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Comment by karl11 | Hacker News Reader

There are a lot of people in the comments that seem confused by the point of this article. I think if you have ever run a business (managing a team is not the same) then this article is clear as day.

Owners have infinite ways to allocate their time. Many owners feel problems in their gut but they are uncomfortable to deal with, and so instead they do other things (which are easy to rationalize as more important). E.g. firing someone, perhaps someone that was just hired two months ago who moved across the country to take the job but is not working out. Many people would come up with a hundred reasons to keep the person even if their gut is saying to fire them, because of how uncomfortable it would be to actually do it. This article is saying you need to run towards those moments of fear and discomfort and do the right thing, not run away from them and dig the hole deeper.

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Yes I think everyone understands that’s the point he’s trying to make, it’s just that he’s doing it in such a vague and generalized way and trying to pass it off as actionable advice that it becomes almost comical.

There’s nothing revelatory about telling someone to “face your fears” but a pseudo-philosopher VC is trying to pass this off like it’s this sage piece of advice no one has heard before.

> it’s just that he’s doing it in such a vague and generalized way and trying to pass it off as actionable advice that it becomes almost comical.

Totally.

1) Vague advice is much easier to sell and elevate ones position (look at Tony Robbins). There's no negatively correlative impact to the advice so its hard to argue if someone is wrong.

2) Providing concrete advice is impossible to "scale" (e.g. books, podcasts, video, etc) as it requires context.

> Providing concrete advice is impossible to "scale" (e.g. books, podcasts, video, etc) as it requires context.

Wouldn't that make it easier to scale, since there's more context you can provide?

The context is specific to the recipient of the advice, making it effectively impossible to scale.

the scale is you're reaching a different audience and can provide different context for the same message on top of a different medium.

You're describing the type of impersonal advice that the parent poster said was generally unhelpful for the recipient.

Everything you said sounds great for the person selling advice, but not great for the consumer, which was the point of the original comment.

Facing your fears is much easier said than done.

Ben has done it. His experience, and the way he describes them, speaks to me. His first book, the Hard Thing About Hard Things, is therapy for founders. I don't think he's trying to prescribe anything new.

To paraphrase something that stuck with me: "the mechanics of starting a business are easy and can be taught to anyone. the emotions involved are very difficult and it's [Ben's] job at A16Z to help founders deal with them." I really appreciate what Ben is doing.

You said what I meant much better than I did in a sibling commment.

I wonder if this is evolutionary. For example - in the wild, choosing to fight something dangerous is a terrible idea. You run every time.

discomfort. We got too used to comfort. That uncomfortable situations with (and mostly) other people is the thing that brings fear (of rejection). And yes, some of that fear comes from our tribalism. We used to live in tribes (even in the Bible) and if you got thrown out of your tribe it's a serious thing. - Doing boring things that are important and face uncomfortable situations makes the cut for a great founder (and for achieving objectives in life).

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