sayemm

Very interesting comment, can you give any other examples of this?

Really clever hack and entertaining blog post!

Love this author's writing, esp this other post of his on Playing to Win - http://robertheaton.com/2014/11/03/why-you-should-read-playi...

A hacker at heart.

This is a killer idea! Looking forward to seeing where it goes... will be as helpful, if not more, than ERC has been for me while searching for answers.

And when it really comes down to it, I'd argue that's the personal sacrifice that's required to become great at anything.

Just like PG says in The Anatomy of Determination - http://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html

Nice analogy!

Yes, it's spot-on with K. Anders Ericsson's research on expert performance and deliberate practice:

- http://psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.exp.perf.html

- http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Papers/Py104/ericsson.lo...

Interesting how he says that extremely high IQ may even be a disadvantage:

And that’s precisely what would be terrible. Of course it is important for a chess player to be able to concentrate well, but being too intelligent can also be a burden. It can get in your way. I am convinced that the reason the Englishman John Nunn never became world champion is that he is too clever for that. At the age of 15, Nunn started studying mathematics in Oxford; he was the youngest student in the last 500 years, and at 23 he did a PhD in algebraic topology. He has so incredibly much in his head. Simply too much. His enormous powers of understanding and his constant thirst for knowledge distracted him from chess... Right. I am a totally normal guy. My father is considerably more intelligent than I am.

And that his big shtick is his focus, intuition, and domain expertise - not his IQ:

No. In terms of our playing skills we are not that far apart. There are many things I am better at than he is. And vice versa. Kasparov can calculate more alternatives, whereas my intuition is better. I immediately know how to rate a situation and what plan is necessary. I am clearly superior to him in that respect.

This reminds me of Walter Isaacson's biography on Steve Jobs and how it detailed his many eccentric habits and behaviors early on before starting Apple... how he never took showers while working at Atari, his odd dietary habits, his daily wardrobe, etc. But that's why he was able to "think different"...

"A person willing to fly in the face of reason, authority, and common sense must be a person of considerable self-assurance. Since he occurs only rarely, he must seem eccentric (in at least that respect) to the rest of us. A person eccentric in one respect is often eccentric in others. Consequently, the person who is most likely to get new ideas is a person of good background in the field of interest and one who is unconventional in his habits. (To be a crackpot is not, however, enough in itself.)"

Also very good is Richard Hamming's "You and Your Research" talk - http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html

PG, this has been one of your best essays IMO.

Maybe these are also the same qualities required to be a winning investor. Thinking clearly, loving the area that you're working in, and developing domain expertise.

Had recall for about 3 days. But it really depends on how often I refreshed my memory for it.

Wow... that's very fascinating, thanks for that reference.

Also sort of similar is the story of eight-time World Memory Champion, Dominic O'Brien - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_O%27Brien

http://www.real-memory-improvement.com/dominic-obrien.html

He never had superior intelligence growing up, it's something he trained really hard for. And I actually read his books and audio CDs a few years ago, and competed in one of these memory championships myself. At the peak of my training, I was able to memorize a pack of cards in order in under 2 minutes.

How to Do What You Love

"Whichever route you take, expect a struggle. Finding work you love is very difficult. Most people fail. Even if you succeed, it's rare to be free to work on what you want till your thirties or forties. But if you have the destination in sight you'll be more likely to arrive at it. If you know you can love work, you're in the home stretch, and if you know what work you love, you're practically there." - http://paulgraham.com/love.html

Yeah, with his experience I bet he has way more of an edge with private investing.

Good point, several mistakes and failures throughout his tech/investing career path too, like that $100K investment in Luke Nosek's startup that failed. It goes with taking risks and playing the game, only way to learn and level-up.

Rough timeline of Peter Thiel's accomplishments:

- Started his hedge fund at age 29

- Co-founded Paypal at 31

- Paypal acquired at 35 (Thiel took home $55M)

- Angel investment in Facebook at 37, co-founded Palantir the same year

- Founder's Fund at age 38

Interesting that he's had all of his big wins starting in his 30s, that each success compounded into more successes and enabled him to go up to bat for even bigger wins, and that it's the result of 10+ years of hard work and intense focus.

"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all." - Michelangelo

This reminds me of one of PG's old essays, "The Power of the Marginal" - http://www.paulgraham.com/marginal.html

People never see disruption coming and by its very nature, the best contrarian value investments will always be dismissed, and overlooked, by insiders early on. And probably the same is true of the founders behind them.

WhatsApp and Jan Koum are perfect examples of this.

Nice! And I'd also add my most favorite PG essay: http://paulgraham.com/determination.html

I like your new default colors and this project in general. So nice job with putting this out there.

But at the same time, I don't use your CSS file. I think the commenter above who's hating on this thinks some of it might be redundant. I guess it depends on your use-case and what kind of styling you do... I am by no means a CSS/web designing expert. For my projects personally, I just your use the HEX code of your new default colors whenever I need it. And I keep it bookmarked it for reference.

Best post on luck, similar to this one, is by Paul Buchheit, "Serendipity finds you" - http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010/10/serendipity-finds-y...

And the best book IMO is by Michael J. Mauboussin, "The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and Luck in Sports, Business, and Investing" - http://www.amazon.com/Success-Equation-Untangling-Business-I...

Way better than Nassim Nicholas Taleb's work, he's got his head up his ass way too much and makes too many hyperbolic remarks.

That was his first success as an entrpreneur, selling a Ben Franklin franchise store - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Walton#The_first_stores

Sam Walton's biography is one of the best business books I've ever read: http://amazon.com/Sam-Walton-Made-In-America/dp/0553562835

What's really instructive about his story is that he started his first retail store when he was in his mid-late 20s, sold that and earned his first stripes in his early 30s. And it wouldn't be a decade later until he started Walmart in his early 40s.

Walmart was a culmination of several decades of Walton's life that he dedicated to mastering, and dominating, retail.

I think this all depends if you're really a "startup" or not. As per Paul Graham's definition: http://paulgraham.com/growth.html. Just because you're starting something up doesn't mean you're really swinging for the fences for a big home run. But if you are, your survival depends on deal-making and hardcore talent, so you're at a huge disadvantage by not being in a major tech hub.

But if you're focused on building a 7 or low 8-figure business, bootstrapped, and self-funded, and your goal is financial independence/freedom instead of "changing the world", totally agree, starting up outside of SF is a great way to build up and earn those first stripes.

I live in San Diego and there are lots of internet millionaires here: http://helenchangwriter.com/2009/11/20/millionaire-internet-...

"Without great solitude no serious work is possible." - Pablo Picasso, http://zenhabits.net/creative-habit

Bob Parsons has an interesting life story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Parsons

- Grew up poor, flunked high school, enlisted in the Marines during the Vietnam War

- Graduated from college, self-taught programmer at age 25

- Started Parsons Technology at 34

- Grew it to 1,000 employees and sold it for $64M at 44

- Started GoDaddy at 47

- Exited Godaddy in 2011 for $930M at age 61 (http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/blog/techflash/2014/06/go...)

Great entrepreneurs never develop overnight, this game only gets better with age.

  "Still, I stay close to the heat
   And even when I was close to defeat, I rose to my feet
   My life's like a soundtrack 
   I wrote to the beat"

This is a great list of tips, thanks for posting.

You know, I was thinking that too... but then again, the crazy rise of Tinder really surprises me. They're conquering mobile.

"How I made a million in 3 months" by markus007 - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum89/13958.htm

Good reads on Rose Blumkin, one of the most hardcore founders Warren Buffet has ever bet on:

- http://www.buffettsecrets.com/rose-blumkin-nebraska-furnitur...

- http://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/13/business/rose-blumkin-reta...

I really admire that... props to your success and track record, thanks for chiming in. If I was an investor, sounds like you would make a good bet and someone to keep an eye on.

Starting out, the best way to learn entrepreneurship IMO is to just do it and build it organically like you did.

"I'd add an important lesson that I have learned: it takes money to make money."

Amen. Although, my approach is to be working full-time making a good salary, but spend my nights/weekends working on my business and investing my savings into it. I'm not going to do it full-time until I start making good $ with it.