Imagine you had to harvest your own food, build your own shelter and manufacture your own clothes... you would not have time to be in Hacker News.
Don’t be so sure about this one — there are a fair number of people who do grow much or all of their own food, and often at least some of the other necessities as well. Those who are good at it seem to end up with some leisure time as well (although whether they read HN, I don’t know). There are always arguments around the corner cases — nobody gets to be 100% self sufficient, there are usually bought in tools or something — but it seems to be possible to get quite close.
Rejecting specialisation completely is perhaps a bit extreme for me, but I can certainly see a lot of advantages to not allowing oneself to be defined by ones speciality.
Also where did they get the money to start out. Land, buildings etc. And to read hacker news a screen, an internet connection, all of which made, by specialist people using specialist tools, made by other specialist people using specialist tools. All of which were developed by specialist people relying on other specialist people.
Philosophically I like the idea of being a generalist. It's good to know. at least rudimentarily how to build simple things and look after yourself. But lets not kid ourselves, if we all did this we'd be back to the stone/iron age.
I think the point is that good tools that last a long time are a specialization. As is the distribution network for those tools, the infrastructure to deliver them, the equipment and the raw materials to make them.
Certainly. Most around here (UK) tend to make more ornamental than functional stuff nowadays, but skills are definitely out there. This being a somewhat “horsey” area, there are also plenty of farriers.
It’s also somewhat accessible to hobbyists. My sister has done some pretty neat stuff.
Those sort of universal arguments can mislead. What if everybody worked as a programmer, then we would all starve. That doesn't make programming a morally bad career choice.
Interest does not mean shit, turnover is the only important indicator. The difference to gt somebody to go from excited to hand over money is day and night.
Nobody cares about how cool the code is. Nobody cares about how pretty the application is. Those are side issues, does it solve a problem that people are willing to pay to get solved. Excel solves many problems and people are already paying for it.
Your application/idea is not as unique as you think it is.
Disruption and innovation are words that have little meaning these days, most of the time one is trying to improve a process or business, that does not equate disruption/innovation only improvement. Improvement is a good thing.
There are going to be hard days, acknowledge those. Know that everyone who is trying it on their own has those days. Most people don't show them to the outside world it does not mean they don't have them.
One of the best pieces of advice that I ever came across regarding email was "If you are replying to someones reply pick up the the phone/go talk to the person or let it go."
Working on a few large projects I have realized that a system is never perfect, but a crappy business always has a crappy system. Happy company = happy system.
My 2 cents an most probably said by someone before me.
- Read & learn more. No-one can take that from you.
- Health is important. Look after yourself, no-one else will.
- Moderation, moderation, moderation :)
- Do not worry about what people you don't know think
- Worry about what people you care about think