Agreed. This post is disapointing and not a worthy HN submission IMHO. Even putting aside the silly title and rhetoric, the idea behind the post is still lame.
I can give up just about any web site I use daily with little disruption to my life. No matter how much blood sweat and tears it's creator has put on the line.At the end of the day, they are just web apps. They are not important to me, like say, my garbageman coming every week is important to me.
To classify people who start companies that build web sites as being superior to others in any way at all is laughable. (I make web applications for a living).
To classify people who start companies that build web sites as being superior to others in any way at all is laughable. (I make web applications for a living).
He didn't mention "companies that build web sites" or call anyone superior.
You need to practice reading between the lines. That's pretty much what the entire post was about.
No.
Believe it or not, there are entrepreneurs who do other things besides make web sites. If you think this post is specifically about web startups, you're missing the point. Moreover, attacking it on that basis makes zero sense.
Meanwhile, you and some others are projecting the "superiority" bit onto the article. The fact is, people have pretty much zero idea what it means to start a company until they've actually done it. Doesn't mean founders are necessarily superior, but it is what it is.
I don't understand why this is controversial. I don't get defensive when people say "either you've run a marathon or you haven't" or "either you've climbed Mount Everest or you haven't." I haven't ... so what? I don't get flustered and try to deny that they've got a shared experience that not many others will fully understand.
I wasn't talking about the website part, hence the partial emphasis of the quote.
Who said I was being defensive? I haven't started a company, but I watched my mother self-start a bookshop and publishing small business while raising me, so I'm aware of the risks.
The article is basically saying that self-starters have something no-one else has, and that makes them superior.
Thing is, he isn't saying "either you've run a marathon or not", but "either you've taken these amazing risks and that says something about you as a person". Which is fine (as I said, I'm not defensive about it) but it is pretty strongly implying superiority. Given the number of "hear hear!" comments to the post, it's pretty clear that the crowd also thought so.
Hell, even people who would utter something like "two types of people: either you have or haven't run a marathon/everest" are implying some form of superiority. The same as the vietnam vet who says "You weren't there, maaan!". It doesn't mean that the comment is invalid, but I'm just recognising that the article is self-congratulatory.
I can give up just about any web site I use daily with little disruption to my life. No matter how much blood sweat and tears it's creator has put on the line.At the end of the day, they are just web apps. They are not important to me, like say, my garbageman coming every week is important to me.
To classify people who start companies that build web sites as being superior to others in any way at all is laughable. (I make web applications for a living).