Could someone please explain what this article offers for someone starting a company? I didn't see anything remotely useful or interesting.
The article offers “a few tips on how to attract and retain followers, thus ensuring that your gospel spreads far and wide”. Although the tips are presented as recommendations for somebody starting a religion, the important part is that they are based on recent studies about the brain quirks that produce religions or at least enable them.
I find some of those tips are also useful for startup founders, especially when creating a team of “believers” and keeping it focused on the goals.
For example, traumatic rites of passage which are either painful or scary seem to be good generators of cohesiveness. Whether by intention or by the nature of the process, startups engage in this practice: YC forces applicants to take a leap of faith and relocate; founders work interminable hours in not very healthy conditions; some startups adopt some kind of initiation.
Other good tips are to keep preaching the doctrine, and to allow dissent to a certain degree.
Having recently read “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh, Zappos’ CEO, I could not avoid making some connections between the book and this article. Of course, you have to read the article with the right light o see them.