What K. Told Me About Starting Up

This deserves another mention: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=469940

Is K. right? Maybe. That depends on what context he's thinking about - the kind of startups he's done, probably. I suspect that he's likely making an attempt (a regretful one, I must add) to generalize whatever it is he's learnt, and apply that to every single bloody startup there is out there.

Because almost everything he's saying is utter rubbish, applied to web startups. The context isn't right. Google won because of cleaner design? Right. Sure. The iPod was a lousier product? Right. Sure. Microsoft and Windows as an example of how to do things? I'm not sure if that's the right advice he should be giving to a young student-entrepreneur. 'Be like Microsoft' doesn't make much sense when you consider the fact that Microsoft wasn't much like Microsoft when they first started out.

Paul Buchheit has an opposing view point (http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010/02/if-your-product-is-...) that you should consider - one of the many people who say things that run contrary to K.'s advice, I must add. (See also pg's How to Start a Startup http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html)

I suppose it all boils down to: a) what kind of business do you want to build? Because that determines b) who you listen to. If you want to get into K.'s space, that's fine. He's probably right. But if you want to build a Google, or an Apple - heck, even a Microsoft ... well you should consider looking elsewhere.

This story reminds me of the book "The Art of Profitability" which is told in the same master-student setup. Well worth a read!

Riiiight, if only AltaVista had done a redesign... sure.