I'm also working on a startup with my wife as cofounder. We haven't launched yet, but her skillset is a fantastic complement to mine. I'm a very strategic thinker, whereas she's a great tactician and good at organization. She's also brilliant (Ph.D. student in I/O psychology), which is one of the reasons I married her. :)

I think that most couples aren't capable of running a business together, but I also think we're particularly pragmatic and don't let emotions get in the way of our goals.

I also have found myself becoming MORE creative now that we've been married. That might just be because I didn't move out from my parents' house until a few months before the wedding, but I can say that the broad generalization of marriage destroying creativity doesn't apply to me.

uhh .. what is I/O psychology? maybe there is some obvious abbreviation that I am missing. but I/O .. well to a programmer that is always input-output and I am having a hard time thinking about what psychology might be involved in reading/writing to disks for instance.

Industrial organisation

Thanks for the fantastically rare anecdotal example.

My point is more about the implications of such exceptions. Don't make decisions in the abstract. You aren't some random variable. You know a great deal about yourself, and conditional probabilities affect the aggregate statistics that caused your stereotypes and perceptions.

So you're saying that one should never heed general warnings but instead discover all potential risks through first-hand, irreversible, unprepared-for personal disaster?

The critical aspect here is that you do not entirely control the temperament of your partner. That is up to her and your luck. Best to not throw away this advice and make use of this knowledge while you can.

Of course, congratulations on your awesome luck.

No, take general warnings as a guide, and add the context of your specific situation.

For example, wingsuit diving is essentially suicidal. http://youtube.com/watch?v=JHlOvhlKPvs

But if you happen to be an extremely talented wingsuit diver, such broad declarations don't mean as much.

Certainly heed advice if you are in no way exception with respect to the matters that influence the issue.

Also, about temperament... I've probably thought about the long term implications of temperament and interaction about starting the business far more than average. So if you shouldn't have gotten married, you sure as hell shouldn't start a company together. If you made a good decision (which sadly isn't too common), you can probably work together really well. Goes back to the main point: context matters over generalizations.

come to think of it, today is our anniversary :)