

Startup micro opportunities - jordanmessina
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/10/startup-micro-opportunities.html

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waxman
Great post!

Another benefit, I find, of micro opportunities is that they provide momentum
or "small wins", which can help to alleviate the frustration that often sets
in when building critical path features, which almost always take longer than
you think and can sap excitement.

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ryanwaggoner
Fantastic post, and this is something I constantly struggle with. I spend way
too much time in my head, planning out the "perfect" strategy, and missing
lots of little opportunities along the way. I worry too much that things
aren't scalable, and in doing so miss the unscalable things along the way that
would get hundreds or thousands of new eyeballs on the project. I'm doing
better, but it's refreshing to hear that someone who was like this was able to
change.

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shadowsun7
I loved this post. Absolutely loved it.

Gabriel, I'm interested to know how responding to micro opportunities affect
your working schedule? That is: how do you deal with and respond to these
kinds of events, and still get work done?

The fact that it's just you doing all this amazes me. And I can't help but
think - to another person, these 'micro opportunities' may seem like
'distractions'.

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epi0Bauqu
I don't have a lot of structure. Highest level, I try to work on things with
the greatest marginal benefit. Micro opportunities fit into this framework
because for a brief period they have a really high peaks of marginal benefit.

The trick is to be able to see which ones are really worthwhile and which are
not. No matter what you'll have misses, but they're fun so I still don't feel
bad about that. But over time I've gotten better at estimating the size of the
opportunity and the scope of the work required to address it.

To answer your question more directly, I keep a number of projects open and
move forward on them incrementally. That's the main branch and my default
position. I don't set deadlines or goals beyond MVP. Then I have a background
thread that monitors these things (HN, feedback emails and the like). If I see
something worthwhile/fun/whatever, I just drop everything and do it.

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MattSmitty
I had a similar micro opportunity experience that has been invaluable. Lyle
Fong the CEO of Lithium came to the University of AZ my senior year. I reached
out to him and got his card. Most students did not even talk to him
personally. Over the next few years while launching my startup I emailed Lyle
about my progress. This small little opportunity has evolved into Lyle
becoming a great friend and mentor. You never know how a small opportunity
will grow into something much bigger!

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code_duck
I miss a lot of opportunities for micro-promotion. Actually, that's the story
of my life. Small things can really add up (thankfully, part of my life story
does reflect this).

A good example that reinforces this entire article is how I just found out
about duck.co - I'll be participating just because of how much I like the
domain name!

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skmurphy
This is consistent with Saras Sarasvathy's "effectual reasoning model" for
expert entrepreneurs. See her paper "What Makes Entreprenurs Entrepreneurial"
at <http://www.effectuation.org/ftp/effectua.pdf> for a good introduction.

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serverdude
Lovely post! I love the coined word "micro opportunities"! It is also well
aligned with the philosophy of trying and being close to as many opportunities
as you can so you increase your chances of being "lucky". Something that I
need to constantly working on :)

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JoeAltmaier
But isn't it a tautology? Its a "micro opportunity" if it doesn't take long;
its quick to do because its a "micro opportunity".

I mean, there's no guarantee they exist at all, right? Depends upon your space
I guess.

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j_baker
"Over the years I've moved completely in the other direction, which is also
reflected in my shift from INTP to INTJ"

Seriously? You don't just change types. It's more likely that he really is an
INTJ and initially tested as an INTP for whatever reason. Or he is really an
INTP and decided that INTJs are "better" and made an effort to test as one.

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bd
Do you really trust Myers-Briggs tests so much?

 _"Studies have found that between 39% and 76% of those tested fall into
different types upon retesting some weeks or years later"_

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-
Briggs_Type_Indicator#Rel...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-
Briggs_Type_Indicator#Reliability)

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j_baker
No, I don't. That's actually my point. If the results changed, it's more
likely one of the test results was inaccurate. The MBTI is a hint, not a
pronouncement.

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sstrudeau
If one of the tests was inaccurate, couldn't it also be true that both tests
were inaccurate? And is it also possible that the test/concept itself is
flawed given such variance in test results of the same people over time?

