"Want to get trained on Ruby at a .NET shop? Implement a one-off project in Ruby. Bam, you are now a professional Ruby programmer — you coded Ruby and you took money for it. (You laugh? I did this at a Java shop. The one-off Ruby project made the company $30,000. My boss was, predictably, quite happy and never even asked what produced the deliverable.)"
Unless an employee actually gets permission to do this, this makes him incredibly selfish, and is a good way to get fired (and deservedly so), no matter how good he is.
Sorry gang, might be grossly off-topic, but couldn't help myself. Took this after dinner tonight at a life-long friend's. His wife snapped it on her iPhone4. Unfortunately, my iPhone 3GS doesn't look like it will make it. A worthy sacrifice.
I swear I'm not just looking for an excuse to upgrade to the 4S...
I definitely admire that you and your team are setting a deadline then just jumping in. I can't comment on whether or not this will work for you or not, but I admire the guts it takes to do this. One thing others in your situation need to consider, however, is that if you're brainstorming with your team daily and haven't found an idea that really strikes a cord with all of your, there's no guarantee that you'll know when this will happen after you've all left your jobs. When you no longer have a paycheque, you might feel forced to pick something that doesn't seem like quite the right fit because you have to get something done and start making money to pay the rent. It's imposing somewhat of a deadline on yourselves that you might not have if you all agreed on the idea before you left your jobs.
I don't agree with the comment you're replying to, but if we all had to be equals to the icons we criticize... the online world of commentary, discussion, and blogs would cease to exist. I'm not American, but it would be like not being able to criticize the president without someone saying "see how you'd fare in a comparison against Barack O-f-ing-Bama".
That's way too broad and general. The problems that hit entrepreneurs along the way are often things they don't know they should be learning before it's too late. By that point, the only thing you're learning from is your mistakes, and that's no way to learn if you can avoid it.
Not everyone looks at it as a popularity contest though. A lot of people look at it as "holy shit, there are a hundred comments in this thread, I don't have time to read them all, and I'm glad I can see what the collective opinion is about which ones are worth reading first". The "popularity contest" aspect of it is a problem, but the "popularity" aspect of it isn't.
The analysis is interesting, and I think it fits for low values of n (and even then, only if the VCs LOVE the team), but I think you might be looking too far ahead without doing the non-numerical analysis. If you failed seven times, do you think you'll get funding and have an 83% chance of success? I think your chance of getting funding, no matter how much the VCs love you, will plummet drastically after a certain value of n, and I'm guessing it's a lot lower than seven (but I have zero data to back that up).
Just an aside, but you specifically explain the proper spelling of your name as "BuzzData", but your logo uses a lowercase "d" while still using an uppercase "B", i.e. "Buzzdata" instead of "BuzzData". Not important, just thought I'd point out the discrepancy.
I think in Rand's case, it means "poor". He has tremendous value built up in his company, but nothing personally to show for it. He's still an unforseen string of bad luck or hospital stay from being completely broke (or worse). That's why some people mention it's okay for him to take some money off the table if he raises additional funding.
I think a lot of people think of "work harder" as "work harder to better yourself" (like learning new skills or becoming better at things you already know), not just "put in the hours and try really hard and do your best". If you use the former definition instead of the latter (which is the way I think a lot of people use the term), there is probably a lot more of a link between working harder and making more money. I'm just guessing though. I have no data to back it up.
For me it's all about how much I love the project I'm working on. Find something you're really... REALLY passionate about. If you're working full-time and want to be productive after work, you have to absolutely love the project almost to the point that it's a hobby and you're doing it for fun. If you don't have that level of enthusiasm, I can't think of any good advice that will give you the drive to put in the hours. Even if you love your project, it will still be hard, so you have to at LEAST be in love with what you're working on.
You'd pay $30-$40 per month for a service that generates an extra $1,500 in revenue per month? I don't think your argument for someone to build this tool for you is very compelling ;-)
Oh how I long for the good 'ol days when people just paid for value...
My comment was an aside. I never implied being a real hacker means staying up all night. I don't enjoy it (although I like fighting off the fatigue when I'm really enjoying my work). I was just relating the circumstances that lead up to memorable moments for me.
Everybody does some of the time, but not everybody does all of the time. I can relate: there is nothing like being tired, going to bed, have a hard/frustrating problem roll around in your head, come up with a solution you were agonizing over, then be wide awake, get up, hit the computer, then crank out code until your body puts you back to sleep.
It's one of the most rewarding (and rare) experiences of a hacker-entrepreneur. Sometimes you don't get this unless you've been head-down, balls-out. When I'm meandering through a problem instead of pouring everything into it, I rarely get these sorts of "eureka" moments.
You choose to participate in a specific community and its collective approval or disapproval of news items, or you don't. That's how it works. Is this such a big deal? I think I wasted about... five or six seconds... ignoring bitcoin stories on my own. A fair trade-off, as far as I'm concerned, for having other submissions upvoted without me doing anything.
There's some negativity about this post, but in no way is he bashing non-entrepreneurs. He's just saying if you have the guts to put it all on the line, then win or lose, that's still a big deal, and don't worry about the non-entrepreneurial critics.
The concept that ideas aren't important is getting really old. Sure, once you have your idea, the execution and vision are what's going to make you successful. But is one idea better than another? Yes. Do you want great vision and execution to go along with a brain-dead stupid idea? No.
Ideas don't suck; ideas are important; ideas are the genesis for everything else talked about in this article. Sure, it's just part of the foundation of what will turn into a business, but it's often the cornerstone of that foundation.
I could go work at an amazing company and they could be really happy to have me, but we'll never both have the same idea about an ideal outcome. I'll want more and they'll want to give me less. I think that's more what negotiating is about, i.e. giving up something you don't want to so you can come to an agreement.
If you're chasing guys/girls, you're really just working towards a common goal with pretty much the same desired outcome (whether it be coffee, dinner, sex, whatever). One party is rarely giving something up in order to make the other person want to come to an agreement. That usually comes later in the relationship ;-)
This is not negotiating (unless you're paying for the person you're taking home). I can't remember ever negotiating to get someone to go on a date with me. There is definitely a two-way process/interaction going on, but I don't think it's anything like negotiation.
I'm going to fill out your survey to help out, but just a suggestion:
Your survey is all about golf, and this site isn't about golf. I'm sure your survey is product research of some sort, but if you told us a bit about WHY you're asking and WHAT you're thinking of building (you don't have to get too detailed if you want to keep some details to yourself), you might get a better response from users who may otherwise see your survey as very off-topic for HN.
People seeking knowledge, experience, and advice outbidding each other to sit down with people with knowledge, experience, and advice. For charity. Doesn't seem so backwards to me.
Almost all (if not all) entrepreneurs thrive on the creation process, but not all thrive on the nurturing part once a company reaches a certain level. Sometimes, the creative process just isn't a big enough part of the process anymore when the day-to-day stuff starts to take over a bigger part of a founder's time. Better to leave openly than to stay and not really have your heart in it.
These types of people don't have the DNA to run big companies long-term. But it's always interesting to see where they go next.
So we're going to say a program that helps women is discrimination against men, and a program that helps minorities is discrimination against white people? Why must a program that helps one group of society be viewed as discrimination against all others? Some people just insist on looking for the negative side of everything, even when there isn't one.
I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, and treat the assholes as outliers. It's too easy to assume the worst, but that's what a lot of people do these days. It's kind of sad.