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Ask HN: What’s the character difference between a pioneer and a follower?

10 points by bt3 ↗ HN
Recently read an article about some very clever hackers, who ultimately got in trouble for what they were doing (penetrating multi-billion dollar company networks). Disregarding their motives (noting it wasn’t money or fame), I was left wondering how those individuals were able to do the things they did, especially as young as they were (teenagers).

I have no doubt there is a tremendous level of intellectual curiosity, but I haven’t been able to rationalize the difference in “character” that makes some capable of being pioneers (especially at a young age and lacking experience), versus those who require steps or detailed resources to accomplish similar (or derived) objectives.

5 comments

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itronitron
Followers are people that have not yet become pioneers. A pioneer (or group of them) needs mastery of the various tradecrafts associated with their interest. If you consider that Lewis and Clark were pioneers then before their big trek they had mastered most of the essential survival skills needed in order to make the voyage. It may be worth noting that historically, pioneers are the people that followed the frontiersmen, so they were followers in the true sense of the word. But nowadays it seems that we use pioneer to mean someone pushing the boundaries, making discoveries...
CyberFonic
Pioneers are willing to take risks, sometimes even with their lives and many with their reputations.

Followers are more risk averse, they prefer to follow a trail that was blazed before them.

I think the distinction is true in the original sense of the people who pushed ahead into the Wild West as well as for less physically demanding and risky adventures, like hacking into corporate computer systems.

earenndil
There is no difference. There is not a simple classification of some people spend all their time pioneering new things and others spend all their time using existing ones. All growth is incremental, and different people have different ratios of amount added:amount borrowed.
sumedh
> I haven’t been able to rationalize the difference in “character”

You have to be a little insane, when your inner voice comes up some new idea which will probably end up in failure, the sane guy focusses on the failure and shuts down the inner voice because the risks are high, the insane guy on the other hand focusses on the possibility of success not failure.

grosjona
The follower has a higher life expectancy and is more successful from an evolutionary perspective. That's why most humans alive today are followers. Following is smart, following works.