The Struggle

http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/14/the-struggle/

by ssclafani • 14 years ago

59 17 14 years ago

I really love this post by Ben. It feels so honest, shares so many insights and at the same time gives such encouraging advice.

My favorite parts are where Ben describes the struggle in these one-liners. It reads like a novel. Incredible. I can feel it when I read it.

And the part where he talks about going public. So encouraging. There's always a way. Just great.

IMHO we need more posts like this - especially all the founders and co-founders out there thinking about starting a startup, or thinking about finding a (technical) co-founder. This kind of honesty and encouragement is what they need to get started. This is what they need not to loose faith.

mschalle• 14 years ago

Incredible.

This is not checkers; this is mutherfuckin’ chess... technology moves, the competition moves, the market moves, the people move

Couldn't have summed it all up more perfectly

temphn• 14 years ago

Ben Horowitz is a great entrepreneur and a great investor. But it's pretty hilarious how he quotes the Geto Boys and Snoop Dogg while being assiduously politically correct in his writing style ("the women from the girls"?).

You can understand this if you realize that he's actually an ultramasculine guy, and rap lyrics (caricatured though they be) are the only acceptable way today to express unbridled, unchecked, dominant masculinity.

But in addition to being ultramasculine, he also loves to win. And you don't win if you say that stuff outright. No white collar white male can get away with even 1/1000 the stuff that DMX says on a daily basis. So thus his formal writing has "hers" and "shes" all over the place, while his true self is channeled through a rap star messenger than no gender egalitarian can successfully attack for fear of being dubbed racist.

It is 3D chess after all.

endergen2• 14 years ago

Awesome insight!

eaurouge• 14 years ago

Wow, I think you're over-analyzing this. First, there's a lot of misogyny in rap music, I agree, but it's too easy, and wrong, to dismiss all of it as misogynistic, ultra-masculine braggadocio. There are just too many sub-genres for a simplistic definition. And, if you spend time listening to rap lyrics, you'll come across some truly profound verses; some of Lupe Fiasco's stuff is just mind-blowing. I think Ben Horowitz simply appreciates rap as an art form and enjoys summarizing his posts with applicable verses. Does there have to be more to it than that?

endergen2• 14 years ago

I immediately put on the Lupe Fiasco song he quotes at the beginning while I read the rest. Made it even more intense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NHkv0S1NEA

aginn• 14 years ago

Anyone else think it is ironic that he quotes Marx in a capitalist "pig" column on a website that thrives in a darwinian startup culture?

nickpinkston3• 14 years ago

All capitalists want Marxism - to stage their own revolt in an old industry and wind up on top as dictator of their own little command economy. We aren't so different, you and I...

icandoitbetter• 14 years ago

Yeah, that's exactly what Marx advocates.

antihero• 14 years ago

Yes because winning in an economy for personal success is the same as changing a system in order to benefit everyone...

eragnew2• 14 years ago

what the hell do these phrases mean? especially in regard to the article above? -> capitalist "pig" column -> darwinian startup culture

are you sure you're not projecting your own beliefs onto the article? just sayin'

kposehn• 14 years ago

> When they teach you how to drive a racecar, they tell you to focus on the road when you go around a turn. They tell you that because if you focus on the wall, then you will drive straight into the wall.

This is very true.

When I took racing school, my instructor told me the same thing. I learned to focus on the road and the turn; by the end of the course, I nailed every apex on lacuna seca in my little formula dodge and set a blistering lap time.

Funny thing is, I didn't realize that I'd been applying this to my life ever since until I read this article.

Thanks, Ben.

pg• 14 years ago

The term for this incidentally is "target fixation." It's a problem for hang-glider pilots too.

eragnew2• 14 years ago

Wow. This is one of the more powerful essays I've read in a while. If you don't get why that is, please just think about it some more. Think about what you are telling yourself about it.

The Struggle

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