
Ask HN: What’s the character difference between a pioneer and a follower? - bt3
Recently read an article about some very clever hackers, who ultimately got in trouble for what they were doing (penetrating multi-billion dollar company networks). Disregarding their motives (noting it wasn’t money or fame), I was left wondering how those individuals were able to do the things they did, especially as young as they were (teenagers).<p>I have no doubt there is a tremendous level of intellectual curiosity, but I haven’t been able to rationalize the difference in “character” that makes some capable of being pioneers (especially at a young age and lacking experience), versus those who require steps or detailed resources to accomplish similar (or derived) objectives.
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CyberFonic
Pioneers are willing to take risks, sometimes even with their lives and many
with their reputations.

Followers are more risk averse, they prefer to follow a trail that was blazed
before them.

I think the distinction is true in the original sense of the people who pushed
ahead into the Wild West as well as for less physically demanding and risky
adventures, like hacking into corporate computer systems.

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itronitron
Followers are people that have not yet become pioneers. A pioneer (or group of
them) needs mastery of the various tradecrafts associated with their interest.
If you consider that Lewis and Clark were pioneers then before their big trek
they had mastered most of the essential survival skills needed in order to
make the voyage. It may be worth noting that historically, pioneers are the
people that followed the frontiersmen, so they were followers in the true
sense of the word. But nowadays it seems that we use pioneer to mean someone
pushing the boundaries, making discoveries...

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earenndil
There is no difference. There is not a simple classification of some people
spend all their time pioneering new things and others spend all their time
using existing ones. All growth is incremental, and different people have
different ratios of amount added:amount borrowed.

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sumedh
> I haven’t been able to rationalize the difference in “character”

You have to be a little insane, when your inner voice comes up some new idea
which will probably end up in failure, the sane guy focusses on the failure
and shuts down the inner voice because the risks are high, the insane guy on
the other hand focusses on the possibility of success not failure.

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grosjona
The follower has a higher life expectancy and is more successful from an
evolutionary perspective. That's why most humans alive today are followers.
Following is smart, following works.

