His last paragraph completely ruined the entire article for me. I was actually getting emotional as he wrote about stories with his childhood friend. I was hoping this article would have a point. In the end, he had no point and nothing changed, except he still remains another asshole on the internet (which was common knowledge in the first place). I want my 3 minutes back.
Great reminder on building and maintaining relationships. The only part I disagree with is 'not bothering with spell check.' Even your best and most familiar customers would like to see intelligent, competent emails from the vendor they spend the most money on (no matter how close you are to them).
Agreed - every time I get 'distracted' by giving up and getting a full time job, or getting sucked into something I thought I'd like but am not truly 100% passionate about, I end up feeling restless and re-exploring my entrepreneurial roots. If you have the entrepreneurial drive, it will always remain within you. It's just a matter of what you choose to do with it.
If work hours or company policies are not posted, couldn't you also say that expectations aren't made clear and communication is lacking? Aren't some sort of standards still needed? Otherwise everyone would cram everything into a 4 day workweek and be MIA on the 5th day.
It's not just your physical and mental energy that gets burned out through 12 hour days, it's also your passion. For all entrepreneurs there is a strong underlying passion burning inside and we push ourselves based on how brightly it burns, because we simply have nothing else to answer to. So if you're well-rested or highly caffeinated or adrenaline-filled with passion, you will be productive, because you're excited to. If you're pushing yourself to work 100 hours a week just because you think it's the right thing to do (this is the equivalent of face time in a corporate company) then you will be less productive, if not also resentful and discouraged. That's not to say deadlines aren't important, but work ethics should come from a desire within instead of from external pressure. I mean, we don't like the corporate world because of this external pressure, right? So why bring it with us to our startups?
I love the story and the writing style. He shows his passion in an honest tone; is proud of his successes and is honest about his (and the company's) mistakes. Very smart coder/hacker but also with a talent for writing (which people always think are mutually exclusive!). Props!
yes except facebook started out specializing as a way to connect with your friends which they've become very successful with. And now they are diverting from that goal which doesn't quite jive with the other companies specializing in those fields. Video gamers will still play EA games, photographers will still use flickr or whatever, movie buffs will still use netflix. I think facebook should stay within its social realm and OFFER specialty companies a way to use facebook to enhance those companies' services instead of trying to do everything.
The same way we want Microsoft to stick with making operating systems, Apple to stick with laptops and music, google to stick with email and search, netflix to stick with movies, etc. I think facebook movies may very well flop just like google buzz did in light of a company that specialized in it (twitter).
I was also going to say that I could see how microtransaction movies would be easier to manage than a netflix subscription. But I would argue that netflix is a one time payment with unlimited movies which is actually easier to manage than a lot of microtransactions.
Angry Birds also kept its addictive simplicity as the levels increased, which I don't think the OP mentioned. Plants vs Zombies is another addicting game which shows you as a human desperately planting plant shooters in your backyard to defend against invading zombies. The main difference I can feel is that while both games get more difficult as the levels progress, Angry Birds doesn't make it more overwhelming (you still shoot 1 bird at a time at a more complex building with pigs), but PvZ gets super overwhelming with too many plant types to choose from, too many types of zombies, too many factors to manage to the point where my old iTouch lags because there's too many things going on at once. This loses the user in the mess.
I'm not underestimating the benefits of those advantages at all. But those are opportunities bought with money. I know plenty of my peers from Ivy League schools who had the personality/skills to take advantage of everything their private schools and Ivy League upbringing had to offer - studying abroad, discussing with the best professors, etc. But I also know plenty from this same group of peers who have had access to these opportunities but are still softspoken and shy, or nervous when speaking with people, or have insecurity issues, or are elitist snobs who turn people off, so on and so forth. Sure, maybe they took Calculus in high school and have a PHD in whatever metaphysics but does that mean they are better adjusted to take advantage of all the opportunities that money has bought them? In fact, if you have 2 kids, one rich and one average, the rich one being socially ill-adjusted (because his parents were hyper-ambitious) and the average kid being happy-go-lucky, smart, and resourceful (because his parents nurtured his childhood with love and taught him the skills of problem solving and confidence), assuming they had the same opportunities, which do you think would do better in an interview? Obviously I'd like the say the latter, but that then brings up the point of whether society values the better resume and lesser merit or vice versamore.
I feel like this is a bit optimistic. There are people who waste time in a 5 day work week environment; and those same people will waste a proportionate amount of time in a 4 day work week as well because that's just the work pace theyre used to.
Let me add to your point:"If you're really passionate about your idea, you just want it to exist in the best form you can visualize it in." A lot of times your idea already exists, but your vision is a better version of that idea, whether in presentation, user interface, usability, social networking, or any other aspect that you believe can be improved upon.
The problem I have with programming is knowing the actual code formalities and rules (akin to the grammar and spelling rules of the English language). I usually don't have a problem solving the problem or outlining an algorithm, but when it comes down to actually coding it out and making the code compile without grammar bugs, I run into problems. I can read code just fine (akin to reading a language being easier than writing in a language) but writing it with the correct rules and vocabulary is a whole other issue. I guess I should just do it with a "dictionary" in hand..wish there there were programming translators :)
Hard work is very different from skills/talent or luck. The OP is claiming that the rich kid has a different/better personality skill set from the regular kid based on his wealth, and I disagree with that. I believe the rich kid has more opportunities, yes, but I don't believe rich kids are bred to have a better personality to take advantage of those opportunities. Therefore, it falls upon our society which looks at other factors instead of valuing merit for merit's sake.
Let's assume the two kids are just as driven as each other, with the rich kids having more opportunities. I do not believe that the rich kid will always have the social skills, technical skills, brains, passion, or dedication to take advantage of those opportunities. The rich kid may be a very mediocre person by merit, but because the regular kid doesn't have access to these opportunities, our society will select the rich kid for this opportunity because he looks good on paper and for lack of other merited kids to pick from. So yes, the rich kid will be ahead PURELY because he had exclusive access to an opportunity or because society wanted to pick a better resume, but NOT because the rich kid has a better skill set or is more well adjusted than the regular kid based on their wealth backgrounds. This disproves the OP's point.