Re:But… I could have written that in a week
by wikwocket on Thursday June 27, 2013 @02:58PM
(#5954054)
Reminds me of a blog post about Stack Overflow[0], which references a HN discussion[1] where people were guesstimating that they could reproduce all of SO in a weekend.
We're tinkerers - when we see something, we immediately think about how it works under the hood. And because we're too clever by half, we're dogged optimists, thinking there is always a way to accomplish something.
As we mature, we realize that things are often more complicated than they seem on the surface, that often a lot of engineering goes into making something appear simple and easy, and especially, that there is more to the value of something than the effort it would take to build a copy of it.
Re:But… I could have written that in a week
by blowski on Thursday June 27, 2013 @02:45PM
(#5953991)
This argument is very similar to that about the 'value' of modern art. We traditionally place all the value on the amount of effort that goes directly into producing the item, and discount any of the other effort involved in making it a success.
Perhaps the cliche `success = perspiration + inspiration` needs to be updated to include `marketing`.
Re:But… I could have written that in a week
by srikrishnan on Thursday June 27, 2013 @03:00PM
(#5954070)
maybe it needs to be more generic than 'marketing'.
Sometimes its about making the right connections and getting distribution right. Sometimes its about creating barriers to entry that are not via the core product itself.
Re:But… I could have written that in a week
by blowski on Thursday June 27, 2013 @03:37PM
(#5954276)
Yeah, I wasn't happy with my choice of word, but couldn't think of anything else. I guess the key point is that if you pour 100% of your effort directly into development of the product then there's a good chance you'll fail.
Re:But… I could have written that in a week
by vicky_dec8th on Thursday June 27, 2013 @02:14PM
(#5953797)
I think it also matters where you eventually want to be. Is the problem you are solving help a million users? Is it repeatable business?
Not judging on what is wrong approach or right approach. But startups tend to go after ideas which can get a few million users or generate a few million dollars in revenue.
Re:But… I could have written that in a week
by quaunaut on Thursday June 27, 2013 @02:24PM
(#5953863)
It's a good lesson to learn. After all- most web apps aren't that complicated in the first place. To steal a quote, they're just "skins over databases". Yet, they have immense value.
We're tinkerers - when we see something, we immediately think about how it works under the hood. And because we're too clever by half, we're dogged optimists, thinking there is always a way to accomplish something.
As we mature, we realize that things are often more complicated than they seem on the surface, that often a lot of engineering goes into making something appear simple and easy, and especially, that there is more to the value of something than the effort it would take to build a copy of it.
[0] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/07/code-its-trivial.ht... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=678501
Perhaps the cliche `success = perspiration + inspiration` needs to be updated to include `marketing`.
Not judging on what is wrong approach or right approach. But startups tend to go after ideas which can get a few million users or generate a few million dollars in revenue.