

Startups: a hidden lifestyle at MIT - asuth
http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N14/startups.html

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snikolov
I often think back to why I came to MIT, especially when the semester gets
tough. I remember I came to the admitted students weekend and toured one of
the dorms. The walls were covered with murals and the floors with junk ---
motors, robot parts, circuit boards. People had built their own lofts; someone
had rigged their door to open automatically when it recognized them. Someone
had hooked up a camera and a projector so that you could "draw" on one of the
nearby buildings with a laser pointer.

So of course, I came to MIT. I remember discovering pg's essays around
sophomore year and starting to consider starting my own company, but my
transformation really began when I set foot here at MIT, where creative and
curious people build mind-blowing things every day.

At first it's intimidating. These people all seem so smart! Who am I to build
a roller coaster, paint a 20 foot mural, build a loft, hack a PS3, build a
crazy device and start a company out of it? You hear about these things in the
abstract and you're intimidated. But then you get home and see people building
a roller coaster in your courtyard and you realize: Who am I _not_ to do
awesome things? Life is too short, damn it. It seems obvious to the
entrepreneurially minded, but it's hard to describe the impact it had on me. I
could've learned the same course material in many other places. But I cannot
overstate how powerfully this cultural immersion changed my life.

~~~
jiggy2011
Sounds like there is an incredibly strong hacker culture there.

Is working on personal projects outside class considered the norm?

It certainly wasn't when I was at uni, not with CS students anyway. After
studying most CS students spent their time playing video games, watching
movies, smoking pot or doing other activities.

Making a door with face detection or similar would be very unusual.

~~~
snikolov
In reality, everybody's very busy, but enough people find time to hack on
things that it's very frequently an inspiration to hear/see what people are
doing.

Most people seem to be just surviving. But there a decent amount of people who
hack on things frequently, and a small, but still sizable number of very
prolific hackers. There are some people that comfortably take 8 or more
classes a semester. Certainly some of those types of people choose to take a
normal course load and have a lot of time to hack. But it seems like the more
common situtation is that you end up neglecting your schoolwork and getting
poor grades.

~~~
jiggy2011
Yes, I found when I was at university that it was very difficult to take on a
personal project and still be motivated to do my school work.

I would start hacking on something and not notice the time going by, so I
would end up having to do assignments the day before. This was easy to begin
with since the course starts easy but after a while becomes impossible.

The only way I can see it being possible would either be to have super high
intelligence and productivity or military level discipline.

That's why I am amazed to hear of people who start whole companies whilst
still getting top grades.

------
asuth
From the time I arrived at MIT in '08 to the time I left in '11, I witnessed a
pretty huge shift in the interests of MIT students towards startups. Many
people who probably would have gone into finance or defense diverted
themselves to the startup world. The 100K competition at MIT and things like
StartLabs have gotten big. Dropbox being homegrown was a big thing.

For me, it's been awesome to see the best engineers doing their own companies
instead of joining defense contractors or GS.

~~~
jpdoctor
> _From the time I arrived at MIT in '08 to the time I left in '11, I
> witnessed a pretty huge shift in the interests of MIT students towards
> startups._

I've witnessed now multiple decades of change, and the interests of the
student body vary according to the fashion of the day.

If I were to advise fellow alums about preparation, I'd advise: Prepare for
change. As trite as that sounds, it's been the only consistent trait.

------
swalsh
“Sleep, friends, p-sets — choose two,”

I have not had the opportunity to attend MIT, however I have worked with
several people who did. One of the common attributes I've noticed between all
of them is an ability/drive to work hard, and get things done. To almost
ignore their physical self. To me, aside from the bit of genius each possesses
it's this personality attribute that I suspect is the secret to MIT's
notorious success rate.

As someone who has experienced a severe burnout, managing my time, and
carefully monitoring my energy has become a major priority. What baffles me is
how these people can accomplish this without experiencing the same burnout I
did when I tried.

~~~
snikolov
Burnout does happen, but you don't necessarily hear about it.

~~~
borski
Burnout definitely happens. I've been there, and most of my friends have been
there. It's just not a popular topic to talk about.

I would say I think it happens less often, though.

------
borski
When I graduated in '09, everybody was worried about going into finance
because of the '08 disaster. Now, all of a sudden, startups seemed like better
ideas because finance was so crappy.

I, for one, am incredibly excited by the startup community at MIT. We were
just there for the StartLabs career fair (hi asuth!) and it was really
refreshing to see how many students showed up to it really interested in
entrepreneurship and working on interesting projects with world-changing
ambitions.

It's really great that we have a Dropbox to aspire to, being another MIT
company. That really does mean a lot; just having someone to aspire to and
hopefully beat is a big driver, at least for me.

~~~
jpdoctor
> _Now, all of a sudden, startups seemed like better ideas because finance was
> so crappy._

When the Fed raises rates, then it will be back to the tech bust once again.

So make hay while the sun shines.

