Little Bets

What Hacker News says

1. kthejoker2Oct 2022
   Sticking to one thing is overrated :)

   “I believe in bumbling around long enough to not give up at things. And eventually success comes your way, because you tried to fail in every possible way, the only way that’s left is the one successful way, and always, for entrepreneurs, seems to come last." - Vinod Khosla, cofounder, SUN Microsystems

   Just a couple of feel good books disguised as pop science to quickly read through ..

   * Cal Newport's So Good They Can't Ignore You on the value of skills over passion and identifying what makes you valuable to others (instead of what you think), he defines "competence" as "feeling that you are good at what you do." It's a good overview of skill acquisition.

   * Little Bets by Peter Sims will give you the grace to reframe your "jumping around" as a series of "little bets" of "discovery" and "inquisitiveness", not based on a particular skill or talent but on problem solving and interest, a curious, restless displeasure with how things are. A great book for wandering professional souls.

   So my vote is keep jumping around, find interesting problems to you and work on them, develop some methods of having your competence evaluated by others, join (or lead!) "professional communities" to find and commune with likeminded folks, stay restless and hungry.

   If on the other hand you really want to focus on one thing, sign up for a modestly expensive professional exam in the not too far future and an obligation to teach or share what you have learned for that exam publicly. I find it's a great motivator to be beholden to others to understand something well enough to motivate others to learn what you have.

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2. SMAAARTJan 2022
   Hey, thanks for the comment.

   > Excellent perception that sometimes depression isn’t caused by some chemical imbalance or childhood trauma. Life is often just hard, and sometimes you’re going to act like an jerk to try to cope. I’m not perfect, I suspect you’re not either.

   At this point I actually don't care, I just want to train myself through practice to become more resilient, make better choices, have better reaction, and formulate better responses.

   I just re-read what I just wrote and WOW! That sounds good. I must add to that:

   Train myself to better navigate the gap between planning and executing.

   > I have to break project sized work into smaller mini projects, or I get intimidated. I accept that I’m weak and easily distracted, I guess I’m treating myself like a child. Who cares as long as it works?

   Good reflections. You might enjoy this book "Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries" by Peter Sims.

   > I also let people take advantage of my agreeableness. Only solution I’ve found is to change jobs every couple years.

   LOL, welcome to my resume.

   Merci (nice username)

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3. SMAAARTOct 2020
   Good to hear that you realized that management is not for you; it's not for everyone.

   Alas, being a consultant is a lot about being in sales, how are your selling skills?

   I think for a while you need to continue what you're doing, as you're doing; AND - along the way - investigate ways on where to bring your consultancy. Besides the usual suspects of books on selling, I also recommend the following reading:

   * So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love * https://www.joelonsoftware.com/ * Rework * Little Bets * http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html

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4. willart4foodApr 2020
   Check out the book "Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries"

   In a way it's the concept of MVP but really from the point of view of picking up projects.

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5. bwagyApr 2014
   There's a great book called Little Bets by Peter Sims: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1439170436?pc_redir=1397720852...

   He demonstrates how big ideas come from making lots of little bets, which can be imprecise but begin to give shape to a solution.

   Ie you start wide to get your operating field then hone in as you get more feedback or data.

   So there's huge benefits in being imprecise... at the right time.

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6. nateJan 2012
   99% of folks running their own businesses have and are going through this exact same thing. You aren't alone, and like others are saying, you are actually in great shape and growing a ton.

   I know very well how depressing and devastating this stuff can be. Email me (nate@inklingmarkets.com) immediately if you need to chat with someone about this stuff and we can talk on the phone.

   Also, I know how this stuff you are talking about can lead to depression and then lead people to do some awful things to themselves. If you have any thoughts going down that road about life not being worth living, please, please talk to someone trained to talk about this stuff. Many of us have gone through thoughts just like this, and it will get better. They are just thoughts, and I guarantee you will feel better given some time for your perspective to change.

   From what it sounds like you've learned an enormous amount. You probably have getting a great job as a fallback if you need a temporary back stop.

   You are definitely on the right track with finding something people want. But it's a very steep climb. Brilliant people fail at finding ideas that 1) actually make money 2) make a dent in the universe or 3) they actually care about in the future.

   But the great entrepreneurs know how to move on and start the next thing. And failing and learning is integral to the game. You have to learn to love the game, instead of depending on success of a single idea to value your worth.

   It might take a dozen ideas. I know that sounds daunting. A great book that motivates around this point is Little Bets. I'd give that a read. There's some great people mentioned in there who had to try and try and try before finding the right thing.

   I like the example of the guys that did Aardvark which they got a bunch of traction with and eventually sold to Google. That was their 6th idea in 6 months.

   Keep trying!

   I won't get into too much specific advice on Groovy. But I will say you picked a field that is a but more challenging than others to find financial success in my opinion. I remember 10 years ago there was a "meet people close by over instant messaging site", Meetro, that was awesome, had a bit of traction, and led by some smart people. But they couldn't get magic or money it would take to keep themselves going.

   I personally prefer creating startups that fit into something someone is already making purchase decisions for. They are already spending money on some kind of pain directly or indirectly. And you drop in with a better product they can spend that money on.

   Creating another social network is going to be a very hard challenge. I'm not saying stop. But I just feel if you want something easier, you might want to step back and work with some different problems people have that have different business models than having to rely on a network effect kind of thing.

   This got too long. :) Hang in there! You are playing a good game so far. Getting stuff done is better than what 99% of the other folks who want to be entrepreneurs are doing. You'll figure out the rest eventually and hopefully find the perspective to just enjoy this learning process and the entire game of starting and running businesses.

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