
Ask HN: Early bird still gets the worm? - fjabre
Just wondering how many hackers believe in this old adage and if they think it applies to software startups in general or at all..<p>My personal belief is that it's just a matter of personal preference and it has no correlation to startup success for hackers.. I happen to be more nocturnal, always have been.. Of course having grown up in New England I've heard this puritanical proverb for most of my life and I can't help but feel a little guilty for 'staying up late' and 'sleeping in'.<p>I can see why it would apply to certain other industries like finance/banking..<p>So what do you think? Does this 'wisdom' apply to software startups and hackers?
======
moe
The early bird may get the worm. But the second mouse gets the cheese.

------
pg
I don't think it simply meant that you had to get up early; more that it was
good to be the first to do something. That seems to apply in most types of
work, including startups.

------
tyohn
The early worm gets eaten by the bird! First is great if you're first in the
mind of the consumer but if you're not the first to gain traction (in the web
world = users) in enough people's minds - there's no advantage to being first.
It's quite possible your being first might pave the way for later arrivals to
dominate the market you created.

~~~
indiejade
Not exactly There is often a sustainable advantage in being the "first-mover"
in the competitive marketplace. Combine that with a strong brand name, (for
example: Twitter) and being the first to market can be a huge asset. After
all, if you've "pave(d) the way for later arrivals," you'll at least know
which paths led to dead ends. Your competitors won't. Besides, later arrivals
will also be "behind" in the respect that they won't have had as much time to
learn from mistakes. In the _hyper-competitive_ world of the web, it's
actually pretty easy to use the first-mover advantage to the detriment of
potential future competitors.

For example, a business like eBay has fees which are ludicrous, an interface
that is not at all intuitive, but because it was pretty much the first
established brand in online auctions, it's what most people keep using.

~~~
tyohn
You hit the nail on the head > first established brand...

An "established brand" did get into the mind first... - you might possibly
gain ground on them (eBay) by focusing on a unique segment (Esty) or a host of
other ways. Getting established is the hard part - being first is not a
guarantee you'll end up being the "established brand". Was Facebook the first
social site? And while a strong brand name is great to have - easier to
remember and easier to market - its still nothing compared to getting critical
mass.

First mover is a huge advantage if you manage to create a new segment and then
spend all your time focusing on promoting how great the segment is - and
hopefully at the same time gaining critical mass.

------
mechanical_fish
Somewhere in the world there is a time zone where you are the early bird.

Being an early bird in your _own_ time zone is important when you have to
physically stand in line for one thing or another. But now, for a software
startup, most of those lines are virtual, and you can stand in an American
line at 7am while sipping coffee in a cafe in Monaco at noon.

Obviously there are still many exceptions in the non-hacker world. If you want
to run a bakery or a drive-time radio show you pretty much have to learn to
love 3AM. And the problem for a software startup is that if you don't build
your stuff right you might have to respond to emergencies at _any_ random hour
of the day or night, which is a much more serious problem than having to wake
up consistently early or consistently late.

------
Mz
When I was extremely ill, I suffered horrible insomnia and often went to sleep
at 7am. During that time, I was not able to be genuinely productive. A lot of
what I did amounted to churn and time-filling. When I began working, I took an
evening shift job because I knew that although I was healthier, I still wasn't
healthy enough to cope with getting up early. I now work dayshift, and that
correlates to an ability to get up earlier because of improved health.

So if there is any correlation generally (not just for me) between health and
schedule, then I would say that being an early bird may be a proxy for health
but real productivity is rooted in sound health and the ability it provides to
think clearly and do sustained work, which isn't specifically related to the
hours you keep.

~~~
david
Makes sense. I think most of the time your body should know what sleep
schedule is best for your health better than you do. I tend to just wait until
I feel ready to go to sleep, be it 10PM or 2AM, and get up when I feel well
rested.

------
yannis
Hmm... put it this way, it is productive to put in three hours of work in your
business before your opposition wakes up!

~~~
pavlov
Why is that more productive than putting in those hours after the opposition
has already gone to bed?

~~~
dpcan
Which is technically 8 hours or more before they wake up.

------
ssp
Early morning is the most productive part of the day for me. There are no
interruptions, no noise, and my brain is still well rested.

------
rnugent
There are no absolutes. Sometimes early is good. Sometimes not. Next Question?

------
jrockway
My adage is: "it's morning somewhere."

------
kingkongreveng_
There's an inverse correlation to early rising and income, so I guess no. But
that probably boils down to low wage people waking up to do shift work. Also,
to my observation, less well off middle class people wake up early to commute
in from the boonies.

Lots of high income deal maker types do business in the evenings.

