Comment by edw519 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by edw519 | Hacker News Reader

The more I read these 37signals articles, the more I like them.

I realize that a lot of their philosophy runs counter to the already unconventional wisdom here, but so what.

I also realize that we may soon hit 37signals saturation (much like techcrunch saturation) here, but again, so what.

Many of us are in less than optimal situations (money, time, resources, collaborators, etc.), so this is some of the best advice you can get...

"How about you turn your perceived weakenesses into strengths. Embrace your constraints..."

Excellent!

My own example:

I am frustrated that I don't have enough time to spend writing my own code because I still have several consulting gigs. So, instead of asking, "How can I get more time in my week?" I ask, "How can I use what I learn from my clients to cut through the fog on my own software so that I don't need as much time?" That change in framing has really saved me a lot of time.

Sometimes you just gotta change your view by asking a different question. A 37signals post has once again helped me to think outside the quadralateral. Thanks, DHH.

It's so nice to see this kind of thinking on YC News. There seems to be a growing trend that startups have some specific criterion for success (120 hours/week, absolute knowledge of programming, moving to SV). I find that a good amount of the passion I have for startups comes from the fact that there is no set plan for how it needs to be done. Interesting and creative ways of 'hacking' the business world don't have criterion. Just because PG or Google or 37signals did something a certain way does not mean that it is the only way, or even the best.

There is the old saying that there is more than one way to skin a cat. One way it to work ever waking hour of your day, but another and just as viable way is to work for 10 hours/week.

This mentality of absolutes in entrepreneurship can be detrimental to ones success and promoting it only devalues the usefulness of communities like YC News.

http://www.foundersatwork.com/steve-wozniak.html

All the best things that I did at Apple came from (a) not having money and (b) not having done it before, ever. Every single thing that we came out with that was really great, I'd never once done that thing in my life.

I would take the new chips and redesign some computer I'd done before because I'd come up with a clever idea about how I could save 2 more chips. "I'll do it in 42 chips instead of 44 chips." The reason I did that was because I had no money. ... I know how to combine chips together very efficiently to get that goal done.

Thanks, Jessica Livingston.

I like them too, but I'm a skeptic by nature, and I have some doubts about their story in terms of its repeatability by others. Thinking about it, this is what comes out:

If it's so easy to just create something with less time, less code, less people, etc... etc..., then there is also less of a barrier to entry, meaning that it should be easier for the competition to show up and grab some of the action. What's their barrier to entry? Popularity due to Rails?

"I like them too, but I'm a skeptic by nature, and I have some doubts about their story in terms of its repeatability by others."

I agree. One of the few consistent challenges I see in startup founders (including speakers at YC dinners) is DISTRIBUTION. They all say, don't underestimate the importance and power of distribution. 37s (with the SvN blog, Rails, Getting Real etc) essentially had "free" distribution...

If you add up all of the time/effort required to develop this passionate following, it'd be way more than 10 hours per week.

> So, instead of asking, "How can I get more time in my week?" I ask, "How can I use what I learn from my clients to cut through the fog on my own software so that I don't need as much time?"

Yeah, setting up CVS tunnelling to my client's site is the best thing I ever did ;-)

"Yeah, setting up CVS tunnelling to my client's site is the best thing I ever did ;-)"

That's not what I meant (although I suspect you said it in jest).

It has nothing whatsoever to do with using anyone else's property (intellectual or otherwise). It has everything to do with what I learned from the gig.

My most common example is so common and has so much common sense that it's easy to overlook. I call it the "suck test". Every time a client has me change something, I ask if it's because their business has changed since this was written or if it was just written poorly. It's often the latter. Every time I look at something that someone else wrote and say, "Who wrote this &#^$%? It sucks," I add it to my suck list and make sure I never do that.

This one thing has saved me thousands of hours. Stuff I never would have imagined unless I had seen it somewhere else. And there are a lot of other examples, too.

I think that this is what DHH meant when he talked about turning "perceived weakenesses into strengths".

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