Redoubtable

Ah the faulty algorithm.

Right because the first thing I think as a founder is oh definitely I'd love to have my work judged by the insane neckbeard posse that is Hacker News Commentariat. That's totallllllly something I'd love and will likely to end up producing better and more diverse result. Sorry guys I should really not even get involved but this is baffling. HN is second only to Reddit in terms of its nasty, divisive, anti-anything that doesn't pattern match to the literalism horror show that is white men in technology.

But let’s remember that computing used to be a hobby for most people and largely the domain of professional computer scientists. It was also a highly profitable, multi-billion dollar industry even back in the day. But once it became easy enough for regular people, personal computing exploded into a industry so large & worth so much you are probably reading this on a mobile computer in your hands. Don’t you wonder why it is that makeup hasn’t had this explosion? It is a big industry with a lot at stake, but largely serves very skilled women with a lot of time & often cash on their hands. It serves very skilled hobbyists & professionals. But shouldn’t it serve any woman so that say someone like me can use it with ease and joy?

I'm not coming up with much when I search for cognitive overload being debunked or being a myth. Do you remember the name of the study?

I agree that willpower and motivation are separate issues but I'd be curious to see further references on the issue.

Thanks for this! The fact that I got wrapped up in constructing the identity of a company (thank god not the actual product or how we related to our clients) to be appealing to someone that wasn't its core client was definitely my problem and not theirs!

While I can't deny that I was responding to a certain kind of risk/reward perception that has a certain value it wasn't right for what we ultimately wanted to build as a company.

And I think this happens in so many areas of life. How we date, how we pick our hobbies, how we choose our education. Because forming a core identity and a core business is actually tremendously hard. Picking up one that is already socially validated seems easier. It just isn't a recipe for long term happiness or success.

I'm sure I do or I wouldn't have felt the need to exorcise it in public. But I do definitely care that my business makes money and that what it costs us to make our product is less than what what we get paid for it. That is just running a business and answering to the market.

Heh well yes. Logical win :-)

You got it. :-)

Though I admit I wasn't quite expecting a personal Tumblr post to make it to Hacker News.

Heh. Thanks. Glad someone thinks it is cool!

Heh well you know actually I do have PMS! I'm due to start maybe tomorrow or Tuesday. Wow and to think my epiphany was just hormones. Man those things are useful!