If you copy something that works and then add features or put a spin on it you can end up with something new and cool. Its a good way to start thinking about ideas imo.
Isn't Digg just google news or nytimes with new innovative features?
He does make one valid point - if you're spending all day contributing to this news section you're probably not working hard enough on your project.
Also, I don't believe he was comparing Paul to a 15-year-old musician, but rather screwed up and switched the name of his cousin from Steve to Paul. A freudian comparison perhaps, but not intentional. He failed to communicate his point effectively.
Some of us contribute to yCombinator because we have day jobs and can't work on our startup while on company time. And yet we have bosses that tell us to hold up because they aren't done with the requirements yet. Time is fungible; might as well use our bored-time at work on something semi-productive and free up the time at home for working on the startup.
Of course, you could argue that if one really wants their startup to succeed, they shouldn't have a day job. I'd probably even agree with you. But "when to quit" is a complicated question, particularly if you're gaining (or hopefully soon will be getting - damn boss!) valuable experience in addition to cash.
Man, I feel silly now. I have several times more than $15K saved up. At grad-school living expenses, perhaps 3 years of runway.
I'm not really sticking with the day job for financial reasons though. I want to see the product I've been working on ship. Get it into the hands of actual paying customers. Because I figure then I'll get to see a whole bunch of other problems that will likely impact the startup too. Much better to make the initial mistakes on someone else's dime.
Problem is, my day job seems to move at a glacial pace. So despite having a 6 month handicap and about 1/5 the number of man-hours available, my startup may launch first. If that happens, I'll probably quit the day job whether it's done or not, because it's just a drag on the startup.
That's still plenty respectable. Woz designed most of the Apple II in his apartment while working at Hewlett Packard. However, (if my memory serves me correctly) he left HP to put the finishing touches on the design before it launched.
So perhaps it might be best to leave when your product is about 80% to the point of launching, because then you can focus full time on actually getting it out the door, and on the aftermath. If you have a day job, it might never seem like it's ready to launch.
But that's just my hypothesis; I don't have any actual experience with that. :)
He said, "I read that thing that Paul wrote saying that anybody who contributes regularly is going to fare better. That's shit from a bull."
All I said was the above, and you started accusing me of editing my posts. Why? I thought you'd say, "OH, I see why you think he should apologize to Paul."
Dude, you're a liar. You've edited or deleted half of your posts after I replied to them. Maybe you'll pull the wool over the eyes of someone that stumbles into the thread now, but your initial comment said that the author should apologize for comparing Paul to the musician.
How DARE you call me a liar? You work in a PR firm, so you use WORDS. I use LOGIC.
The point of my thread was that the author was being a jerk to Paul and should apologize. When I posted the quote where it's clear the author is insulting Paul, you got all uppity about it.
"your initial comment said that the author should apologize for comparing Paul to the musician."
At what point did I deny that I "compared Paul to the musician?" I never claimed I never said that. I simply replied to you and posted his quote you might have missed where the author said "YC is a waste of time" and also says, Paul is a bull who speaks "shit". That's why I said the author should apologize.
The author obviously meant to say Steve instead of Paul, in the intro. I didn't confuse that part of the article like you arrogantly believed. The reason I compared the two is because the user shows disdain and hate for the YC, so much he even confused his friend and Paul's names, when the two had nothing to do with one another.
You work in public relations so you're probably very good at attacking people. You're a liar and exaggerate by trade.
Do you understand it now? Or are you attacking me just because you're a PR person trying to test your training?
With all the greasemonkey scripts making it to the front page lately, I thought I'd test out my own that dealt with comments. I tried to delete most them, Sorry.
You are correct, I work in PR. The reason you know this is because I've provided a reasonable level of transparency in my profile. Additonally, I use my real name as my user name becuase I want to be held accountable for what I say.
If I ever lied to a reporter it would end my career. I'm sorry if you felt like I was attacking you, I wasn't. I was debating the merit of your arguements, which is lost now because you continuously edit them.
Public relations has nothing to do with attacking people. The 150 people I work with would be highly offended if I told them that we lie by trade - it is simply not the case.
Do I exaggerate? Yes, but who doesn't? I'd wager the best YC applications contain a degree of hyperbole, because no one wants to get involved with something that isn't exciting.
Finally, words are the simplest way to express logic, so I'm glad we could find some common ground. If you go back and read my original comment you'll see I wasn't attacking you. I wasn't even disagreeing with you. I was simply adding my insight to your original post, which is lost now because you continue to edit or delete what you say. I'm not going to debate this any further with you, because I am starting to feel foolish being dragging into this.
So again, I am sorry if you felt attacked, that was not my intention.
Best wishes,
Clinton
PS - I've taken the liberty of copying and pasting your post below so you won't feel compelled to edit it.
0 points by voiceofreason 10 hours ago | link | parent
How DARE you call me a liar? You work in a PR firm, so you use WORDS. I use LOGIC.
The point of my thread was that the author was being a jerk to Paul and should apologize. When I posted the quote where it's clear the author is insulting Paul, you got all uppity about it.
"your initial comment said that the author should apologize for comparing Paul to the musician."
At what point did I deny that I "compared Paul to the musician?" I never claimed I never said that. I simply replied to you and posted his quote you might have missed where the author said "YC is a waste of time" and also says, Paul is a bull who speaks "shit". That's why I said the author should apologize.
The author obviously meant to say Steve instead of Paul, in the intro. I didn't confuse that part of the article like you arrogantly believed. The reason I compared the two is because the user shows disdain and hate for the YC, so much he even confused his friend and Paul's names, when the two had nothing to do with one another.
You work in public relations so you're probably very good at attacking people. You're a liar and exaggerate by trade.
Do you understand it now? Or are you attacking me just because you're a PR person trying to test your training?
I think I'll pass on any investment that is based on an unrelated popularity contest. Popularity of my product ought to play a role here...but popularity of a video about it?
Anyway, I don't get it and won't visit again, though I think there's still plenty of room in the online video market for niche entries.
Example: what if a real estate broker hired a really personable ex-cheerleader/glee club member for $20 an hour to do nothing but sweat the details and be charming the entire time the closing was going on?
I can't say that I've quit my job, but Paul Graham does make some interesting points.
The question that is stuck in my head is "what should I do if I have an idea for a Web service, but have no technical 'know-how?'" Is it worth approaching YCombinator?
Start ups are about work, not ideas. Ideas flow freely with some people (like me) that just have about one idea per day worth implementation.
The skill to bring a product to life is the critical part.
Still, since you shouldn't drop the idea of starting a start up, you should either find someone with the technical know how (track down my email and email me for help in that) or go for an idea where you can contribute 100%.
Just my opinion, of course, though I highly doubt anyone would disagree (yes, this is a challenge).
I remember reading a chapter of Hackers & Painters in which PG states that he was able to implement new features so quickly, that it seemed to his competitors as though he possessed some kind of secret weapon. Instead, he was simply using Lisp, a powerful and highly abstract language.
What he doesn't explicitly mention is that he is an expert at Lisp, having published two books on the language -- not to mention having a PhD from Harvard in Computer Science, where he probably became an expert using the language (although, admittedly, I have never been able to track down PGs graduate research work...).
This is what gave ViaWeb their competitive edge in the section of the e-commerce market and led to their success. As a startup, you're unlikely to succeed. You'll want all the advantages you can possibly attain.
Aur, thank you for your insight. Currently I would say I fall more into a marketing/sales/negotiation "box," which I believe is an important aspect for start-ups.
If I were to begin a start-up it would be as a co-founder. Yes, I would need to find someone with the technical know how - fortunately I'm living with a software engineer. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure he is happy with his job...but maybe I can convince him to give me 20% of his time if I develop my plan further.
no technical know how when building a web company is going to be a problem.
But I'm building a web startup, and I'm not an engineer/developer. I do know a lot about the web and product development so my eyes don't roll back when the conversation turns to apache logs, SSL stamps, and server side scripts.
I would suggest documenting your concept in a simple word doc, starting with the primary result, then spell it out step by step.
After you have the core concept in place, talk to web developers about the project, if the idea is hot, and they have the right skills you could be on your way to success.
I have rather the opposite problem. I'm like a machine when I get a decent idea (wrt implementing it etc), but I can't seem to find one that makes other people care about it.
