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Ask HN: What is the 'practicing scales' for founders?

2 points by StokoeKeagan ↗ HN
Tyler Cowen says that knowledge workers should learn in the same way that athletes train. He asks:

“What is it you do to train that is comparable to a pianist practicing scales?”

As a founder, how do you do this?

3 comments

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rman666
Practicing and constantly improving your pitches (for investors, talent, sales, etc.). In two words: Story Telling.
StokoeKeagan
Good shout. To that end it seems like writing is a good area of practice. Learn to refine your pitch/message/sale. Make it clear and easy to grasp
prirun
I was a founder and play piano. The huge difference between these is that playing the piano is perfecting the task of playing the right keys at the right time in the right way. It's difficult because you have to train your body to make quick and precise movements, but you at least know what you need to do.

My experience as a founder (no outside funding) is that every day has a surprising new challenge or three, so it's more like managing chaos rather than doing drills. Or, compare it to juggling, but instead of getting to master juggling 3 balls before moving to 4, you have a bunch of people throwing balls at you and you have to keep juggling as many as you can and pick the ones up off the floor when you get a chance.