On the cusp of something big | Hacker News Reader

On the cusp of something big

gabrielweinberg.com

63 pointsmmahemoff18 comments

Startups are a long-term game.

While I agree with this, it's definitely not the position I see here often. The quick flip or at least buyout-as-a-business-plan seems far more popular and glorified.

I guess I can understand that, to a point, but it indicates a very naive view of success and an unrealistic idea of what business is actually like. Unfortunately, that's echoed and reinforced in many places -- intentionally and otherwise -- YC and its surroundings being among them.

I like the premise here. I think it's simply that motivation comes from the belief, valid or not, that you're really doing something that has serious potential. He doesn't quantify what that means, and I think that's best... "big" means whatever it means to you, whatever motivates you, because that's what will make you feel like you're doing something important.

I'm not a feelings person when it comes to business. But being a solo founder, those ephemeral little buggers are important.

I agree that this feeling of being on the cusp of something big is ultimately just that, a feeling, and one should not try to be more specific about it. However, it seems to me that there is at least one type of situation where that feeling is grounded in fairly hard and verifiable facts, namely, when the idea in question is a scientific invention. Rudolf Diesel had a pretty good grasp of what the advantages of his engine were, and Tesla and Siemens knew pretty well why and how their AC power system was superior to Edison's DC. I'm a little irritated by the fact that this kind of scientific evidence for the value of an idea receives practically no attention at all in today's treatment of startup businesses, like the Lean Startup movement. Today, we ask the customers if they want AC or DC in their homes, and if the answer is DC, we pivot to that. Perhaps it would have been worth to stick with the AC idea a little longer, to fight for it, and to let its benefits sink in with people.

The only issue I'd take with this is that when someone says "I feel this way," I take it to mean "I believe this but can't prove it." If you know something, or if you have a good, scientific basis for a statement... that's not a feeling. That's a hypothesis, and it shouldn't be cheapened by being stated as anything less (at least when speaking to people who aren't already familiar with it).

When you've gotten beyond "I feel like this will work, and that's motivating me" and you've moved on to "this freaking WORKS and now we have to do something about it," then you have a new set of problems to go with your opportunities.

The quick flip or at least buyout-as-a-business-plan seems far more popular and glorified.

If HN is to be trusted, there literally is no other viable business plan.

The term length definitely varies. Gabriel seems to be mostly about long-term bets, given his investment into search. Anybody who is in search knows this pretty well (Im in it too). But, Im also in other industries where profits come in early, even before the launch.

  Success is not a destination; it is a direction.

Pft... if he were that wise, he'd have his own HN account. ;)

[edit: Parent previously attributed quote to "A Wise Man"]

For a "quick flip or at least buyout-as-a-business-plan" plan to work, the thing you are building still needs to have long-term value.

I've felt far happier moving towards success than actually having success.

There's many aphorisms supporting this: the journey is the destination; it's better to travel than to arrive; getting there is half the fun. People are enthralled by movies/stories about doing something - not having already done it. Emerson's Self-Reliance touches on this too (http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm), the soul becoming.

It's a bit logically absurd though - you're aiming at achieving something, yet it's the process of achieving that you really want... but absurd or not in theory, that's been the most fun for me, in practice.

I have experienced, and heard of others experiencing, something even more drastic: when achieving a goal after a long and exhilarating journey, not only was I less happy than during the journey, I was actually depressed, thought the thing just achieved was worthless, and didn't want it anymore. It's like a generalized postnatal depression.

This is common among olympic gold medalists who wake up feeling depressed the next day. I thought it was referred to as "morning after sickness" but I couldn't find anything online...

Interesting. I, and at least one other person I know, had it after receiving our US citizenship. Weird. It did go away pretty soon though :-)

Me too. I've also heard of one instance of postnatal depression where it was hoped that having a child would solve problems the parents were experiencing, both personally and in the relationship (I have no idea if this is a common cause of postnatal depression).

Assuming this is a general cause of victories turning to ashes, of trying to solve other problems with it... what to do? Should we disregard this feeling, and start a new project (have more kids/brain children)? Or try to find something that will be genuinely satisfying, and won't turn to ashes?

I don't know. But I think it might be more like this: 1. get the basics right 2. have fun.

  1. basics
    exercise, sleep, food
    friendly, co-operative people, support/encouragement, help others and be helped
    be factual (not emotional reasoning), discuss (see POVs), keep perspective
    have a bigger philosophy: religion (Knuth and Brooks are religious), nature

  2. fun
    focus on the journey as enjoyable
    don't see the result as a solution to *how you feel*
    immediately go on to the next project
    it's just for fun, not to redeem yourself or make everything alright

NB: I'm in no way commenting on your situation; I'm just replying to your comment to articulate these thoughts I've been having on this topic.

Good thoughts, thanks for sharing.

This is much like how I felt getting my PhD a couple of years ago, with a bit of imposter syndrome thrown in. Even though I know objectively the thing must be ok (as I passed examination, and I chose tough examiners), I still feel vaguely like I shouldn't have and that it is not much of a contribution.

It's like - I only passed through sheer hard work, bluster and a tiny bit of cleverness. On reflection, I suspect that's pretty much how anyone gets successful at anything.

One difference with your description is that I was only rarely exhilarated through the journey - usually when showing my work to those outside the field; I was much more often plagued by self-doubt.

Thanks for mentioning impostor syndrome. I think it is indeed closely related to the "generalized postnatal depression" that we're talking about here: the latter is not wanting the thing I worked for anymore, the former is believing that it is not deserved.

For this to work you can't be completely delusional, only partially.

This.

Or as I like to say: the most important pitch you will ever make is to yourself. Convince yourself and others will follow.

While this philosophy is what sustains the entrepreneurial spirit, I think most people get int the game because they got an itch to scratch.

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