
Critical Fans (or how Mixergy did the Impossible) - wglb
http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/critical-fans-mixergy/
======
DenisM
On my entrepreneurial path there were several pivoting moments: 1. Kwawsaki's
"The art of the start" 2. PG essays 3. Hacker News 4. Four steps to the
Epiphany 5. Mixergy.

Simply put, Andrew is changing lives.

~~~
JacobAldridge
Amazingly, I also went 1, 2 and 3 (and have stayed here for two years without
progressing my entrepreneurial path much at all).

Am now ordering a copy of _Four steps to the Epiphany_ ; it may be the missing
link between having Mixergy and Andrew Warner bookmarked, and actually using
them to change my life.

~~~
DenisM
I'll tell you what helped me - I started doing _something_ as I was reading
the Kawasaki's book. It is embarrassing to recall now, but had I not done that
stupid stuff I would not have gotten in the habit of _doing_. As you _do_
things your successes will embolden you and you will have a larger pool of
experience to draw from. You need to find something that you can do with
limited commitment and demonstrable results, which will in turn embolden you
to take on a slightly larger thing next time. I recommend a market that is
quick with feedback (which excludes enterprise), and has monetization
potential (which rules out large segments of consumers web plays). For
example, find a small business with a small problem and solve their problem in
a scalable way - you will feel a lot more brave after that especially if you
make some sizable money along the way.

It's funny to realize that courage is the _only_ thing that stands between
someone like you or me and their entrepreneurial success, yet I don't see a
way to short-circuit that simple problem. It seems that working through it
step by step is the surest path. Oh well, whatever works, right?

------
thesethings
This post was great.

Equally as valid and interested as the Mixergy review was the dynamic
described at play on Hacker News I never picked up on before: How even
worthwhile, quality sites that we generally like will experience a backlash
here if we feel, even subconsciously, that they are over-exposed on HN.

It may be that we come here specifically for special news or unique insights
we don't get on other sites, and we feel disappointed when HN merely reflects
"normal" content?

I've never written a backlash or cranky comment, but I do admit I've groaned
when I've seen links from certain sites posted, when i've felt they were
predictable. I'm trying to figure out why this response gets evoked.
Especially when the main reason I come here is for _your_ awesome meta-
commentary, not the post itself.

In any case, this post has made commit to being more patient when I see
familiar content here.

~~~
pchristensen
The groan is because:

a) If you're familiar with them, you probably already know what to expect

b) If you don't like them, you don't want to see them

c) If you like them, you've already read it, and

d) If they've been on a lot recently, you can't use # of comments as a judge
of quality - they might just be complaints about "Everything Seth Godin says
is common sense" or "Jeff Atwood couldn't code his way out of a paper bag",
and those are no fun to read.

~~~
thesethings
In my case, it's probably mostly d). I don't think I hold HN responsible for
bringing me links I've never seen before or must like. But I really do come
here for great discussion and insights (like yours right here!), in the
comments section.

I'm totally willing to see negative comments, but they really have to bring
something to the party. The examples you gave are exactly the kind of thing
that would bum me out after a visit here.

------
mdg
Has the idea ever been tossed around for a personal blacklist? If you really
just hate <http://some_tech_site.com/blog> , and can't bring yourself to
ignore it, you would be able to add it to your blacklist under your profile
settings, and then any links from that domain will not show up on the front
page when signed in.

EDIT: Also, regex pattern matching on the title would be kinda nice too.

/ipad/i

/\d+ (Things|Reasons) You Need (.*)/

~~~
pchristensen
People usually recommend greasemonkey for that. I've never bothered because
like I said in the article, the backlash lasts 2-3 weeks and then the bar for
that writer is much higher for them to be submitted. For instance, by
Valentine's day, Andrew will be lucky if he can get one interview a week on
the front page.

