Ask HN: What are your must-read essays for indie entrepreneurs

50 points·shovel··9 comments

The internet is noisy, books are usually 200 pages too long and the most important ideas can be condensed into the essay format. Can you help curate the best?

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These are a bit on the philosophical side, but nonetheless must-reads:

1. On the Shortness of Life, Seneca

2. The Risk Not Taken, Andy Dunn

3. How to Start a Startup, Paul Graham (read all of PG's essays)

[1] https://tripinsurancestore.com/4/on-the-shortness-of-life.pd... [2] https://medium.com/@dunn/the-risk-not-taken-40cf0a8919cb [3] http://paulgraham.com/start.html

"On the shortness of life, by Seneca" Wonderful. Haha Happy people in the world are making a positive impact.

thanks

As a tech startup founder,I found these extremely useful:

1. Strategy to Master the odds

2. Zero to One(5 Stars)

3. YC Startup Library

[1] https://functionalflow.github.io/brains/2018/04/strategy-to-...

[2] https://github.com/functionalflow/brains/blob/master/Zen-Of-...

[3] http://www.ycombinator.com/resources/

Dude just grow and run your business, cash flow is everything, not sure what an essay is going to do for you.

I quite enjoyed Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham. It's been a while since I read it, but two things that I still remember are:

* As a hacker, you are more valuable than your organization might lead you to believe.

* You can still and you should pursue side projecst despite being employed.

It's worth reading http://idlewords.com/2005/04/dabblers_and_blowhards.htm as a counterpoint to "Hackers and painters"

What is an "indie" entrepreneur? And what other kind of entrepreneurs are there?

I think they mean one without external funding.

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