Maybe I was being too subtle. I mean it sounds like offering completely random advice that has no statistically significant correlation with success, and therefore is just as likely to be wrong as right.
To be fair, all startup advice is completely random advice. Really, there's no guaranteed rulebook for success, so everything should be taken with a grain of salt.
It read to me more like general advice that one should carefully examine any industry "best practice" in the light of your company's specific needs and circumstances.
So for example "we just used Heroku" might stick in the craw of developers who think AWS Lambda based microservices are the future, but for a small startup with limited resources and time Heroku is probably a safe bet.
Yes; in other words: don't do cargo cult. Do what needs to be done, not what you think needs to be done because you have read about it somewhere.
But of course this is much easier to say than to put in practice; "what needs to be done" is very hard to know, while random generic advice is always top of mind.
Their advice is to not cargo cult. Not to ignore all advice.
What that would mean is that even for the advice that they give, not to cargo cult, you need to examine whether that’s actually good advice or not.
It may turn out that your product is a component library, in which case, being in the spaces the cargo cult tells you to be it may actually make sense for you to follow, because that’s where the largest market would be.
Agree, it’s especially difficult avoid cargo cults if you are surrounded by people who insist that it’s necessary to do certain magical incarnations in order to be successful.
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This sounds like quite the opposite:
Maybe I was being too subtle. I mean it sounds like offering completely random advice that has no statistically significant correlation with success, and therefore is just as likely to be wrong as right.
That's exactly what the author says. He does not give advice. He just give a laundry list of facts for his business.
The only advice is to not sweat over things you don't do. Do you suggest one should?
As a business owner, it resonates with me.
Guess the article was too subtle.
To be fair, all startup advice is completely random advice. Really, there's no guaranteed rulebook for success, so everything should be taken with a grain of salt.
It read to me more like general advice that one should carefully examine any industry "best practice" in the light of your company's specific needs and circumstances.
So for example "we just used Heroku" might stick in the craw of developers who think AWS Lambda based microservices are the future, but for a small startup with limited resources and time Heroku is probably a safe bet.
Their point is that you will do many things others will tell you are “wrong”. They may be right about some and wrong about others.
You need to stop focusing on all the things you’re doing incorrectly and focus on the things you’re doing well that are working for you.
If you take any of the items they said they didn’t do as a recommendation to not do that thing then you’re missing the author’s point.
Yes; in other words: don't do cargo cult. Do what needs to be done, not what you think needs to be done because you have read about it somewhere.
But of course this is much easier to say than to put in practice; "what needs to be done" is very hard to know, while random generic advice is always top of mind.
So then we shouldn’t follow the advice in this article either.
Maybe we should just do nothing lest we follow someone’s advice.
That does not really follow.
Their advice is to not cargo cult. Not to ignore all advice.
What that would mean is that even for the advice that they give, not to cargo cult, you need to examine whether that’s actually good advice or not.
It may turn out that your product is a component library, in which case, being in the spaces the cargo cult tells you to be it may actually make sense for you to follow, because that’s where the largest market would be.
Agree, it’s especially difficult avoid cargo cults if you are surrounded by people who insist that it’s necessary to do certain magical incarnations in order to be successful.
In case of doubt, stick with the needful.