Effectual Reasoning: What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial? (2008) [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

Effectual Reasoning: What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial? (2008) [pdf]

effectuation.org

69 pointswallflower10 comments

The effectuation theory is like an epiphany. To me it explains very well the sometimes counterintuitive elements of entrepreneurship. I wonder why this doesn't come up more in HN (in fact it's the first time I see it in the front page). I guess it's too academic compared to for instance the Lean Startup principles.

Shameless plug: If you want a non-academic summary of the theory, a few months ago I wrote about it in my (former) company's blog: https://www.codelitt.com/blog/5-principles-of-successful-ent...

I actually think lean startup is more academic than effectuation theory because the former can be clearly defined while the latter cannot. Hence why one of them is popular and the other not

Vinod Khosla (Sun Microsystems, Khosla Ventures) is a big fan of this piece. You can see his version here (has his notes in the margin):

http://www.khoslaventures.com/wp-content/uploads/What_makes_...

As someone who's done a few entrepreneurial ventures and also has an MBA, the causal reasoning is indeed the default in most MBA programs.

If this paper's differentiation of (1) effectual, (2) strategic, (3) managerial ... is interesting to you, another similar piece used the metaphor of commandos, infantry and police:

https://blog.codinghorror.com/commandos-infantry-and-police/

Realistically, what makes most entrepreneurs entrepreneurial is a reliable safety net provided by personal money. It is easy(ier) to take risks when your health care, housing, food and the other basis of survival do not depend on guaranteed success.

For what it's worth I kind of disagree based on personal experience. I'm quickly nearing the age of 40 and never had a real job. Being poor combined with the fear of failure has always been a great motivator for both productivity and creativity.

A lack of responsibility does more to make it easier to take risks than does having money. It's pretty easy for a single healthy person to earn enough money to survive if it all goes wrong. It's a lot harder if that person has other people depending on them for survival.

But surely if one has family to look after money is a requirement to take that kind of risk.

TLDR: Sort of the academic version of the old saying "Big companies play chess, startups play poker."

TLDR: The easiest way to predict the future is to build it. ... and entrepreneurs believe in building it.

Too bad it was not controlled with regular non-entrepreneurs folks. Hard to prove this test allow to separate entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial mindset, rather than prove that there is not much mindset variability among entrepreneurs about those particular 17 pages questions.

This is really good, I feel almost angry that it was published nine years ago and I just read it for the first time.

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