The sentiment seems very popular in the start-up scene :)
(I don't do regular credit.)
Furthermore, have you considered that a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz has also seen plenty of what causes companies to fail? Maybe he just didn't outline it here?
The greatest probability of being destroyed is .534, and occurs
when a plane is hit by a 20-mm cannon shell in the engine area.
The next most vulnerable event is a hit by a 7.9-mm machine gun
bullet on the cockpit.
Another thing, I'm not sure that the method is unobvious. This is not the fault of the author but of the fairly breathless retellings that sound like an episode of 'Numb3rs'
That should read, "One of the most influential mathematical statisticians in history..."
He also invented the "Wald test".
But, really, it's a clever observation that was made by a historically great statistician. And the anecdote leaves out the fact that he had probably been thinking about this problem before --- he was working as part of the war effort. So it was probably harder than it looks.
Apocalypse Now:
> Why are you sitting on your helmet?
Agree.
Also noting that hotmail in particular (1/2 of the n=2) was a free service.
There wasn't much that the customers who lost their mail could do legally (most likely) because they weren't paying for the service. So I am guessing it wouldn't be something that you could hire a lawyer to pursue [1] or even band together for a class action.
[1] Which is a really important concept actually. If you are providing a service to a customer and charge either nothing, or a very cheap price, and have a good contract, the chance of someone hiring a lawyer to pursue an action is pretty small.
I found out later when stopped by the (UK) police once, that their "Have you ever been in trouble with the police before?" is a similar one. After i answered it pretty dismissively, he said "It's amazing what some people will tell you".
Upvote to the top replier for this anecdote, which i'll keep for special occasions: > "[A guy in charge] said the military didn’t need to reinforce the spots that had bullet holes. They needed to reinforce the spots that didn’t have bullet holes."
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671172/how-a-story-from-world-w...
"In WWII, Allied bombers were key to strategic attacks, yet these lumbering giants were constantly shot down over enemy territory. The planes needed more armor, but armor is heavy. So extra plating could only go where the planes were being shot the most."...
"[A guy in charge] said the military didn’t need to reinforce the spots that had bullet holes. They needed to reinforce the spots that didn’t have bullet holes."
Having experienced 2 "WFIO" things in the last 6 months, I agree that entrepreneurs need to be resilient, but I think it's more valuable to read post mortems than these "we almost died" posts because they prove more instructional.
For instance, Aaron's post about Tutorspree is a really useful post for me, although it definitely has less of a feel good vibe to it.
http://www.aaronkharris.com/when-seo-fails-single-channel-de...