
Show HN: Bootstrapper's Handbook building startups the indie way - middle1
https://makebook.io
======
xofer
I haven't read this book, but I have read a lot of posts and watched a
presentation by the author, Pieter Levels. While he is a nice guy and
certainly very interesting, it's my opinion that he suffers from Survivorship
Bias[1]. Not saying don't buy the book; just take it with a grain of salt if
you do.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias)

~~~
bogle
He has survived, that's true. I'm not sure he personally has survivorship bias
though as he's quite happy to talk about all of his failed projects and how he
feels he's found a recipe for succeeding now.

It's now up to the rest of the startup scene to test out his proposals. In the
interview on Indie Hackers he says he stole the format of Nomad List from
Product Hunt and Indie Hackers say they stole their style of app from Nomad
List! There's some validation of the format going on here.

~~~
xofer
Appreciate the optimism. Just to clarify, I'm saying that he has the skill
set, the background, the time and the means to pull this off. That combo is
extremely rare, and even with all that, there's one thing without which he'd
never been successful at all: a tremendous amount of luck. As I said, I'm sure
there's some value in his book, but it's based on a get rich quick story. If
you're going to read it, I'd pick up a book by someone who spent 10 years on a
side project too.

~~~
bogle
Luck is always a factor although the amount you need will be diminished by the
skills, experience, available time and means, as you point out.

Many young developers are in his position though. They have a modicum of
skills (he admits he can only get by in PHP), they have some experience
(they're in a job, at least, or they've done some travelling), they have time
(they don't have kids yet) and they have the means (they are living with their
parents and they don't have a mortgage to pay off). All of these were true in
his case.

I don't think it's a get-rich-quick story, as he did spend years on a previous
side project that didn't work out, mainly due to the limitations of his
skills.

There is value in all of these stories and no one on HN, I hope, is going to
believe in get-rich-quick although they just may be motivated by these ideas
to get on with it. Perhaps all these little business spin-off side projects
just suit me personally so that it's less that I'm optimistic and more that I
enjoy them.

------
edgartaor
Actually yesterday I was listening the IndieHacker podcast episode [1] with
the author of this book. It was quite interesting, especially the approach
bootstrapping side projects.

[1] https//www.indiehackers.com/podcast/043-pieter-levels-of-nomad-list

------
wingerlang
Interesting way to use obfuscation.

