Startup shutdown
Oct. 9th, 2006 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flexagonPaul Graham recently gave a talk, now revised into an essay, to MIT students about startups. There's a funny thing about Paul Graham... I almost always like what he writes and how he writes, and I almost always decide somewhere along the line that he's missing a vital point or two. Here's Paul:
The other thing you get from work experience is an understanding of what work is, and in particular, how intrinsically horrible it is. Fundamentally the equation is a brutal one: you have to spend most of your waking hours doing stuff someone else wants, or starve. There are a few places where the work is so interesting that this is concealed, because what other people want done happens to coincide with what you want to work on. But you only have to imagine what would happen if they diverged to see the underlying reality.
Later, when talking about startups, he says something I've written a mini-essay on myself (emphasis mine):
...understanding the relationship between money and work also changes the way you work. You don't get money just for working, but for doing things other people want. Someone who's figured that out will automatically focus more on the user.
So let me get this straight, Paul. No matter what, I get money for doing things other people want. If I work for an established company, then (removing a few caveats about not working on a company's core product) I can work on something that I know other people want. Or, alternatively, I can start a startup, thus betting my livelihood on my
own ability to figure out what other people want. Hmmmmm.
I can't bring myself to think I'm a loser for not wanting that second option.
The other thing you get from work experience is an understanding of what work is, and in particular, how intrinsically horrible it is. Fundamentally the equation is a brutal one: you have to spend most of your waking hours doing stuff someone else wants, or starve. There are a few places where the work is so interesting that this is concealed, because what other people want done happens to coincide with what you want to work on. But you only have to imagine what would happen if they diverged to see the underlying reality.
Later, when talking about startups, he says something I've written a mini-essay on myself (emphasis mine):
...understanding the relationship between money and work also changes the way you work. You don't get money just for working, but for doing things other people want. Someone who's figured that out will automatically focus more on the user.
So let me get this straight, Paul. No matter what, I get money for doing things other people want. If I work for an established company, then (removing a few caveats about not working on a company's core product) I can work on something that I know other people want. Or, alternatively, I can start a startup, thus betting my livelihood on my
own ability to figure out what other people want. Hmmmmm.
I can't bring myself to think I'm a loser for not wanting that second option.
