HN user
I think the difference is an entrepreneur has orchestrated the whole process and isn't just a sales person. They are a dreamer building their dreams in to reality. Anything that reflects the achievement is massive. If you love carpentry, then seeing somebody love your table will be the same. Selling tables at Ikea will probably not be.
Great post. It is a hard thing to sum up. I think this HBR article (http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/09/entrepreneurship_as_disease....) talking about it as a disease is one of the best I read.
Agencies definitely worked for me. If you are good, it can be steady work without much of the risks.
I don't have a portfolio site, but was successfully freelancing on the basis of referral for four years or so. I wouldn't take a random client on, because bad clients cost money. Reach out to anybody who trusts you to "get the job done" and get them to reach out. Networking and trust are essential.
Another idea getting your foot in the door as a freelancer at an agency. About 1/4 of my work (and best paid work) came that way. Gives you a client base to build from (though not your clients, it will give you demonstrable experience)
Need to buy more than one first ... im still waiting in the queue in the UK. Even then it is one-per-person.
http://nostarch.com/hacking2.htm/
A good book, not hugely in-depth, but enough to bootstrap some learning.
"I had an opportunity once to sit down with Don Knuth and play Halo on the X-box." ... best thing I will read today.
As a C programmer, this is flattering, but I also know it isn't true. I wrestled with Erlang for a good while before I got the hang of it. Going from C up the tree of C-like programming languages has its disadvantages.
Spot on.
Knowing both C and Javascript, and loving them both ... I would go with Python+Flask as the sensible choice. However, Go is a cracking language but not all that mature. Javascript is great if you use a decent framework too.
As a C programmer though, I read http://startupitis.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/golang-its-amazing... and had to write some Go and didn't regret it. Not sure about its fit for web development, but good fun anyway. You may find yourself writing boilerplate with Go though.
Just play with them and see which you enjoy most. Enjoyment pays you back in productivity/motivation.
It used to be annoying that the food looks so different, but after that video ... I feel better ... and hungry. Some good communication there from the McMarketing Department
Nice idea, though the way I see it, you are either:
(A) A user who doesn't care what language(s) their OS/toolchain/stack is built with; or
(B) A developer who sees the value in the right tool for the job. I love Python, but it isn't the right tool for all jobs
na, just thought it was a good obfuscation is all. Fitting for your profession.
Well, an analyst would protect an email like that ... seems legit.
An article against ego that tries to encourage perspective, written by an author with such a big ego and lack of perspective he writes things like:
"Maybe, you think that because you avoid all the abstractions of higher level languages, you are somehow better and “purer.” Because you do pointer arithmetic and bit shifting, you really understand what is going on in a computer. No, you don’t. You understand C programming"
I'm sure somewhere in there is a heart-felt message though ... somewhere. I think he needs to meet more programmers.
... if only business followed the logic of programming languages ...
"That's just your lizard brain freaking out." True. All sounds like sane advice to me! This thread has been a much needed re-balancing of my freaking out on the whole!
Good post! I very much enjoyed reading it. You are right in many ways. Also greetings from fellow UKers.
Nope, I don't feel like we have lost! But it is a critical point in the road and easy to lose perspective. so trying to get as much input as possible. You make some really good points :)
Did the times when you didn't force a differentiation or change of direction due to competition turn out well for you?
I am very convinced, it is quite hard to ensure your approach is balanced when your "human" part is worried, your ego says fight and your gut says be smart. Great link btw!
Yes, this is what we are thinking of focusing on ... also trying to take advantage of trouble we expect they will face being mass-market. The trouble comes because the mass market we know. Most of us instinctively do. The potential niche/specialist markets are quite unknown quantities at this stage ...
This was what I was settling on. Although we are not a me-too currently this seems balanced when considering our overall differences.
This is true.
The worry isn't so much the PR. It's an all-round "were going to get our arses kicked", due to their combination of talent, funding, execution etc, unless we find a unique angle over them. Their execution is ... impressive. Also might be a blunt point for raising further funding unless we are different enough.
i'm sure there is room for two, but with the competitive disadvantage we have ... surely it is wiser to differentiate to increase our chance of success? Also, they aren't quite nobodies ... they do their PR well and are reaping the benefits.