Vagueness, name dropping, [cargo cult entrepreneurship], hubris, and absurd sentences like 'If you have nothing better to do, let's change the world.' All in the context of a world with enough information on starting web businesses online to read past this level of naivety. All things hackers intend to bristle at.

On the scale from savvy to clueless, this doesn't rate well. But the snarky tone of the headline isn't any better. Sequoia isn't even spelled properly...

I could more readily agree with what you're saying if a great resource like Hacker News didn't consistently get high-ranked items with headlines like "10 Ways To Get Motivated To Change The World By Starting A Startup"

For what it's worth: the CraigsList poster is light years ahead of midwestern Union workers are with their compulsions to invest in Quixtar and 'systems' from Carleton Sheets.

But really, who is to judge? I think it's cool that this person is, at the very least, pretending to try.

I think it's cool too. And I'd give them encouragement. And I'd try to resist the urge to pat them on the head.

But as for why it's getting voted up, that's my assessment.

Honestly, I really dislike the self-consciously self-focused articles we've been getting like our "10 Ways to Get Motivated..." articles. It's so... contentless. I come here for "Hacker News," not "'Hacker News,' News."

What does "iconoclasm" mean in this context?

I meant two things:

1) Worship of icons and behaviors instead of the things which they represent; that is, cargo cult entrepreneurship. This is my own vague and probably incorrect usage.

2) If someone exclaims "Let's change the world," I would ask "Which part? Why?"

Iconoclasm has a secondary meaning "A person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions." Changing the world does; to do so vaguely, or at random, or without actually mentioning the target, is not always such a sane thing to do.

Iconoclasm actually means the opposite. Iconoclasts were a bunch of people in the middle ages who had something against religious images and so went around breaking them. Icons = images. Clasm = break.

So the traditional meaning of iconoclast in this context would be someone who seeks to break accepted imagery on a specific topic.

Thanks for pointing that out.

I really didn't have anything negative to say about the Craigslist post - we've all seen this sort of naivety before. Most of us have even been there.

But what really bothered me personally is that this was posted in the Boca Raton Craigslist area. If you can afford to live in Boca (median home price: 420k, http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bpretire/2006/snapsh...), you can afford to at least provide some form of compensation (beer? pizza? caffeine? hell, just take me out to dinner and I'll help draw up some cost estimates.)

Maybe I'm generalizing based on an area (and who has spare cash around nowadays anyway), but I'm so tired of people with plenty in the bank asking me to develop an idea for free.

If you have a "considerable history in marketing," you should know better.

I live in a place with a median house value of over $500k (north san francisco bay), yet I am not swimming in money. The key is that I don't own a house. The monthly payments on a 30 year mortgage would be more than my monthly after tax income. I rent an apartment.

Living in a rich area doesn't make you rich. Perhaps he lives in Boca Raton because that is where his last job was or where his wife works. Maybe his mortgage payments are so high that he can't afford to buy you beer.

I like to reserve judgment whenever possible.

Where do you live?

I live outside of Boston, where the median home price is way north of 500k. And living in a rich area doesn't make you rich - I can attest to that personally, too: I rent, I eat ramen.

But I know that if someone made this proposition to me, in the Boston area, I'd expect something in return. I don't think asking for a meal or some beer is out of line. It's more symbolic than anything.

If you're not in the position to buy me a dinner in exchange for a few hours of my services, then I really wonder if you're in the position to start a company. No offense intended - but if you are about to go the VC route, then the VC will be asking you to make a lot bigger personal bets than a simple dinner.

But anyway, this is all speculation, and HackerNews isn't a place for speculation. I'd go back and edit my comment, but the edit window is expired. C'est la vie, mod me down accordingly.

My apologies if I offended anyone.

"I have an idea, I can't test it or build it, so I don't actually know how good this idea is, but come work for me for free and make me rich!"

I am amazed that people have the chutzpah to act like that these days (e.g.: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=362066).

Call me old fashioned, but what about building the product first (and learning the skills needed to be competent enough to do so)?

Old fashioned. Do some marketing first, see if anyone responds, then decide to build the product.

Before you make the decision (or even do marketing) you should know that you're able to build the product. That being said, I highly doubt (given the fact these people don't even mention anything about their idea) that they did any market research.

Ha, so true.

I wish he/she laid out his own experiences and skills first before sounding like a sycophantic name dropper.

And the change the world shit is lame.

What was meeting Sequoia like?

It was intense for me, but they were quite adept at making me at ease. They asked great questions and were quite honest about their positions on things, (their level of interest, their feeling about the market I'm in, etc). I'm using "they" to maintain propriety, but my experience was only with one partner. I've met a few of the partners through Y Combinator and all of them seem on the up and up. In fact, I moved back to New York City after Y Combinator Summer '07 and ran into Greg McAdoo and his wife in Central Park. It was a brief chat, but I was impressed that he remembered me.

I think Sequoia has the track record to be able to spare everyone the game playing. As I said, the meeting arose out of a cold email, so that's quite telling on its own. I definitely feel that I could return to them when I think my company's position has matured and it's more appropriate to raise a series A.

Sequoia and Matrix stand out as two firms that will provide advice while simultaneously performing cursory due diligence. That's a plus for non-business types like myself.

Thanks.

Fun!

I still email them every once in a while.