

Why to Not Not Start a Startup - adammichaelc
http://paulgraham.com/notnot.html

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patio11
_The thing that really sucks about having a regular job is the expectation
that you're supposed to be there at certain times._

That was, hands down, the worst thing about my day job. Regardless of the
amount of work you have to do or your personal feelings, you will be in the
office from early to late because employees at companies like ours are in the
office from early to late.

I don't know that "You'll be in the office from early to late because _you'll
love it so much you don't want to leave_ " is that wonderful of an improvement
on this, incidentally.

My favorite part about being self-employed is that I can say something nobody
can say at a big company: "The firm will not benefit from my further presence
today. Well then, I'm done. See you tomorrow."

~~~
cperciva
_I don't know that "You'll be in the office from early to late because you'll
love it so much you don't want to leave" is that wonderful of an improvement
on this, incidentally._

Even worse: You'll be in the office from early to late because even though you
don't love it, there's a corporate culture of "isn't this place great?" and
you're worried that if you don't stay late people will discover your secret
dislike for the work environment.

Never been at such a company, don't plan to ever be at such a company... but
I've heard quite a few friends describe their silicon valley jobs that way.

~~~
jpdbaugh
I am borrowing this from many people but its just illogical to believe that
every single person in the world is best suited to work 9-5 and that everyone
needs those forty hours a week to get the same amount of work down.

~~~
mvp
It is definitely a legacy of the industrial revolution. It did make a lot of
sense in a world where you had to be physically present at a place to get work
done. It is still being practiced even in new organizations where it does not
make much sense.

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jpdbaugh
"If you've had summer jobs in college, you may think you know what jobs are
like, but you probably don't. Summer jobs at technology companies are not real
jobs. If you get a summer job as a waiter, that's a real job."

I just quit my summer internship at a technology corporation. I was hired to
supposedly work on code but was instead black box testing hardware. It was the
most mind numbing and terrible job I have ever had. I have had real jobs
before in high school from washing dishes to being a bell hop. I used to think
the 9-5 was the holy grail but it really was hell for me. I would much rather
work part time doing anything else and pursue things on the side that do that.
The point is though is that I don't think the way to realize work sucks for
some people is through having a job as waiter. At least for me my first real
9-5 experienced scared me half to a nervous breakdown. The place was devoid of
excitement.

~~~
techiferous
By the way, company cultures vary widely. Some 9-5 jobs are a lot of fun,
others are soul-sucking.

~~~
jpdbaugh
I agree completely. I think they few and far between though. I am young and
experienced though so I could be very wrong. I just don't how great of a fit I
am for it. I get bored very easily and I think that it was just the routine
that bothered me more than anything. I think I am more of a burst worker. I
need short breaks to be productive.

------
xiaoma
My biggest concern at 32 is being too old.

After losing most my money and tech skills working on a small business, it's
going to take at least another year or two to get anything near the
programming skills a start-up would take. And even at that point, how many
founders in their young 20s would want a bald guy in his mid-30s for a co-
founder, regardless of his drive?

That said, I have little fear of going it alone without funding. Some
entrepreneurs featured on Mixergy did just that.

~~~
jonpaul
You can do it friend. You don't need a cofounder in their 20's. I'm in my late
20's and this is my third time. I know another guy who just started in his
early 30's. The point is that it's never too late. You control your destiny.
Each minute is a new opportunity to start over. Plus, you have experience
which is hard to find.

Good luck. Take care.

------
nzmsv
From the article:

 _A lot of people think we get thousands of applications for each funding
cycle. In fact we usually only get several hundred._

I wonder how many applications YC is getting these days, and if the number is
now in the thousands.

~~~
pg
It's getting close to a thousand lately.

~~~
cperciva
Is the growth of the number of accepted companies roughly parallelling the
growth of the number of applicants? (I suspect it is, but you've only
mentioned numbers very sporadically so I'm not at all certain.)

~~~
pg
I didn't know the answer to that till you asked, but I just checked and the
answer is yes, roughly. The percentage of applicants we accept may be going
down slightly, but only slightly.

Which is odd, because I've had a definite impression that the startups we've
been funding are getting better. If that's true and we're funding about the
same percentage of applicants, then either we're getting better at picking,
which is probably too much to hope for, or the applicants are getting better.

Come to think of it, the latter is probably the explanation: the top end of
the applicants are getting better, because we're now sufficiently legit that
people who wouldn't have applied to YC 5 years ago are willing to. If that's
true, it is in fact getting harder to get funded, because even though the
percentage we accept is staying roughly constant, there is more competition at
the top, where it matters.

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cperciva
Original discussion, in case anyone's interested:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6668>

~~~
rw140
Article dates from 2007.

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s3graham
How about "Enjoy programming, not dealing with pesky users/customers"? That's
my excuse anyway.

~~~
jonpaul
There's nothing wrong with that. A lot of people have that mindset. But think
of the damage that you could do if you would team up with a cofounder is
business oriented??

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zackattack
"...till the company has about twelve people no one should be telling anyone
what to do. That's too inefficient. Each person should just do what they need
to without anyone telling them."

Yeah, finding a cofounder who is in "sync" with me would be amazing. If you
wanna drop me a line, that'd be great. We need an OKCupid for founders,
because I'd put "self-taught hacker", "into customer development" and "reads
Hacker News" as mandatories.

~~~
carbocation
That last one can be taught!

