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Re:Ask HN: How can I make the transition from FAANG to early... by troydavis on Sunday November 29, 2020 @07:07AM (#25244686)
Replace “(6) startup ideas” with “(6) noticing problems, making things to solve them, and iterating quickly.” The skill isn’t ideas, it’s identifying a problem you or others have, making a very basic solution, shipping it, listening to user feedback, and deciding what to spend your very limited time on.

If you want to start something, that skill is worth a lot of time. To get experience, make something on the side that gets you talking directly with users/customers. It doesn’t need to be software - as long as you’re identifying the problem and iterating to create something they like/use/buy, that’s what’s important.

For a founder, this might be the most important skill. For an early-stage employee (say, after the first 5 or 10), it’s valuable but a lot less critical.

Re:Ask HN: How can I make the transition from FAANG to early... by faangtostartup on Sunday November 29, 2020 @12:16PM (#25246436)
> something on the side that gets you talking directly with users/customers

This is super interesting, thanks!