It seems these days everybody is determined to call themselves an entrepreneur.
Alan Sugar was right when he told off a contestant on The Apprentice UK for doing it - it's not meant to be something you call yourself, it's something others call you as a means of recognising your success if you've earned it. Pity that doesn't appear to be the dominant viewpoint.
It's also noticeable how the vast majority of well-known people are described on Wikipedia as either an entrepreneur or a businessperson. The rationale is sometimes as simple as "their management team sells merchandise with their name and image"! I've read that it's a very deliberate attempt by their marketing people, who push their ideas via Wikipedia etc, to give them more credibility than they supposedly get from things like sports or acting, by jumping on this fashion.
Part of it is marketing, but part of it has to do with changes in how Americans think about making money.
Young Americans can see the direction in which the wind is blowing. They believe less and less in the idea of a "comfortable middle class lifestyle with a steady career" and more and more in the idea that you have to be some some kind of entrepreneur or hustler if you want to have hope for a decent living and a decent amount of personal freedom.
One time at a pub I had started casually talking to a dude sitting next to me. I had just been there reading a novel, we had some small back and forth. One of my strategies of encouraging conversation is being interested in the other person, so I asked "so, what do you do?"
He got very upset with me about that question. He went on about how everyone around here is so focused on their work and not living life (this was in a very corporate office tower part of town, so...yeah). Everyone only cares about what you produce, not with how you live. It turns out he had also been laid off earlier that day as well. We discussed this a good bit, and in the end had a good night hanging out at the bar. I never met him again, but I think about that conversation often.
That interaction made me decide not to ask that question going forward. These days, instead of asking "what do you do?", I ask things like "what keeps you busy in life?" Because ultimately that's closer to what I'm really wondering.
True, I've always thought it's unfortunate that so many people define themselves by their job and expect everyone else to do the same. It works for some but absolutely not for all, and ideally speaking it shouldn't be our default means of labelling others.
> it's something others call you as a means of recognising your success if you've earned it. Pity that doesn't appear to be the dominant viewpoint.
That's just human psychology being dumb again. Just make multiple social media accounts and use one to make posts and have the other ones come along to call the first a great entrepreneur.
This takes me back to the weirdness of my post-college years; the pressure to show that I know what I'm doing but no actual work or life experience. The transition from doing things for a grade and realizing that success at work is figuring out what the questions are and how much effort I should put into answering them.
I definitely relate to the crux of the article though:
> I realized getting to a point where you reap the benefits from what you’re hoping to learn requires you to do it yourself and fail. A lot.
I also had to work hard to shift from the fixed mindset: "I'm smart therefore I need to be good at this. If I'm not good at this, then I'm dumb" to "I'm going to put the effort it and give myself the grace that learning takes a long time".
I learned this most clearly from running, where I had no expectations to live up to. I ran consistently for years and saw clear improvement when I put in the work, with no pressure to live up to some idea of what I "should" be, and ran faster and further than I expected. I'm never ashamed to say "today was a crappy run" or "I didn't do very well, better sleep it off". Then why was I afraid to say "I don't get this complex idea yet, I better spend some time reading it 12 more times until it starts making sense"?
I'm working through something similar right now. I like your thought about shifting away from the fixed mindset. I'm also realizing a lot of this, maybe all of this, comes down to identity and ego.
I'm taking an evening class right now in computer science at a local university. Without mincing words, I am getting my ass kicked by it. Absolutely handed to me. It's proofs-based, and I don't have much of a background in this (even during my time in college back in the day, I didn't take these types of courses).
I'm getting stuck all the time, finding it hard to understand the lectures, and then avoiding studying altogether because it's not "clicking" for me. But if I'm being honest, what I'm doing above all is avoiding studying because of how painful it feels, and how much of my own identity as a "smart" person comes into question. I've never really had trouble with coursework, and would even say a lot of it came naturally to me, so from that I built up a little castle wall of an identity wherein I'm a "smart person who learns things easily."
Yet here I am unable to learn this easily at all. I'm discovering that I need to tweak my mindset and keep my identity smaller. Why do I have to be a smart person? Why can't I just be a person who wants to learn something that he's finding challenging? Is it helping me to belittle myself by telling myself that I "should" understand this quickly? Or is it just leading me to running away from the whole thing altogether, thereby worsening the situation?
Sorry for the rant / writeup. I'm processing all of this in real-time myself, and trying to get myself back to studying...
This is a joke, right? It's horribly written, and full of financebro bullshit. I feel like I'm back in law school talking to the business majors who couldn't get a good job and used law as a fallback.
I commend him for trying to learn new skills. no one needs to know this shit. It's not instagram.
What I learned spending a lifetime making the world a little bit worse for everyone else for fun and profit.
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Their entire mindset seems to be, "how can I take advantage of other people making mistakes to make a few dollars here and there? and how can I induce them to make even more mistakes in my realm of influence so it is even easier to profit from them?"
This is why he is always chasing the latest fad—"dropshipping massage guns, rug tufting, rainbow-loom bracelets, you name it"—people who follow fads are less likely to do their research and more likely to click buy on the overpriced TikTok ad. AI just empowers him to do more of this.
The only skill he seems to work on is his "taking advantage of others" skill. It's astounding that he got to this age without knowing even the basics of programming... and he only learned those basics once it became relevant to taking advantage of others. Rather than trying to create something new, or create a better version of something old, he just wants to disrupt efficient commerce so he can skim off the top.
I'm sure he makes a ton of money doing this. I wish that weren't possible.
It's not about buying the thing or not but about inserting oneself as an unnecessary middleman who just raises the price, which only works due to the customer's ignorance. It's essentially deceiving someone into paying more than they had to. I don't see how it could be considered positive.
I see, that makes a little more sense if you start from the assumption it isnt adding value and also raising prices, then of course it isnt positive.
I think this underappreciates that value added by having multiple sellers/retailers competing and advertising. I dont think the world where everything must be bought from a manufacturer or small set of retailers is better.
It's nice to see the kids having the same sorts of discoveries the olds had once upon a time. Specifics change, but we're just stupid humans spinning around the sun together
n8n has been around a lot longer than LLMs and, as explained in the article, can be a useful substrate for your LLMs to write custom tools with (for those uncomfortable with the terminal or wanting lots of API integrations)
I don't know if people hate it, but I don't use it because it is overpriced (you need the $50 pro subscription to do more than tinker) and it had multiple CVEs this year. There are also a lot of n8n "influencers" on YouTube, but that is not n8n's fault.
I think it is fine for prototyping if someone prefers a GUI.
> I feel that tutorials and informative reading are always good starting points for getting down the basics of a skill.
And for seeing what’s possible with a skill. But this can be very overwhelming as well. When you watch the masters doing what looks really easy and after that start with your first steps - and fail - it’s way more discouraging than starting without having seen this and being proud of small achievements.
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[ 0.24 ms ] story [ 5.5 ms ] threadThose are rookie numbers.
I've been doing that for 40 years
Yeah, ok… Not for me.
Alan Sugar was right when he told off a contestant on The Apprentice UK for doing it - it's not meant to be something you call yourself, it's something others call you as a means of recognising your success if you've earned it. Pity that doesn't appear to be the dominant viewpoint.
It's also noticeable how the vast majority of well-known people are described on Wikipedia as either an entrepreneur or a businessperson. The rationale is sometimes as simple as "their management team sells merchandise with their name and image"! I've read that it's a very deliberate attempt by their marketing people, who push their ideas via Wikipedia etc, to give them more credibility than they supposedly get from things like sports or acting, by jumping on this fashion.
Young Americans can see the direction in which the wind is blowing. They believe less and less in the idea of a "comfortable middle class lifestyle with a steady career" and more and more in the idea that you have to be some some kind of entrepreneur or hustler if you want to have hope for a decent living and a decent amount of personal freedom.
He got very upset with me about that question. He went on about how everyone around here is so focused on their work and not living life (this was in a very corporate office tower part of town, so...yeah). Everyone only cares about what you produce, not with how you live. It turns out he had also been laid off earlier that day as well. We discussed this a good bit, and in the end had a good night hanging out at the bar. I never met him again, but I think about that conversation often.
That interaction made me decide not to ask that question going forward. These days, instead of asking "what do you do?", I ask things like "what keeps you busy in life?" Because ultimately that's closer to what I'm really wondering.
That's just human psychology being dumb again. Just make multiple social media accounts and use one to make posts and have the other ones come along to call the first a great entrepreneur.
I definitely relate to the crux of the article though:
> I realized getting to a point where you reap the benefits from what you’re hoping to learn requires you to do it yourself and fail. A lot.
I also had to work hard to shift from the fixed mindset: "I'm smart therefore I need to be good at this. If I'm not good at this, then I'm dumb" to "I'm going to put the effort it and give myself the grace that learning takes a long time".
I learned this most clearly from running, where I had no expectations to live up to. I ran consistently for years and saw clear improvement when I put in the work, with no pressure to live up to some idea of what I "should" be, and ran faster and further than I expected. I'm never ashamed to say "today was a crappy run" or "I didn't do very well, better sleep it off". Then why was I afraid to say "I don't get this complex idea yet, I better spend some time reading it 12 more times until it starts making sense"?
I'm taking an evening class right now in computer science at a local university. Without mincing words, I am getting my ass kicked by it. Absolutely handed to me. It's proofs-based, and I don't have much of a background in this (even during my time in college back in the day, I didn't take these types of courses).
I'm getting stuck all the time, finding it hard to understand the lectures, and then avoiding studying altogether because it's not "clicking" for me. But if I'm being honest, what I'm doing above all is avoiding studying because of how painful it feels, and how much of my own identity as a "smart" person comes into question. I've never really had trouble with coursework, and would even say a lot of it came naturally to me, so from that I built up a little castle wall of an identity wherein I'm a "smart person who learns things easily."
Yet here I am unable to learn this easily at all. I'm discovering that I need to tweak my mindset and keep my identity smaller. Why do I have to be a smart person? Why can't I just be a person who wants to learn something that he's finding challenging? Is it helping me to belittle myself by telling myself that I "should" understand this quickly? Or is it just leading me to running away from the whole thing altogether, thereby worsening the situation?
Sorry for the rant / writeup. I'm processing all of this in real-time myself, and trying to get myself back to studying...
I commend him for trying to learn new skills. no one needs to know this shit. It's not instagram.
What I learned spending a lifetime making the world a little bit worse for everyone else for fun and profit.
-----
Their entire mindset seems to be, "how can I take advantage of other people making mistakes to make a few dollars here and there? and how can I induce them to make even more mistakes in my realm of influence so it is even easier to profit from them?"
This is why he is always chasing the latest fad—"dropshipping massage guns, rug tufting, rainbow-loom bracelets, you name it"—people who follow fads are less likely to do their research and more likely to click buy on the overpriced TikTok ad. AI just empowers him to do more of this.
The only skill he seems to work on is his "taking advantage of others" skill. It's astounding that he got to this age without knowing even the basics of programming... and he only learned those basics once it became relevant to taking advantage of others. Rather than trying to create something new, or create a better version of something old, he just wants to disrupt efficient commerce so he can skim off the top.
I'm sure he makes a ton of money doing this. I wish that weren't possible.
I think it comes down to some pretty fundamental views about human autonomy and meaning.
E.g. if you respect someone's desire to buy a rainbow bracelet, or think you know better and they should be treated like a child.
I think this underappreciates that value added by having multiple sellers/retailers competing and advertising. I dont think the world where everything must be bought from a manufacturer or small set of retailers is better.
FTFY. Do not conflate all competition as good for the consumer.
I got distracted by the shiny dangly thing and it took a little while to figure out it was a pull chain.
Why not just have GenAI create you a custom tool to perform the automation?
I think it is fine for prototyping if someone prefers a GUI.
[0]https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/186837.How_I_Became_S...
What a vile, vile thing.
I build a software vs I build some software.
And for seeing what’s possible with a skill. But this can be very overwhelming as well. When you watch the masters doing what looks really easy and after that start with your first steps - and fail - it’s way more discouraging than starting without having seen this and being proud of small achievements.