#1. There is also doing things other people won't. Entrepreneurs tend to be willing to do anything. They're willing to survive discomfort, risk, and long hours, and complete unfamiliar tasks even if it means googling it from scratch. Leading is something people often won't do also, even though anyone can do it. Practice begins with doing, and so whether it's a deadline or a dream, if you have something pushing you to do things (and nothing is beneath you) you've just become capable of accomplishing what other's can't.
#2. This:
> what you get are communities that collectively have and share the best ways of doing things. So the way to get good at something is to simply find the right community and join it.
Take HN. If you can keep up with the conversations on here, you're pretty much guaranteed to be at the bleeding edge of IT. And the further away from SV the better probably... As HN literacy decreases per capita, you'll be further ahead of the local curve.
The only minimum is English, an internet connection, and a burning desire to build/code.
> The problem is the finding: every community wants to seem like them.
My heart goes out to those still stranded on /. (or rather, what has become of it). Why HN? The sparsity of the comments was misleading at first (though I was quickly enlightened as to why), but I am still pleasantly surprised every single day at the rate of which the original authors comment here. Sure, maybe they see their logs and hop on for the first time, but when we're not talking about other people, we are the people, and I find that to be a breath of fresh air. Plus, no ads. HN, I salute you.
But it's true. And if you can understand reactions such as yours, you are really at the bleeding edge... It's not about right or wrong, but rather, knowing what is up. It's about knowing why people say the things they say. With an open mind, comments such as this can be just as enlightening.
Back in the day, I remember seeing the Japanese ./ site and being disappointed by the quality of submissions and comments compared to the English site. Now I look at HN and feel the same about /. And if anything comes along that makes me feel that way about HN, that is where I'll be... But until then!
It really isn't. I've wandered onto random IRC channels and found myself bathed in realms of technical knowledge that simply don't come up here, and made more genuine connections.
No one community is at the center of things. Ever. It's not how the world works. The best you can get, as leading edges go, is little glimpses of a new idea in a limited space, before it's had any chance to diffuse. Media aggregators come much, much later in the lifecycle. For a certain slice of tech, HN may be professionally necessary - but otherwise it's not that advantageous.
Not center of course. Just one edge is probably more accurate.
But I don't think you realize just how hard it is for a normal person to randomly hop on an IRC channel and be bathed and be able to keep up with it and make friends. If HN feels redundant then consider that serious validation of your competence and the league you are in. I tip my hat.
Well, except for the constant posts about YC classes & post postings for YC companies. Getting first crack at pretty much any startup and getting employees for those startups is worth way more than any ads that would ever be posted here.
#2. This:
> what you get are communities that collectively have and share the best ways of doing things. So the way to get good at something is to simply find the right community and join it.
Take HN. If you can keep up with the conversations on here, you're pretty much guaranteed to be at the bleeding edge of IT. And the further away from SV the better probably... As HN literacy decreases per capita, you'll be further ahead of the local curve.
The only minimum is English, an internet connection, and a burning desire to build/code.
> The problem is the finding: every community wants to seem like them.
My heart goes out to those still stranded on /. (or rather, what has become of it). Why HN? The sparsity of the comments was misleading at first (though I was quickly enlightened as to why), but I am still pleasantly surprised every single day at the rate of which the original authors comment here. Sure, maybe they see their logs and hop on for the first time, but when we're not talking about other people, we are the people, and I find that to be a breath of fresh air. Plus, no ads. HN, I salute you.