"Running a startup is a great way to learn how to, and how not to, ignore the right things."

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18 points·wmorein··4 comments

A good quote from an article I was recently reading (The Cultural Paradox of the Global Village - http://www.utoronto.ca/mcluhan/article_culturalparadox.htm)

If attention is the most valuable commodity, our most valued asset, it may be said that the most valuable personal skill to be effective these days is ignorance, literally ignore-ance -- the ability to selectively and appropriately ignore that which is irrelevant or merely distracting. In this context, ignorance is not bliss -- it is the practical manifestation of acute awareness and heightened perception.

"You should mostly ignore your competitors"

Bad advice.

Great advice. Being reactive instead of innovative is death in a startup.

I think he meant you shouldn't spend a lot of time thinking "Oh, I hope my competitor is not doing or thinking about doing <insert something you think would give them a big advantage over you here>".

I think some people use a strategy like: "Be good enough to eventually win over your competitors, but not good enough that they'll see you coming and decide to get serious at competing with you". I could see that happening at a startup trying to take control of a "secret niche".

I think that's an horrible strategy, it's like a glass ceiling artifically limiting your growth and progress.

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