On my entrepreneurial path there were several pivoting moments: 1. Kwawsaki's "The art of the start" 2. PG essays 3. Hacker News 4. Four steps to the Epiphany 5. Mixergy.
Amazingly, I also went 1, 2 and 3 (and have stayed here for two years without progressing my entrepreneurial path much at all).
Am now ordering a copy of Four steps to the Epiphany; it may be the missing link between having Mixergy and Andrew Warner bookmarked, and actually using them to change my life.
I'll tell you what helped me - I started doing something as I was reading the Kawasaki's book. It is embarrassing to recall now, but had I not done that stupid stuff I would not have gotten in the habit of doing. As you do things your successes will embolden you and you will have a larger pool of experience to draw from. You need to find something that you can do with limited commitment and demonstrable results, which will in turn embolden you to take on a slightly larger thing next time. I recommend a market that is quick with feedback (which excludes enterprise), and has monetization potential (which rules out large segments of consumers web plays). For example, find a small business with a small problem and solve their problem in a scalable way - you will feel a lot more brave after that especially if you make some sizable money along the way.
It's funny to realize that courage is the only thing that stands between someone like you or me and their entrepreneurial success, yet I don't see a way to short-circuit that simple problem. It seems that working through it step by step is the surest path. Oh well, whatever works, right?
Equally as valid and interested as the Mixergy review was the dynamic described at play on Hacker News I never picked up on before:
How even worthwhile, quality sites that we generally like will experience a backlash here if we feel, even subconsciously, that they are over-exposed on HN.
It may be that we come here specifically for special news or unique insights we don't get on other sites, and we feel disappointed when HN merely reflects "normal" content?
I've never written a backlash or cranky comment, but I do admit I've groaned when I've seen links from certain sites posted, when i've felt they were predictable. I'm trying to figure out why this response gets evoked. Especially when the main reason I come here is for your awesome meta-commentary, not the post itself.
In any case, this post has made commit to being more patient when I see familiar content here.
a) If you're familiar with them, you probably already know what to expect
b) If you don't like them, you don't want to see them
c) If you like them, you've already read it, and
d) If they've been on a lot recently, you can't use # of comments as a judge of quality - they might just be complaints about "Everything Seth Godin says is common sense" or "Jeff Atwood couldn't code his way out of a paper bag", and those are no fun to read.
In my case, it's probably mostly d). I don't think I hold HN responsible for bringing me links I've never seen before or must like. But I really do come here for great discussion and insights (like yours right here!), in the comments section.
I'm totally willing to see negative comments, but they really have to bring something to the party. The examples you gave are exactly the kind of thing that would bum me out after a visit here.
Has the idea ever been tossed around for a personal blacklist? If you really just hate http://some_tech_site.com/blog , and can't bring yourself to ignore it, you would be able to add it to your blacklist under your profile settings, and then any links from that domain will not show up on the front page when signed in.
EDIT: Also, regex pattern matching on the title would be kinda nice too.
People usually recommend greasemonkey for that. I've never bothered because like I said in the article, the backlash lasts 2-3 weeks and then the bar for that writer is much higher for them to be submitted. For instance, by Valentine's day, Andrew will be lucky if he can get one interview a week on the front page.
Simply put, Andrew is changing lives.