Did you watch the video? If you watch it through to the end, you see the determination, conviction and sincerity that these guys have, which would have put them ahead of anyone else trying to do something similar (eg, Digg, in the long run).

No one denies that luck plays a big part in how successful any given startup will turn out to be.

But everyone can do things to make their chances of success higher, and the magnitude of that success greater, through the way they conduct themselves and the decisions they make about what they do.

You're implying that projects that aren't successful lack determination, conviction, and sincerity. This is not the case at all.

I didn't imply any such thing; I said luck plays a big role.

Luck was a big factor in Reddit's early success. But luck wouldn't have helped them if they didn't have a good idea ans put in the work.

And luck, as they say, is something you can make, by spending enough time operating with determination, conviction and sincerity, and by learning enough about the world to pick projects that will have a higher chance of success.

But from your comments in this thread, you seem like a pretty cynical, defeatist person, which could be a pretty big handicap in your quest for success - if indeed that is something you really want.

The article is quite superficial, so not much unless you were clueless to the beginnings of reddit. That said, a lot of things are actually out of your control. You can't make everyone like the thing you want to work on and people often don't even know what they want to see next. Its not about doing projects just because they are fun and lucking out. These guys were actively trying to make a successful product and had to pivot from their original direction.

There were countless sites that copied "social news" after the decline of Digg though. All were trying to be successful and really only one succeeded.