I disagree. Could you let me know why you believe this is a terrible idea? There are many successful funds using strategies within this category to generate alpha. Trading and investing is not easy, if you had to thoroughly learn all the different fundamental or statistical approaches to pulling money out of the market you still not guaranteed being consistently profitable.
There are many ways to approach the stock market, the correct term should be financial markets. Most of the comments here are focusing on fundamental investing which has a very longterm view.......benjamin graham's book is a good starting point here. Since this is hacker news, i would recommend you focus on ignoring fundamental data and focus purely on statistical analyses, thereby using price, volume, econometrics on price data and probability theory to extract profits from the markets. Research what firms like renaissance technologies, d.e. shaw ect are doing. Edward thorpe also has some good some stuff, especially his stuff on blackjack. I would recommend reading some stuff on richard dennis, his methods are very trivial by today's standard's but it will make some light bells go off. Also the work of benoit mandelbrot, for me his work has made the biggest impact on me with regards to the way i approach the financial market.
Also don't limit yourself to the stock market, you should really look at derivatives across all markets especially exotics, there is so much inneficiency it is not even funny. If i could move money freely around internationally there is so much stuff i can do, but now with the patriot act and, it is hard to move money freely and quickly.
I just bought the latest asus netbook, its an intel duo core, they have just been released two months ago(i think). It has 250gb and 1gb ram. I run a dual partition ubuntu/windows 7 and i run netbeans to do some programming. I really love it and forget to log onto my home laptop when i get home, also the 1 gig ram seems fine so far but i will upgrade it this week to 2gigs. I actually debated between an ipad and a netbook and after playing around with a friends ipad i chose this netbook for $350.
"The day you believe in your heart of hearts that you did your best"
Sometimes when u wait that long, the opportunity has been taken by someone else, you running out of money or your customer's are just too frustrated with your business. I believe that you are correct that stepping up communication is important but we also have to keep in mind that time is money. My advice would be to put a time frame on it and if the issue is not solved start executing your plan. Also always remember that the health of the business comes first.
Talking to your co-founder will not help, from what you have written seems like he has a personality issue and this will take a long time to correct......you first have to get him to accept the issue is with him. My advice would be to be smart, put personal feelings and emotions aside and try to engineer a way to get him out of the company or you and the company away from him. Time is so precious, you can't waste it on someone not ready/mature enough for the start up world yet, especially when you have a family.
Totally agree, as i am a beginner programmer, i am totally confused which database to use and when, particularly when. I have read up on so many, so many blog posts that contradict each other, i have looked into coudb, cassandra, mysql, neo4j, hbase, persevere and a few more. I have just decided to learn each one well and judge as my knowledge grows, so i have started with mysql and couchdb.
I did, when i read the heading it said six keys, i automatically scrolled to the six keys, then realized this is just like the books i read, "outliers" and "talent is overrated". I then looked at the links at the bottom and realized that there were two new books on the same topic that came out in 2010, how many more do they need to make to tell us the same thing.
Lol...just watched one, its was funny. I think its more like we don't know what will make us laugh sometimes. I don't consider this bad taste, look at Napolean Dynamite, i really hated it but i have friends that loved it and it is now one of those cult movies. I would say that there is no accounting for the extremes of taste.
That being said i will not be tuning in to the annoying little orange again.
A business just surviving and a business that is successful is two totally different scenarios. You can be surviving for 5yrs, marginally profitable for 5 yrs but still find yourself in huge debt, paying off your credit cards and other loans. Many people quit at this point even though the business is not bankrupt but it is just not what they envisioned and then realize 5yrs have gone by. If the US census calculated those people in business for 5yrs or more making over a certain amount of money, then u would get a clearer picture. There is a lot of grey in that 50% number. You also find some entrepreneurs struggling to make that leap from being just profitable or break even to being really successful, they just hover around that barely profitable point for yrs unable to make the leap, then realize yrs down the line that they could have been in a much better position in a 9 to 5 job.
In the trading industry, they say that only 5% of traders are successful and of that 5% only 1% make enough to call themselves wealthy.....that is why George Soros can make $500mill a year or $1bill in the 1992 British pound trade, or Ken Griffith buying a $60mill dollar painting and giving it to a museum. Many traders will say that number is higher but you find many traders who hover around that break even point unable to make the leap.
Look at the sporting industry, how many kids want to be star athletes and how many make it, then when u look at those that make it to college level, more drop off unable to make the leap. Then of those that go pro, there will only be a handful that will be stars, like Kobe.
So i guess its not about just making it, its about making the leap from borderline success to real success that separates the men from the boys. Since if u are just borderline you will never be happy and you will eventually burn out.
Reading this question, a scene from the movie Greenberg popped into my mind. They turned down a recording deal when in college and both amounted too nothing and they pushing forty, the scene after the house party, he has an argument with his friend and his friend tells him......that the biggest hurdle he has overcome is accepting the life that he didn't plan for. I can't remember correctly but that was the just of it.
Look, for every 100 people that venture into entrepreneurship, less than 10 make it, that is why there is so much money to be made. You should be proud of your effort, the only time you should be pissed at yourself is if you didn't commit 100%, in the long run we are all dead!
Hardball: "Are you playing to play or are you playing to win"
This is a good book, which used to be used in the Harvard MBA curriculum. I really like the last chapter which discusses some points on what to do when u really need a win or to bring a company back. These points i believe can apply to your personal life and a business, i will use it in a personal sense:
1. Survive first then gain competitive advantage: In that make sure you survive first.....so get income(9-5 job, freelance, anything), then get competitive advantage(make yourself feel special) by starting a business.
2. Make everything Fast, Focused and Fundamental:
Fast-- This relates to the time element, every task/action should have a stated timeline in which it should be achieved.
Focused-- These key tasks/actions should be protected from other tasks/actions cannibalizing time.
Fundamental-- Only efforts that go to the heart of the matter should be pursued. Only actions that are going to make a big difference to the underlying should be pursued at this point.
3. Don't tolerate failure to deliver more than once: Two or three failures to deliver suggests a lack of will, incompetence or even subversion. This applies to anyone.
You should now ask yourself, am i satisfying point 1? Then make your way from there.
Not if u set your settings to stay logged in. Like yahoo mail or gmail, each time you go there, you are already logged in. The difference here is that, you would not need further navigation once you are constantly logged in.
Yes, that is one of the first articles i read along with....Hot be a Hacker - Eric Steven Raymond, Great Hackers and Undergraduation-Paul Graham. I agree with the long-term approach or 10 000hrs according to Outliers-Malcolm Gladwell. Also in Talent Is Overrated-Geoff Colvin, you get a good idea on how to become an expert/outstanding performer in any discipline. But....
In Entrepreneurship(Particularly web apps), i disagree that
you need to be an expert, i believe that you need to be able to get something built and manage whatever traction you get from there to make your business solid. Such as getting top talent to do thinks the right way. The key is just get something built first......in my opinion.
Lets see.....i am 30yrs old, worked in marketing for a fortune 50 company and worked as a trader. Started Jan of this learning to program.......Ruby, rails, Javascript and until about two weeks ago Dojo. I enjoy it thoroughly, its like i am sitting down to watch Lord of the Rings. I am by no means find myself worthy of been called a programmer, but i started developing a little cellphone app targeting developing countries, its going really well, still coding it.
What i found is that there is so much help, so many places to find the answer if u can research. Just reading the source code, Readme docs, chat rooms, is so much help. Cookbooks, tutorials by bloggers are all helping me along. Also, you can create so much with just a little technical skills. At the end, you still have to run a business, be a hustler. So when i launch my little application, i will try and get some talent on board as well(if i am lucky). The key is to achieve a lot with a little.
I almost forgot......Google developer tools, has sped up my learning so so much, reading the source code of websites and looking at all the scripts. Its just amazing the resources available today vs 5yrs ago.