs to use the language of "belief". The main job of a startup founder is to turn "belief" into belief. Staying at stranger's homes was crazy 5 years ago; now my wife and I do it every time we go on vacation.

> We're all just people who want to spend our days doing and making things in a way that feels valuable

"doing and making things in a way that feels valuable" requires a belief that the things your company do are valuable.

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