biznerd

Very difficult to pull off but I'd love to hear stories. Thanks

So I'm sorta a techie. I loved this site back when I graduated in college in 2007. I remember TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington said he loved this site.

A lot has change over that past 15 years or so, but honestly I never visit this site anymore.

I know this is a "how long is a piece of string question", but any ideas why? In some ways, I'd love to do it again.

I was in college when they IPOed. The founders seemed to really have a vision to be the anti-Microsoft. Stuff like 20% time, free food, moonshot projects, etc.

Now it seems they're just another big tech company. The news is filled about how they're not up to very good stuff.

What happened?

Ugly web design for sure, but today all we have are sleek pre-designed wordpress themes and twitter bootstrap. The web resembles a high-end mall but it's lost a lot of it's character.

When I was in high school, a bunch of us would create websites on angelfire or geocities. I'd assume kids today are just trying to get followers on Youtube or Instagram.

Today, the algorithim is almighty. But back in the day things like webrings and guestposts worked. It was more personal. There was less obsession with "going viral".

If I google "fried chicken recipes" I'm gonna get a 1500 word tome. The author will talk paragraph after paragraph about the first time she ate fried chicken, songs about fried chicken, how fried chicken is truly American, where the best spot in her state is, just to bump up the word count for SEO. And of course she'll recommend an affiliate link for a fryer, which she's never actually bought.

I guess I get nostalgic about the sense of exploration and serendipity.

Does anyone else feel this way? Is a return possible, or is nostalgia just nostalgia?

I posted this on HN 6 years ago, (wow time flies)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8674644

Basically, it’s a discussion about how Microsoft held back the internet 6-7 years.

Imagine that. Human society would be 6-7 years in some respect.

I also read about Gary Kidall, the creator of CP/M. Bill gates created a variant of it, MS-DOS, and the rest is history. He was endlessly compared by the media to Bill Gates. He became an alcoholic and died in a bar fight.

Today he’s a forgotten pioneer.

As an entrepreneur, that really strikes me. Imagine a business dealing that made my partner an addict and so bitter he dies violently.

Bill Gates would also “date rape” companies by making fake overtures to acquire software companies and gather intel.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates gets a ton of good press. My friend’s wife recently “liked” his facebook page, and she’s the hippie granola, anti-capitalism type.

What do you think?

I feel bad because I've worked very hard to get to this point. Worked at a job I hated for years to build my savings and skillset to the level that I can work for myself.

To put it simply, I don't exert myself. My pace of work is really bad. I quit during the day far too early.

I use the "pomodoro" system of productivity and once I hit 8, I start on my long list of hobbies. I know I'm capable of doing 12 or even 16.

I put in a good day yesterday, far more productive than usual. I thought to myself: this is actually what a normal day was like when I was working.

I rarely work until exhaustion.

Any thoughts?

I've only tried to develop 1 app in my lifetime (a yelp for coding bootcamps). I had to brainstorm for weeks, if not months, for that idea. Building the site was no problem, but the real one was getting reviews (using various techniques, my partner and I only got a half dozen.) In the end, I spent a couple hundred bucks and several months down the drain.

Contrast that with what I'm doing now: niche sites. Just build content and get links. Much simpler. There are half a dozen excellent podcasts on the topics, and dozen more blogs with tutorials and how tos.

There's also FBA/dropshipping/ecommerce...

Of course, developing your own app is a lot more satisfying. But I think it's way way more difficult. I think it's better to bat for singles then aim for home runs. Not to mention that some people are making 7 figures off niche sites with no employees and an awesome software project could end up making $200/mo.

So far I've identified:

Mobile (Android, iPhone) Wordpress plugins Your own web app (SaaS) Gaming (Xbox, PS marketplace)

I'm self taught and I'm thinking WP might be best because competition is less and promotion easier.

Obviously, my own app would be the dream but that is really hard to pull off.

Anyone have any insight?

Since high school I thought I wanted to be an entrepreneur. In HS/college I start websites (ranking in SEO was very easy) and made 30k. I also started a web host and grew it to several hundred clients and sold it for 20k. So I graduated with 50k in the bank. It felt awesome, but looking back things were so easy back then.

The next 10 years have been pretty bad though. I have a huge problem sticking to an idea. Out of the dozen ideas, nothing has stuck. If I started a "niche blog" I'd say I'd probably quit after 3 weeks.

Last year I bought a vending machine route for 35k but got screwed over in the end.

Not all is bad, I bought a rental property which has done very well (big increases in rent too).

Right now the rental property is kinda feeding my entrepreneurial "hunger" - I still go to networking events, do the book keeping, but I don't have enough money to expand...

But of course there is nothing like start/owning a "real" business, RE is more investment management.

So I don't know. I'm kind of getting sick of how entrepreneurship is so glorified in the media etc. Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur.

What would you do in my shoes? I've thought about getting a cofounder to compensate for my weaknesses. Also maybe I have to choose the "right" business.

Is it all it's cracked up to be? Seems to be the dream career for millenials...I'm wondering if its overhyped.

I'm not a programmer, just a really curious guy. Does a master's in CS make you a more effective programmer (in the workplace)? Or is it merely the most talented programmer choose to do a MS?

The mutual fund company Vanguard is a co-operative, owned by its investors. It is essentially a non-profit.

Would this model work for an Uber clone?

* It could split the profit evenly by simultaneously raising the driver rate and lowering prices. * It could "growth hack" and by having drivers initially promote the app. If you get in an Uber/Lyft the driver could be like "hey man, next time you get a ride use _this app_, it helps both of us out - If it ever achieved a sizable market share, it could save massively on advertising and return marketing costs back to both drivers and riders.

I simply have too many ideas. I can perhaps narrow them down to 5. How can I choose the winner?

I don't think it's a good idea to work on more than one project, but that's just me.

This is especially true of side projects. Much easier to slack off than work on them.

Also especially true for solo founders.

How do you keep yourself accountable?

The vast majority of business websites seem to be the same stock images, encapsulated by "business speak". Fun/cool identities seem to be rare. Here is one:

...actually I take that back. www.nerdery.com had a design that was distinctive but it seems they changed it to the stale, standard design of a web development firm.