"If you've worked with the spineless, you know how frustrating it can be to deal with their poisonous helplessness -- something that's only heightened in a startup where the most important thing you can do is not give up. And you'd better fucking believe that when you come home to a mother battling brain cancer and a father spending every waking hour taking care of her and running his own business, you don't complain, you don't cower, and you most certainly don't quit."
I'm currently in a situation where I have such a person close to me. It was very helpful to have that pointed out again.
I've managed to work 2 hours on my startup idea this evening. Whereas I otherwise probably would've given in to the demons ("it's 20:40 already.. too late to get anything useful done, I'll just play some videogames the rest of the evening").
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Tangentially, this also seems to illustrate why Alexis/reddit have been successful -- perseverance and flexibility are crucial to startups!
Yes, from the article:
"If you've worked with the spineless, you know how frustrating it can be to deal with their poisonous helplessness -- something that's only heightened in a startup where the most important thing you can do is not give up. And you'd better fucking believe that when you come home to a mother battling brain cancer and a father spending every waking hour taking care of her and running his own business, you don't complain, you don't cower, and you most certainly don't quit."
Yeah, I found it jarring that he took time out here to call someone he was working with at the time spineless.
I thought Alexis hit the nail squarely on the head with that paragraph actually. Helplessness really is poisonous.
I'm currently in a situation where I have such a person close to me. It was very helpful to have that pointed out again.
I've managed to work 2 hours on my startup idea this evening. Whereas I otherwise probably would've given in to the demons ("it's 20:40 already.. too late to get anything useful done, I'll just play some videogames the rest of the evening").
I'm not sure he was referring to someone he was working with at the time.