Maciej Ceglowski - Barely succeed! It's easier!
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN regards it as an inspiring, funny case for modest, bootstrapped success over venture-funded risk.
What it is
Maciej Ceglowski's talk at Web Directions argues that small teams and lone programmers can build sustainable businesses without chasing Silicon Valley's grow-or-die model. He offers alternative, more achievable definitions of success.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2015 to 2020.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec jimbokun · 2020-09 · on “Small Tech”
That’s a shame, because the article led me to listen to this talk: [this video] Which I thought was amazing and inspiring.
Recommends kbenson · 2015-09 · on “What Happens Next Will Amaze You”
I agree. In general, I found this presentation to ramble far more and make weird connections than some of his other ones, which I remember liking. Presentations and talks such as Web Design: The first 100 years [1] (even if it was a while back and I don't remember it all that clearly), and Barely succeed! It's easier! [2] (which I saw within the last couple of days) are quite good (if memory serves). 1: [LINK] 2: [this video]
Recommends totemandtoken · 2020-11 · on “How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People”
Reminds me a lot of this talk from the Pinboard guy: [this video] Or this talk from the Bandcamp guy about financial sustainability: [LINK]
Cites idlewords · 2016-04 · on “Apply HN: Pinboard – Make Y Combinator Great Again”
I gave a talk called "Barely Succeed - it's easier!" where I tried to make the case. There's a video version here [ [this video] ], unfortunately I haven't transcribed it yet.
Critical xyience · 2016-06 · on “The Moral Economy of Tech”
There's a point in this talk [this video] where I realized he is a brilliant comedian, but also pretty far left, and a lot of his funny criticisms just boil down to criticizing for not being as far left as he is or wants you to be. So I don't think his mind is being poisoned -- it's already poisoned, from the point of view of someone not as far left. ;) I think a lot of tech people lean libertarian, which is a strange double-think ground of left and right views, because the role of a technologist has inherently anti-left and anti-right components. Technology is upstream of culture, upstream of society, to work on it implies defying authority whether in the form of a single sovereign or public opi