I recently made one of my few contributions to HN, and it turned out it was a response to a troll.I didn't realize it then, and I'm embarrassed about having condoned this behavior by feeding the fire.Are there any hard and fast heuristics that you use to identify trolls? I can diagnose the patently obviously cases, but apparently I can't see the items that are subtly trollish.(As a side note,...
As with any reasonably well-known person, there are followers that adhere to PG too religiously. I can't speak for these people except to say that they are the minority on HN.
Paul's writings are inspiring in the same way as Rand. But they are different because they span the gap between fantasy and reality. His main message of "Make something users want" couldn't be more pragmatic.
Certainly some essays are more speculative and philosophical than others, but most tend to be focused on one idea: How to do something that is exciting and meaningful to you and fit that into how the actual world works; spanning the gap between your personal fantasy job and the reality of making that into a business.
I finally found a few potential cofounders, quit my job, and started working obsessively on my ideas. I'll have a demo in a few weeks and I need to make a decision about whether or not I actually want to go through with this.
My main concern is with the funding/stock/control issue. Ignorant or not, I (and the other founder hackers) need to have complete control over things from top to bottom. I am certainly open to suggestions & advice from a board, but the decisions ultimately have to rest with me.
In your experience, has this been an issue? Is this an unrealistic expectation?