Paul Buchheit: What are some things successful founders have in common?

less than 1m read

·Nov 3, 2024

So this was actually where the focused frugality obsession and love thing came from. I was actually trying to distill it down into a small enough number of words, and then I was going to try to translate it into emoji, but I failed at that part. I couldn't figure out the emoji for obsession; like love, I'm like okay, a heart.

But there is, I think, like this obsessive focus. There's almost an irrationality in some of these founders. The example that comes up as like the most insane version of it is probably like Elon Musk.

So I actually, he came into Google, gave like a Tech Talk, I want to say 2003 or something like that. And it was after he had started SpaceX, but before they had done the first rocket launch. Someone is like, what are you gonna do if the rocket explodes when you launch it? He's like, well, I have enough money for three launches, so I hope one of them succeeds.

Like he literally plowed his entire fortune; the first three blew up. I think, yeah, the first three did blow up. He managed to scrape together enough money for like a fourth rocket, but that fourth rocket hadn't gone, there would be no SpaceX, and Elon would be bankrupt.

Right? Like that's insane. I would not take all of my money and plow it into like some harebrained rocket scheme. Right? Like that's like a level of irrationality that is, I think, like wonderful.

Dilations and properties

Can You Build a House With Hemp? | National Geographic

View All

Column chromatography | Intermolecular forces and properties | AP Chemistry | Khan Academy

In our previous video, we talked about Thin Layer Chromatography. It was this technique used to figure out how many things you have in a sample or maybe say the relative properties, say the relative polarity of the things that you have in the sample. An…

Think on it | Barkskins

Mathilde: One only has to say the word “English,” and they come running like sick black dogs at low tide. Captain: Well, I heard about your selfless heroics with the Iroquois and the tragedy with the priests. Well, I suppose there’s nothing more that nee…

The best way to have startup ideas is to just notice them organically.

Let’s talk about how to come up with startup ideas. The last way to have startup ideas is to just notice them organically. If you look at the YC top 100 companies, at least 70 percent of them had their startup ideas organically, rather than by sitting do…

15 Personal Finance Lessons Everyone Wishes They Knew Sooner

You know how they say it’s never too late? Well, that’s not entirely true, right? Sometimes it is too late, and you do not want to be that person who has that kind of realization. A survey by Bankrate found that 57% of people in the US feel behind on thei…

Factoring polynomials using complex numbers | Khan Academy

We’re told that Ahmat tried to write ( x^4 + 5x^2 + 4 ) as a product of linear factors. This is his work, and then they tell us all the steps that he did, and then they say in what step did Ahmad make his first mistake. So pause this video and see if you …

High Tech or No Tech: Should You Unplug in National Parks? | National Geographic

How much more I spend on my phone than what I used to is ridiculous. I look at my little brothers and stuff. There are definitely weekends where me and him will sit inside and play on our computers. All they do is sit on video games and the computer. I te…

Paul Buchheit: What are some things successful founders have in common?

More Articles