David Heinemeier Hansson-Unlearn Your MBA (Entire talk)
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as the classic counterpoint to Silicon Valley growth-at-all-costs startup thinking.
What it is
David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37signals, argues that planning is guessing and startups should focus on today. He says constraints are an advantage and that startups can bootstrap profitably in sizable markets.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2017 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec sarabande · 2017-09 · on “YC’s Essential Startup Advice”
I would check out the writings of 37Signals (now Basecamp)/RoR founder David Heinemeier Hansson, who advocates bootstrapping for not-necessarily small markets. His talk "How to unlearn your MBA" in particular was fantastic in providing a counterpoint to Silicon-valley style Startups: [this video] . He directly comments on the YCombinator model at 53'57" ( [this video] ), but the whole thing is worth watching.
Strong rec AgloeDreams · 2020-09 · on “Do things that don't require scale”
Reminds me of this very controversial but incredible talk by @DHH of Basecamp/Hey: [this video] Things that don't require scale require a VERY different line of business thinking, generally centered around profits vs growth.
Cites redthrow · 2022-03 · on “Managers with MBAs are the best at taking money from workers and not much else [pdf]”
DHH (who also happens to be from Denmark) gave the classic "Unlearn Your MBA" talk in 2010: [this video]