zackattack

It's ridiculous to commend choices that lead to bad results.

I gotta be honest, that was depressing to read. Why would he want to raise $24mm when he could just build a profitable sales machine from day one, with a Scalable and repeatable sales process? I think he should read the book _The Lean Startup_ by Eric Ries.

I agree.

Look at this way though.

Let's say you share a picture of me at a concert and my dream romantic partner sees it, decides she must be with me, and tracks me down. We fall in love and get married and I never again have to think about dating, because I choose not to.

Now I have more mental resources dedicated to the tasks of providing everyone with healthy food, disseminating compassion, ...

"But information technology is what I know, and it’s probably too late for me to learn a new field from scratch."

Rationalization; party line.

(Someone as smart as Chris Dixon could pick up a new field in 3 months. It actually doesn't take that much intelligence to learn a new field. It takes some intelligence, it takes a good mentor and it takes discipline.)

my email is zackster@gmail.com - feel free to contact any time

being an "asshole" helps

you just have to be a COMPASSIONATE "asshole"

as a naturally gifted salesman i can confirm this article is spot on

p.s. i am a naturally gifted programmer too. the two are not mutually exclusive - pun intended =)

MZBS

Taxation is subject to marketplace effects.

I've learned something from Mr. Buffet.

The more critics the better! Let my fans vote with their wallets!

I don't think Paul wants anyone to criticize YC companies. A potential customer asking for changes is different. I am actually not sure there is any value to criticism. "Constructive criticism" seems like a sneaky way to assert authority and drain, without providing any real value.

No, you're wrong. He means be nice to them because they're WITH HIM.

"in this competitive market"?

And just what market are you referring to?

I'm in Vegas. Anyone have an extra badge they wanna sell me? I wanna stop by tomorrow. #meetup

evidently he isn't

Anyone want to deconstruct this article. These are 10 people who "you can safely snub at conferences". But by doing so you are also submitting to CNN's authority.

Have you ever met an elite programmer who was not an alpha male or alpha female. I would simply test for signs of dominance.

Edit: downvoted. Two possibilities spring to mind:

1) Downvoted by a feeble mind not capable of constructing an intelligent retort.

2) Downvoted by a relatively strong, yet ultimately scarce mind that wants to prevent access to the truth.

By taking the leap forward to being fully transparent with your skill execution, by being courageous and taking the risk to let yourself be vulnerable, you can see massive improvements

I recommend video taping yourself during skill execution and then asking an expert to review it for you. You will be amazed at how many mistakes you are making and also how easy and straightforward they are to correct once you are aware of them.

This is helpful for everything from sports to dating to programming.

And because I'm always scheming, many savvy internet marketers are allowing people to upload videos of themselves practicing niche skill X and then hiring a coach to review them. Some cool HTML5/Flex software on a CRUD database could be a big hit here.

Why is this sad. You should be glad because it makes life easy. Once you reach a critical threshold of skill there are diminishing marginal returns for investing time in deliberate practice. If you want to pursue some esoteric arbitrary skill in pursuit of personal excellence because you find it rewarding then good for you.

Many technologists make money when they automate tedious processes executed by humans.

+1, insightful.

Education is mostly about emotional communication. If you can communicate Emotional Space and Respect to someone and you can give them a compelling Emotional desire for why to learn something, and you consistently exemplify the skill, learning is very automatic. It happens in the animal kingdom all the time.

Hey, I run CompassionPit.com and have built up a sizable, stable community.... (40,000-200,000 unique visitors/month). I would be very happy to collaborate with a like-minded individual. The app is on the node.js stack and I've funded development and hosting entirely. I've released the source for free.

https://github.com/zackster/CompassionPit--Node-/

Engineers think in features

Customers think in benefits

"men are from mars women are from venus" "apples and oranges"

I feel like $30 pales in comparison to $8mm.

In my narrative I construct my identity through my thoughts, emotions, intentions and conflicts; my desires. Other people judge me by my results.

I've been tracking this company for a while. I wonder when they will acquire some Paul Ekman products.

Facebook has improved your life. You got to publish a book about it.

Hahaha

>(A talent acquisition is sometimes the founders' first choice if it happens early enough. Then it's a better deal because the money is divided by less time.)

I thought acquisitions were one of the last surviving relics of indentured servitude, besides universities. My guess is that it's still a better deal when you adjust for risk, likelihood of large success, and fully look at the expected value matrix. Though I'm skeptical that you can really discuss probability in the context of multiple people's talents, without historical data (the best proxy I see is that you were _chosen_ by pg or other tier 1 VC, and said VC has this historical record, etc.)