I get a lot of credit (perhaps more than I deserve) because I talk a lot, am amicable, and write in a compelling manner. Communication is the great underlooked startup/engineering skill.

I prefer taking the opposite tack [+] with regards to simplicity: there is indeed such a thing as simple. Your business, on day one, is simple. It will gradually become more complex as you learn things and learn what the business needs, but you don't need to let the complexity coming down the pike scare you away from starting something today. (And compared to many businesses -- from megacorps down to a lot of the startups around here -- BCC is still pretty simple, even four years in. My best marketing strategy can be explained in three Powerpoint slides, all the code I have is under 10kloc, and the core customer need is pretty much unchanged.)

[+] Some day I will learn this English idiom properly, but until I do, thank you guys for correcting me on it.

I think the idiom is difficult because it's not a properly understood idiom for most people who speak English. It's a sailing term. When you're sailing into the wind, you criss-cross against it, changing the side of the ship the wind is coming across, so the ship ends up taking zig-zag path through the water. Changing the orientation of the ship so the wind comes across a different side is tacking. It's the opposite of jibing, which is changing which side the wind is coming across with the wind at your back.

Hopefully the context of it helps, taking "the opposite tack" is changing your orientation to reach towards the same goal on a different approach when you're getting off-course with your current approach.

To add a little more, it is often a good tactic in competition. If you take the same tack as your competitor, then you are simply following them in their "dirty wind" and are unlikely to overtake.

If you take the opposite tack, then you may well find clean wind, or better wind, and you may also be able to approach them on starboard tack, forcing them to give way.

Don't follow your competitor - take the opposite tack.

I think we're all rooting for you because you come across as as a genuinely nice guy and because you live the dream that many here just dream of, to wean yourself from your pay-check and to go 'independent' without any outside help.

It's impressive, to say the least, far more so than many of the 'my feature just got funded' items and if you keep at it you'll do very well in the long run.

Keep an eye on your savings, make sure you plan for rainy days as well, they're inevitable.

I expect that Patrick knows that better than most people, since every summer is a one long rainy day for his product.

"the opposite tack". In the interests of compelling writing. And pedantry.

Funnily enough, this article just hit my inbox - "the origin of nautical terms like jibe, tack etc".

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2950/whats-the-orig...