Poll: Are you a builder or entrepreneur?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=198272

by ntoshev • 18 years ago

17 18 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

ArcticCelt• 18 years ago

I find the definition of the previous article flawed therefor I can't answer to something incorrectly defined.

rewind• 18 years ago

Can you elaborate? What's your definition?

eventhough• 18 years ago

isn't builder a subset of entrepreneur?

davidw2• 18 years ago

Not at all. As an example, look at all the cool stuff this guy has built (and there are significant things not listed):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Tridgell

But he doesn't seem inclined to strike out on his own, even though something like Samba Inc. would certainly have a shot at making some money.

rhiltd• 18 years ago

Tridge is considers Australia's best hacker. But he has no interest in forming any company. The only time he was convinced was to help form a company was with Linuxcare. Along with Rasmus Lerdorf (PHP), Martin Pool (Apache), Paul 'Rusty' Russell (ipchains) and Richard Morrell (SmoothWall)

He is interested in superior technological solutions. He does not care about term sheets (aka term shits) or vesting rights etc.

He get paid VERY WELL for stuff he loves doing.

What is better than that????

BTW, he was ANU chess champion and often played blindfolded.

PS Australia's greatest hacker was John Lions.

bootload• 18 years ago

"... Tridge is considers (sic) Australia's best hacker. ..."

hmmm ... if it's "au-hacker-fanboy-time" what about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damian_Conway ? Plus he's funnier ~ http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail880.html

ideas1012• 18 years ago

for new folks you should add definition besides each category. though i think all entrepreneurs are builders.

ryanagraves• 18 years ago

this is a great point. I would consider myself much more entrepreneur than coder but I'm definitely a builder!

ideas1012• 18 years ago

by the way how did u add pointer (up arrow) to count votes?

rw• 18 years ago

Taking this poll reinforces the mindset that I can't change myself.

radu_floricica• 18 years ago

Yup. I kinda thing this whole entrepreneur vs builder thing is just a rationalization for programmers that they don't have to be good at entreprenorial stuff and they have an excuse. True, few people are good at it, but it's the same proportion as in every other population, maybe they're even more frequent due to the programmers already being smart and sortof open. There's no inverse relation. The bad news is that any valuable skill is rare and hard to learn. You're not going to get is as easy as a new programming language - it takes lots of time and trial&error, and not a little luck (and talent, the same thing).

davidw2• 18 years ago

It's not a "rationalization" - it's a recognition that people are different, and good at different things, and how to work with and around that. As I said with the original posting, I admire PG for having 'shown the way', or at least one way, for builders to have a go at a startup.

You can look at it the other way: lots of entrepreneurs aren't that strong technically. Some go out and try and learn, some try to find other ways around the problem - by partnering with tech people, for instance.

bkovitz• 18 years ago

"Identifying where I am now means I can't change myself" is one way of looking at this. Another, of course, is that by identifying where you are now, you can plot a course for what you want to do next.

I've been a "builder" my whole life, terribly shy, no clue about sales or marketing or business, just glad that other people took care of that so I could get paid to do interesting work. For the last couple years, I've been doing things to get over the shyness, and have had a lot of success. Now getting learned up about business, because I want to own the thing I'm working on and have it pay the rent.

That's why I'm on HN. Looks like a lot of us here are doing that.

webwright• 18 years ago

I find the idea of calling them "entrepreneurs" to be just WRONG. What I think you're saying is "biz guy"... Which are critical for some startups, but useless for others.

Varying startups require that someone steps up to the plate to perform a variety of tasks-- and for each startup, the needs are different.

You're looking for a formula and there isn't one.

sabat• 18 years ago

Wanna be both? I'm more a builder, if you look at my past, but I'm actively learning entrepreneurship.

volida• 18 years ago

who comes up with these lame questions

maxklein• 18 years ago

I see myself as neither. I am an artist, and life is my canvas.

maheshcr• 18 years ago

Good question, makes one think on which side one actually stands...

Poll: Are you a builder or entrepreneur?

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