

The Epic Fail ... first post on Startup-Russia.com - bjoernlasseh
http://startup-russia.com/en/archives/135

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DiabloD3
I think the famous line from the Joker really describe startup founders who
survive long enough to get a viable startup... "Whatever doesn't kill us only
makes us stranger."

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david927
(I think you mean Nietzsche: "Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich
stärker."/"What does not kill me makes me stronger.")

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JacobAldridge
I think he meant the Joker (from _The Dark Knight_ ), who of course was
ripping Nietzsche off.

 _Nietzsche: God is dead. God: Nietzsche is dead._

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david927
I don't care. Get it right.

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AndrewDucker
He did have it right. He was quoting a different person, who made a different
quote, based on the one you're talking about.

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joe_the_user
No, it is not correct to attribute a line to someone who is merely quoting.
The line is spoken in Batman but it is not "from Batman".

Like Ronald Reagan said, "ask not what you can do for your country, ask what
your country can do for you"... Lol

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AndrewDucker
Okay, so where is the line "What does not kill us makes us stranger" from
then?

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david927
I didn't realize it was a different quote. Apologies.

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jacquesm
If the rest if of the same quality as that article count me in as a regular
reader. Wow.

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deskamess
Indeed. This was the first article I read this morning and it woke me up.

A cultural aspect of the US not common in many nations is emphasized here -
'leniency to failed businesses and the people that ran them'. In the US there
is very little stigma associated with individuals who ran a business
unsuccessfully. In my experience that has not been true in parts of Africa and
Asia.

The model even exists on social fronts. For example, divorce (unsuccessful
marriage) carries a stigma in many Asian countries.

I think the US culture lets you breathe and live without making too many
judgments about your life.

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j2d2j2d2
I believe this was true in India for a long time too. I used to work in
financial services and we outsourced a lot of work to groups in India. While I
worked for this company, we would bring the brightest and best across the pond
to work with us in the corporate hq. I was told multiple stories about how
people returning from companies that had shrunk, and consequently laid off
employees, would face social stigmas and even have trouble finding new work.
"laid off" == "fired and thus not good" to cultures that were unfamiliar with
the risk taking nature of US business.

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VladRussian
It wouldn't be that bad until i read in their other post this:

"It is exciting times right now in Russia. After long history of existing on
resource-driven oil & gas economy, the country is making strides to leapfrog
its way into high technology powerhouse. The press is abuzz with talks on
technology parks and fostering a start-up culture. ... Like everybody else, we
got excited hearing the recent news from Russia."

In PC-language it is called "PR".

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bjoernlasseh
lol - believe me the startup-russia team is not doing any PR :)! I know them
very well. They want to motivate the Russian innovation scene and create a
valuable knowledge transfer.

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VladRussian
man, i guess you aren't Russian yourself. So, just believe me, no sane Russian
brain is able to produce the real intention to "motivate the Russian
innovation scene and create a valuable knowledge transfer". Such phrase is
hardly translatable into Russian language and isn't mappable into the ontology
of the Russian mentality.

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edanm
My biggest problem with the article is that it seems to think a startup is
only successful if it hits a huge, exploding market, like Microsoft/Facebook
did. On the contrary, plenty of successful startups have been formed on
markets which didn't explode and get huge overnight, but were plenty big
enough to sustain more players.

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StuffMaster
It's written quite well except for the missing articles (a,the). Add those and
I would've thought him a native English speaker.

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eps
The use of articles is the biggest mystery of English language. No native
speaker can concisely explain where to put them and where not. Apparently the
rule is that it just has to "sound right".

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edanm
I think that's true of most rules. Almost no native speakers can come close to
explaining anything, but experts in language studies generally have very
specific rules.

And by the way, articles are not the biggest mystery imo. Coming from a
country that speaks Hebrew, which is a language that doesn't have the very "to
be", explaining what that verb does is _much_ harder. In Spanish things get
even funner, since there are two version of the verb "to be", and which one is
used depends on the next verb and has to be memorized.

And don't get me started on tenses. In Hebrew, there is no such thing as "I
went" vs "I have gone" vs "I have been going" vs "I am going", etc.

