

Ask HN: a serious question... - ehutch79

Why do people who don't know what they're doing keep trying to develop facebook killers?<p>I don't mean any project with a team, but people who don't know the basics of the framework they're using.<p>I'm serious. I keep seeing it, and there must be something behind this.
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daleharvey
Probably for the same reason that 1000 people + Zuckerberg tried to develop a
MySpace killer.

Some people think its fun, some people think its a good way to learn, some
people are aiming for the fame and glory. Almost all of them will gain
something out of trying, the only people who dont gain anything are the ones
sneering from the sidelines.

~~~
recoiledsnake
> the only people who dont gain anything are the ones sneering from the
> sidelines.

That's not necessarily true. There are people who are concentrating on other
ideas instead of doing the same thing and there are people who are investing
all their life's savings and borrowing to launch the same kind of idea as
Facebook.

~~~
daleharvey
at least in my experience, the intersection of people who scoff at those
building new things, and those actually building new things for themselves
isnt that large.

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AngeloAnolin
Simple. The prestige of being bestowed to have developed a Facebook killer
overwhelms any developer's fancy of a cutting edge application. It ain't
pretty hard to admit that Facebook is by far, one of the biggest, most widely
accepted, and successful web application there is right now.

And not to mention the accompanying monetary rewards that go with it.

~~~
jesstaa
This is an important point. I always have trouble explaining to people what
I'm working on. If you're working on a Facebook killer, when that hot babe at
a party asks you what you do she'll actually understand what your working on
and might be impressed.

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fogus
Because any webapp of any complexity can be developed in a weekend by a true
hacker.

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brk
Probably for the same reasons people who can't carry a tune try to become the
next Lady Gaga and people who can't act try to become the next Dustin Hoffman.

I think that people with mediocre talent have a tendency to look at someone
else in the same talent genre and think "I can do that, it looks easy".

~~~
jrsmith1279
Lady Gaga is probably a bad example. She's actually a very talented vocalist.
Unfortunately the music industry isn't about talent and her music is awful.
She's also not "hot" so she has to rely on being weird to be successful. For
the record - I hate Lady Gaga with a passion, but I do recognize that she IS
talented and not some fake bimbo like Britney Spears who really can't carry a
tune.

~~~
brk
I wasn't implying she wasn't talented. I think she is an example of someone
that people might think they can "easily" copy.

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stray
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled people make
poor decisions and reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies
them the metacognitive ability to appreciate their mistakes.[1] The unskilled
therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their ability as above
average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate
their own abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. Actual competence
may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that
others have an equivalent understanding. As Kruger and Dunning conclude, "the
miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas
the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others"
(p. 1127). (from wikipedia)

~~~
brudgers
This topic always reminds me of Siver's take on the subject:

[<http://sivers.org/below-average>]

~~~
hcack
“At first, like almost everybody, I thought, ‘Yes, but I really am above
average!’ Then I realized I was doing it again.”

What if I quantify that I am above average? Should I assume that, despite my
2400 SATs and 4.0 GPA, that I'm somehow below average?

