If I know only one thing, it's that there is plenty I don’t know.
Recently, I had the pleasure of enjoying a dinner with a journalist (a fellow technophile and soon-to-be published author) and another startup founder (a proven one at that, having successfully sold off his first startup).
There is a lot to be said for experience – in any field – which is something a couple of recent college grads (Steve and I, for instance) don’t have. Ever since we received our diplomas and started "real life," it was apparent that there were many things that formal education could never have prepared us for. Before I could even finish scanning the menu, it was apparent from the conversation around me that this would be another lesson in humility. This has been a common theme ever since the summer began.
What we lack in experience, I like to believe we have in a willingness to accept our own ignorance and learn whenever possible. Admittedly, there’s a latent, unshakable feeling that you are just a rounding error in the grand scheme of things. Nevertheless, this was an easy pill to swallow. Our worst-case scenario is great for us. We will have gotten the chance to work on a fun project and have had users actually thank us for it, not to mention all the people we'll have met and things we'll have learned.
Back in the Japanese restaurant, there I was, without a single business card in my wallet: the ultimate entrepreneurial taboo.
Oh well, the miso soup was already here and the conversation had already gotten interesting. Handing out the remaining 950 or so business cards I have left may be a bit harder than I thought...
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
musings and reflections over udon
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1 comments:
Many thanks webninja! (I would adjust your karma accordingly, but cosmic order does not permit me) You're actually the first person (other than a college buddy and my parents) to comment on the blog. I'm even happier that it was positive. I do not doubt your ninja prowess, for you're certainly right about the training that is going on whenever a user interacts with the site (not just submissions). We've discussed the merits of a search engine that incorporated this kind of data, but I wouldn't expect it in the very near future (Google is doing a fine enough job with search as it is).
For now, we're focusing all of our energy on creating a site where users can reliably and consistently find new and interesting links. All of this great content comes from the community of users -- so we're always trying to make it easier for redditors to submit and discover the best of the web.
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