Stop Focusing on What You Don't Have

[mattm]

Like a lot of good advice, this is easy to say but sometimes difficult to implement. But it's good to be reminded of this. When you say "If I only had X, I could do Y" what you are really telling yourself is that now, you can't do Y. So you don't do it. Excuses are easy to come up but hard to get out of.

As a shameless self-plug, I've put together a course that helps developers reduce the tendency to think that the grass is always greener. If you're interested, see my profile for the link.

[vitd]

While I agree with his premise, he doesn’t give a lot of useful advice on how to implement his suggestion. In the case of the menswear website, how does calling people and using a spreadsheet help? People on the phone can’t see the clothes. Also, who are you calling in that example?

In the case of the project management idea - again, who do you call to get a job implementing your idea?

The code idea is probably a reasonable one for some people, though coding is often much harder than it looks.

Finally he says, "The problem is not what you’re missing; it’s that you are not leveraging what you have,” but he gives no advice on how to do that practically. It’s good advice, just not useful without more information.

[fourspace]

My goal wasn't to give specific advice to people in certain situations. My examples are hypothetical; maybe I didn't make that clear.

Instead, the point of the article was to motivate you to go actually make sales, create value, and build relationships. None of these things require a developer. Do I know who you should specifically call to test the market in a given context? No; that's your problem to figure out. The point is that you CAN figure it out.

[armenarmen]

I was thinking the same. Calling to sell suits might not be the best route, but setting up an etsy or something would be a pretty tech-free way to go about testing the market. Plus it would make you learn how to talk to people that could send you traffic.

[itsallbs]

It's very easy to fall into this mental trap. Developers are creative people by definition; we of all people have no excuse to pass the blame for our lack of success to another. It's a way of avoiding responsibility and completely counterproductive to success. Great post.

[PufferBuffer]

The sad reality is, even after reading this article most folks will resolve to once again, blaming others for the things they don't have. It's not that most people don't know they should work harder to strive for their own, but rather it's a lot easier to blame someone else, and humans are naturally lazy. Most people know, but don't act, imho.

[speeder]

He never addressed what you do when you need massive marketing and don't have the funds.

[tomasien]

When is that a thing? I can imagine that those scenarios exist, for example you make a product that isn't nearly as good as a product that every savvy user already knows about (1and1mywebsite for example), but what is a common example?

[bennesvig]

Create an idea that spreads. Much better to build the marketing into the product than saving marketing as an afterthought.

[adambard]

I've got no business preaching, but my synthesis of HN's general opinion on the matter, phrased as a pithy remark, goes as follows:

If you don't have the funds, you don't need massive marketing.

[arbuge]

He doesn't need to - it's pretty obvious. Go find a different idea.