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Ask HN: Practical formula for being relentlessly resourceful?

8 pointseatitraw14 comments

Paul Graham wrote that good founders are relentlessly resourceful.[1]

I am starting a startup[2], so I am wondering:

Can you make a conscious effort to get better at it? Are there conscious ways for being relentlessly resourceful?

So far I've come up with one promising technique: try to think of new clever ideas/hacks assuming their cost of failure is zero. It seems to work. It allows you to see ideas you would otherwise miss because of some sort of block(though I am not 100% sure it's not an illusion -- I've been using this technique for only a couple of days).

Also, I suspect it should work better for social stuff(talking to users, acquiring users) than for programming.

HN, can you please share your own hacks/algorithms/techniques/methods, even small ones?

[1] «A couple days ago I finally got being a good startup founder down to two words: relentlessly resourceful» www.paulgraham.com/relres.html [2] In case anyone is interested: http://perunity.com (yes, we want your feedback)

Your first question is "can you make a conscious effort to get better at [being resourceful]?" The answer is almost certainly yes.

Techniques for being resourceful are very specific to the individual, so what works for one person may not for another. That being said...

The first thing I would do is meditate. It is becoming trendy, but I think for a good reason. By complete coincidence, http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237313 is a news article that showed up this morning. I think if a man like Steve Jobs arranges for a book on meditation (and self-actualization) to be given to the attendees of his own funeral, that is a powerful sign.

Talk to other people about challenges you face. This sounds simple, but it is effective. Another way of saying "I need a creative solution" is "I need a solution that I wouldn't have come up with". To me, that sounds like "I need a solution someone else came up with". Every successful business leader has advisors. So should you.

There is a talk by Charlie Munger (of Berkshire Hathaway fame) about decision making. It tends to focus on mistakes, but if you know what mistakes to avoid, it can help you find the right answer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqzcCfUglws

Tell me what you think about these.

Great suggestion!

Google the description of everything you need if you don't already have it. If a web search turns up nothing, post an Ask HN or similar. Ask your friends. Don't remake anything that already exists.

Try not to make anything that doesn't already exist unless you really can't do what you need to with what already does. To make sure that you do really need to do it, ask [Five Whys] of your motivations. If any answers come up "I don't know any other way to do it", start thinking / looking / asking for other ways to do it.

[Five Whys]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys

Other ways to add to your toolbelt of resources:

Follow the maintainers of your favorite projects on GitHub. You'll be notified when they star something they find interesting- if they think it's useful, you'll probably find it useful too.

Read Hacker News, obviously.

I doubt if this is all of it, but one suggestion I would make is constantly challenge assumptions/conventional wisdom.

Them: We can't do X

You: Why not?

Them: We asked them once before and they said [stuff]

You: But what if I ask them and say [new stuff]

etc etc. When people say stuff can't be done, keep digging into why not until you hit bottom. They might be right, or you might smash through another roadblock.

1) Nothing will die if you can't kill it. Be like cockroach. 2) Take advantage of everything you can get ahold of. Dont ask for permission, but forgiveness. 3) Don't spend a dime until you're forced to. This means contractors sometimes, unfortunately. 4) (S)He who knows the most, wins. Its an infowar out there, so never stop reading/learning. Use triggers/web svcs to make the internet work for you. 5) https://diy.soylent.me/recipes and/or join a coworking space

If you follow this 5 step program, you too can be relentlessly resourceful... and lose a lot of weight :)

Relentlessly resourceful only makes sense/sounds good in hindsight.

Before that there is simply "relentless" and "resourceful"--which are straight forward enought.

The "problem" is there is a tension/contradiction between the two: relentless meants "stopping at nothing". And resourceful means working within a set constraint (ie, an externally-imposed limit).

Needless to say, bringing/finding hidder or non-obvious resources to bear on problems with obvious/unavoidable constraints is the general gist of this problem.

"Never bring a knife to a gunfight" is also another take on it, although a bit more from the perspective of a negative proof.

I know it will sound like a cliche. Exercise, eat well, rest and have happy moments. You will be relentlessly resourceful this way since it seems that you have really set your mind on it.

That sounds more like a generic tip on how (in your opinion) to be successful/happy, with no real focus on resourcefulness (or relentlessness).

first of all being relentlessly resourceful is very different from being relentless. secondly, this advice is sound for being sharp, think creatively and being able to withstand stressful situations.

Have less scruples than the next guy. Being free of moral bindings allows you greater range to maneuver.

Understand social proof and signaling. Practice dropping positive signals and social proof in all your stories; have a rehearsed story showing vulnerability to have when you need to make yourself appear more personable. Practice mirroring as people like those similar to themselves. If you're an well educated white male, you're already halfway there.

I don't recommend the "have less scruples than the next guy" game. This is the sort of nonsense that was passed around in the 80s -- "business is war". There is an important difference between business and war: if you lose in war, you die. No second chances.

In business, if you are a tough but fair player, and you lose, you will be offered the chance to play again. If you compete in bad faith, you won't.

You're reframing. "Tough but fair" is how you treat coworkers, employees, investors, and others who you interact with regularly. But it doesn't give you an edge in becoming relentlessly effective.

What do you do when your competitor is willing to break rules that you are not? Tread moral and legal grey areas that you do not? Take advantage of Facebook API's to spam users? How about spamming Craigslist? Submitting thousands of fake car requests to bog down your service and drivers?

Do you avoid all this low hanging fruit? Or do you take advantage of these growth opportunities and hope that you're so successful these shady tactics become afterthoughts?

Create artificial limitations.

And be aware when you do so.

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