
The theory guy never wins - vladmk
http://vladmkrtumyan.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-theory-guy-never-wins-in-business.html
======
D_Alex
What an icky mess of strawman and false dichotomy! Who is this "theory guy"
that never wins in business - someone who does _only_ theory, eh? I wonder how
well the "practice guy", who acts without any thinking whatsoever, comes out
in comparison.

As an aside and fuel for furhter thought, here is one of my favourite quotes
(from Less Wrong):

"As a general idea, high level intellectual exploration should consume
substantially more time than goal-directed action, but there are few social
encouragements to behave in this manner so the only people who do so are
essentially those who are addicted to such intellectual exploration and have
no propensity or willingness to take action at all."

~~~
James_Duval
He has a point though.

Look at his awful blog post. It's appallingly-written, doesn't make much
sense, invokes various logical fallacies - and hit the front page of HN!

"So here I am getting this post out in the field ASAP, let me know what you
think lets talk about all the theory people we've, how does it still exist in
this "lean startup" world? Perhaps we should go from lean to anorexic startup.
I've never heard of a company launching too fast as Paul Graham says very few
do and so far I know none."

A garbled mess of nonsense. And yet here we are, talking about it!

Proof that, at least sometimes, taking action without any kind of meaningful
thought behind it is capable of generating success.

~~~
CPAhem
yes - survival of the noisiest: talk first, think later.

~~~
vladmk
They say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, it may be ugly, but that is the
way my view is that is the way the real world works. I still condone thinking,
but at the end of the day taking action and reviewing still wins look at all
the pivots in start ups. Ideally you want to do both of course, but most
people do more thinking than anything.

------
williamcotton
Dude, you need both. Perhaps you and your friends who don't read very much
aren't very good at it to begin with? Literacy is a lifelong pursuit. Sorry if
that seems harsh but I'm gonna react when a dude basically says that reading
books will make you less successful. That is some ignorant bullshit.

~~~
zxcdw
I think the point is to _deliver_.

You are better off delivering than talking. Shut up, sit down and get shit
done so you can _deliver_.

~~~
k__
True story.

I had to learn this after my studies. You have to get shit done or nobody
listens to you.

But I met many people who just learned this and not much else.

They building huges piles of shit and sell them to people who don't know any
better.

~~~
vladmk
Good point. At the end of the day the people who build piles of shit may
realize to re-iterate their product and stop building shit, but the people
that never build shit in the first place don't get shit. ;)

~~~
k__
I wish you were right. The problem with successful people is, they think they
know everything.

~~~
vladmk
I'll say you're half right on that one, I've met my fair share of those guys
and vice versa.

I don't ever think you know should think you know everything. The point of the
article is putting stuff out in the field and testing is much better than
theorizing, most people just theorize. Imagine a world where I internalized
that blog post in my head, we'd never be having this conversation I wouldn't
get any insight on my thinking or essay writing abilities. lol

------
weland
While you are blindly jumping into the claws of the tiger because your man-of-
action guts tell you it's a lotus, I'll stick around to grab your wallet while
he devours you.

Signed, The Theory Guy

P.S. Spending three seconds to think about why the fuck is a lotus flower
striped and why it is purring like a cat could have saved you.

Also, what the heck is a wantrepreneur? Is that the pretentious term for
"someone who isn't an antrepreneur, but totally knows everything about it
because he read all the blogs on the subject and all the interviews in
Forbes"?

~~~
_sabe_
And what is a entrepreneur anyways? Feels like the definition has shifted from
being someone who has the job of starting up new businesses, to just running a
business at all.

~~~
vladmk
The debate on what an entrepreneur is will have a million definitions. I
defined wantrepreneur by a guy who can't afford to follow his company/business
full time. Nothing wrong with that, everyone starts at that stage.

------
norswap
Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger do a lot of reading. I think they win
alright.

See [http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/05/the-buffett-
formula-...](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/05/the-buffett-formula-how-
to-get-smarter)

And if you're serious about reading or learning, this is great:
[http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/07/seneca-on-
reading/](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/07/seneca-on-reading/)

~~~
vladmk
I love Warren Buffet read his biography "the snowball effecet" and Charlie
Munger as well. They win, but they also disqualify their ideas or theories as
fast as possible and have arguably had the most experience as well trading
stocks, Warren started at 13 and I'm sure he lost a lot of money. Warren was
also mentored by the greatest at the time Ben Graham. I'm not saying you're
wrong I'm saying he has a combination, also Warren arguably falls outside of
this argument so do theoretical mathematicians and astrophysicists. I'm
talking about building a product first then getting feedback.

------
stiff
Here is a favourite passage of mine from Johns Stuart Mill autobiography (he
is speaking of the demanding education his father arranged for him):

 _I remember at some time in my thirteenth year, on my happening to use the
word idea, he asked me what an idea was; and expressed some displeasure at my
ineffectual efforts to define the word: I recollect also his indignation at my
using the common expression that something was true in theory but required
correction in practice; and how, after making me vainly strive to define the
word theory, he explained its meaning, and showed the fallacy of the vulgar
form of speech which I had used; leaving me fully persuaded that in being
unable to give a correct definition of Theory, and in speaking of it as
something which might be at variance with practice, I had shown unparalleled
ignorance. In this he seems, and perhaps was, very unreasonable; but I think,
only in being angry at my failure. A pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded
which he cannot do, never does all he can._

~~~
vladmk
great quote.

------
regularfry
Warren Buffett would seem to be the canonical example of a business guy who
reads _a lot_. He seems to be successful.

~~~
vladmk
Already talked about Warren to the other comment, but let me give a different
angle. In Warren's early days he had insane business ideas and some worked,
like selling used golf balls by swimming in ponds at courses. He learned a lot
from action too, when he got to college he had 100k savings so he could then
afford the theory. I think he proves most that doing both is best.

------
zlbrooks
Your poor grammar and sentence structure makes your argument (whether it is
good or not) much less effective than it could be. Spend 10 minutes
proofreading, and your post will be much more effective.

~~~
vladmk
To be honest I wrote this late at night and didn't even think it would spark
any conversation. Thanks, I definitely will, I've just started blogging and
decided to fully commit myself to it full time.

------
ekm2
I am surprised no one has mentioned Bill Gates' omnivorous reading
habits.Check out his huge reading bag in this video

[http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50151799n&tag=api](http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50151799n&tag=api)

~~~
vladmk
Yeah, but its comparable to the Mark Cuban suggestion I made. 3 Hours a day
will get you through that reading bag, but how much action does he take in
comparison? Nothing wrong with reading.

------
loceng
You have to learn how to execute, too. Creativity is theory, execution is
putting it into practice.

~~~
vladmk
Very true. I really like the James Altucher "idea muscle" theory of forcing
yourself to write 10 ideas down a day to build up your idea muscle.

