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Comment by shingen | Hacker News Reader

I didn't say anything about it being bad to enjoy your craft or what tools you use.

I've been dirt poor. Painfully, not actually scratching by, live off of ketchup packets poor. Let's talk about only seeing green some time eh. No matter the cost, I've always chose to do what I loved, and I've paid a helluva price for it at times. I've been an entrepreneur since I was 15. I know a thing or two about the extreme ends of both success and failure.

What I'm saying is: get the job done, whatever it takes. Use whatever tool will accomplish the job for you personally. Don't waste time turning yourself inside out over pedantic debates over 5% efficiencies, while opportunity escapes out the back door.

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Except you called it "bullshit stacked on bullshit". Debates over languages go much deeper than "5% efficiencies", and what I was trying to get at is that depth is beyond an entrepreneur. Not because of an implied hierarchy, but because you have other concerns in life than learning about the intricacies of computer science. It takes real computer scientists and engineers (i.e. the craftsmen) to understand why it's so bad PHP didn't have first-class functions until whatever version.

For you, as an entrepreneur whipping out MVP after MVP until you strike gold, that couldn't matter less, but for those interested it's a big deal. To jump in the middle of their discussion as an uneducated outsider and judge the whole thing as "bs stacked on bs" is... inconsiderate at best.

I've been an entrepreneur since I was 15.

I wish we could kill the "entrepreneur" meme.

What you did since you were 15 was try (unsuccessfully from what I read) to launch some money making scheme or company.

I wish you had any clue what an entrepreneur actually is. A money making scheme? That's laughable. Spoken like someone that is definitely not an entrepreneur and will never be.

I've been quite successful, thanks. =) Currently I'm sitting on a seven figure net worth, and I'm in my early 30's. How about you? I've also failed plenty, like anybody that has ever attempted anything difficult.

What I've done since I was 15 is build and create web applications that I thought were useful or that I wanted to see exist. Some of them I hoped would become successful businesses, some of them I created for the hell of it. Out of six web businesses I've started, three of those businesses have been successful and both paid for themselves and paid me a healthy income.

I built what is, per Quantcast, likely the world's #1200x largest web site, starting from $50 on a terrible virtual server, using nothing but an 8 year computer, notepad, and a 12 year old FTP program, on a very slow Verizon DSL line. Gee, if only I had used the right tools, lol!

I just closed an investment round with one of the most successful business people on the planet. Unsuccessful indeed eh. As the agreements I've signed permit it, I'll come back here and update on the progress of my new enterprise. We can compare notes, and see how wildly successful you are too.

I wish you had any clue what an entrepreneur actually is. A money making scheme? That's laughable. Spoken like someone that is definitely not an entrepreneur and will never be.

Actually I've started my first company while in university, back in 1999. I sold my share in 2003. The company is still going strong today, and has around 30 employees nowadays (which might not sound much, but I'm from an entirely different country/IT environment). I also work for a startup the last two years, although not as a founder. I'm in my early 30s too, thanks for asking.

The whole "entrepreneur" thing, from the very word "entrepreneur", I find pretentious and silly, sort of like the "hipsterism" of the programming world. Oh, I did this and that, ramen, bla, MVP, bla, Rails, bla, exit, bla, VC round, bla, etc. Just build the thing, and STFU.

I admire people building things, from Steve Jobs to Bill Joy, who didn't run around selling the entrepreneur vibe.

Which, as I see it, is a rather recent fad, maybe a decade old at least in this particular form.

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