I’ve been thinking more and more about web startups recently (I’m nearing the end of grad school and am contemplating whether a life in academia is for me). I’m no stranger to absurd 100 hour weeks, love technology, and most of all love solving problems, especially if it involves making a new tool. Academia and startups are both pretty good matches for those specs.
Searching the great wisdom of the web suggests that a good startup should be two people, and that the best candidate for a cofounder is someone you’ve known for a while. From my own perspective, I’d love to have a cofounder that was rational and open minded, hence LessWrong as a potential source.
I’m not pitching a startup idea here. What I’m pitching is promiscuous intellectual philandering. I’d like to shoot the shit about random tech ideas, gossip about other startups, and in general just see if I click with anyone here strongly enough to at some point consider buddying up to take on the world.
Thoughts on how best to do this? What’s the internet equivalent of speed dating for finding startup cofounders? Maybe the best way is to just attend more LessWrong meetups?
Great community. I like the discussion there in general. Most of the people have a great innate rationality, even when it isn’t as dissected and methodical as it is here.
Funny, the NYC Meetup (today) is going to touch on this topic (’cause I’ve been thinking about it). It’s one of the “ways rationalists can make money”, IMO.
I agree, it does seem like a great untapped potential for a rationalist community. The obvious question is, does being a rationalist make you a better founder of a startup? Or, more relevant here, does being a rationalist of LessWrong stripes make you a better founder?
When it comes to programming prowess, I doubt rationality confers much benefit. But when it comes to the psychological steel needed to forge a startup: dealing with uncertainty, sunk costs, investors, founder feuds, etc… I think a black belt in rationality could be a hell of a weapon!
I think dealing with uncertainty is key. I think Frank Knight formulated the idea that this is where the greatest returns are; I feel that this is something rationalists should be better than average at.
I also think this should give advantage to rationalists in areas other than startups, though startups definitely come to mind.
I’ve been thinking more and more about web startups recently (I’m nearing the end of grad school and am contemplating whether a life in academia is for me). I’m no stranger to absurd 100 hour weeks, love technology, and most of all love solving problems, especially if it involves making a new tool. Academia and startups are both pretty good matches for those specs.
Searching the great wisdom of the web suggests that a good startup should be two people, and that the best candidate for a cofounder is someone you’ve known for a while. From my own perspective, I’d love to have a cofounder that was rational and open minded, hence LessWrong as a potential source.
I’m not pitching a startup idea here. What I’m pitching is promiscuous intellectual philandering. I’d like to shoot the shit about random tech ideas, gossip about other startups, and in general just see if I click with anyone here strongly enough to at some point consider buddying up to take on the world.
Thoughts on how best to do this? What’s the internet equivalent of speed dating for finding startup cofounders? Maybe the best way is to just attend more LessWrong meetups?
If you weren’t already aware, Hacker News http://news.ycombinator.com/ has a lot of discussion about startups.
Great community. I like the discussion there in general. Most of the people have a great innate rationality, even when it isn’t as dissected and methodical as it is here.
Funny, the NYC Meetup (today) is going to touch on this topic (’cause I’ve been thinking about it). It’s one of the “ways rationalists can make money”, IMO.
I agree, it does seem like a great untapped potential for a rationalist community. The obvious question is, does being a rationalist make you a better founder of a startup? Or, more relevant here, does being a rationalist of LessWrong stripes make you a better founder?
When it comes to programming prowess, I doubt rationality confers much benefit. But when it comes to the psychological steel needed to forge a startup: dealing with uncertainty, sunk costs, investors, founder feuds, etc… I think a black belt in rationality could be a hell of a weapon!
BTW, we having this discussion here:
http://groups.google.com/group/overcomingbiasnyc/browse_thread/thread/3b91c0f4460dca63?hl=en
I think dealing with uncertainty is key. I think Frank Knight formulated the idea that this is where the greatest returns are; I feel that this is something rationalists should be better than average at.
I also think this should give advantage to rationalists in areas other than startups, though startups definitely come to mind.