> "... know a certain percentage of the startups in each batch are doomed. Some people just aren't meant to start startups, but there's no way for them to know that for sure without trying it."
People are much stronger and amazing than that.
It's important not to forget that all people have unlimited potential, because we are all the same. However, one factor that cannot be measured, is passion. Passion can come from one or any number of factors - and passion can make the impossible possible.
To that extent, I'd encourage comment readers to grasp that idea you love so greatly, and grasp it with all your heart... for off that cliff lies a river where you can pan for gold.
The other driver's cars were not designed for high altitude nose dives into water. The car designers did not care enough to pay that much attention to detail to handle that dive.
However, for the passionate who can make the finest car, there in that river lies the gold.
Did I time-warp into a Tony Robbins seminar, here?
People have unlimited potential?
We are all the same?
The impossible is possible?
There is a fine line separating rational optimism from potentially dangerous delusion, and your post crosses it.
Stick to science and knowledge. Our potential is finite, we all have very real differences (biological and otherwise), and "the impossible is possible" is an obvious contradiction that renders both terms meaningless, so you're really saying nothing at all.
People (with a few exceptions, usually the result of excellent breeding, education or culture) are much weaker and worse than that.
It's important not to forget that all people have limited potential, though some are much more limited than others.
Do you know Plato had a name for the man who was ruled by passion? Every man has to place some principle on the throne of his heart. The true aristocratic man, the philosopher-king, is ruled by wisdom. The timocrat, leader of a warrior state, is ruled by honour.
Going further done the list, the oligarch is ruled by desire for wealth - which at least gives him the motivation to work hard, if nothing else. The democratic man is ruled by freedom, and his life therefore involves being blown around his own whims.
But the lowest of all is the man ruled by passion - the tryant. People here should read The Republic (or knowing HN readers, skim the Wikipedia article describing the 5 different types of polis): he describes modern culture (including Occupy Wall St) pretty well, which just shows that human nature hasn't changed.
too late, but can you quote the exact passage in the Republic? this really sounds cool, that I really don't want to find out if the wikipedia guy and the philosopher phd that came up top on the google and you are the same person.
People are much stronger and amazing than that.
It's important not to forget that all people have unlimited potential, because we are all the same. However, one factor that cannot be measured, is passion. Passion can come from one or any number of factors - and passion can make the impossible possible.
To that extent, I'd encourage comment readers to grasp that idea you love so greatly, and grasp it with all your heart... for off that cliff lies a river where you can pan for gold.
The other driver's cars were not designed for high altitude nose dives into water. The car designers did not care enough to pay that much attention to detail to handle that dive.
However, for the passionate who can make the finest car, there in that river lies the gold.