
When It Comes to Entrepreneurs, Youth Isn't Everything - npalli
http://www.nber.org/digest/jul18/w24489.shtml
======
sctb
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16794228](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16794228).

------
bsder
Unsurprising that older founders are represented more strongly.

To create a _real_ business, you have to have some knowledge of how the
business actually operates and how to do it _better_.

Software is the anomaly in being able to throw inexperienced people at tasks
and hope to cough up something relevant.

~~~
alfredallan1
Even in software, the primary “advantage” of youth seems to be able to work
much longer hours.

But from my own experience, I wonder how much of those long hours are truly
productive. At least in my own case, i often observe that the quality of the
work I do early morning when I’m fresh is significantly better than what I do
late at night, and that the late-night job is more liable to contain subtle
bugs, thus often needing to be “polished” in the morning again. Additionally
what I can finish in the last 4 hours at night (after a full days work) I can
easily do in about 2 hours in the morning. So while there’s an egocentric
feeling of satisfaction of wrapping something up before going to bed, from a
pure productivity perspective I find it better to call it quits at a decent
hour and take a fresh look in the morning.

So recently, I’ve started to do things in a way that things that need to be
created from scratch, or otherwise need more mental/intellectual involvement,
I do them while I’m fresh, and reserve the more mundane things or
interpersonal tasks (like meetings, etc.) for the later part of the day when
I’m slightly tired. I wonder if any of this resonates with other peoples’
experiences.

~~~
alcima
More than the longer hours it is the willingness to try things that failed
before or are likely impossible.

~~~
jarfil
Not at all. There are plenty of young chaps who only want to do stuff "by the
book", and plenty of old folks who understand the value of trying something
that used to be impossible but now is possible.

The main difference is endurance vs. experience, and it isn't until the
50s-60s that a lack of endurance can offset the extra experience.

------
ThomPete
I explored this subject in an essay: [https://medium.com/black-n-white/the-
problem-with-problems-4...](https://medium.com/black-n-white/the-problem-with-
problems-47ee63bb3511)

after I did the first: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential
startup.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799007](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799007)
3 years ago

------
purplezooey
This is good, because corporations actively try to jettison employees over 40.

