Vaniver comments on Who Wants To Start An Important Startup? - LessWrong

41 Post author: ShannonFriedman 16 August 2012 08:02PM

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Comment author: Vaniver 15 August 2012 06:30:37PM 5 points [-]

As the saying goes, intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 21 August 2012 01:17:20PM *  12 points [-]

If you solve an urgent problem, you are a hero; if you anticipate a problem before it becomes urgent, you are a troublemaker.

Comment author: DaFranker 21 August 2012 01:43:10PM *  6 points [-]

Dark Arts For Career Growth variant:

Mention all problems anticipated with p>.5. Do nothing more than simply mentioning them, if questioned claimed you don't know what could be done about them. Once problems happen, reveal that you knew it all along, and that now, having seen it happen, a flash of genius tells you how to resolve it immediately and prevent it from happening again.

I've seen this pattern in use. The Darth deliberately waits for the problem to happen, ready to be the first to jump on it (and its low-cost solution). Sometimes, they even subtly try to nudge things towards the problem happening. Even if there are lives at stake.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 21 August 2012 03:46:40PM 1 point [-]

If you can anticipate problems your company can't, in addition to career growth you can also make extra money: create a new company that will fix this kind of problem and when the time comes, recommend it as a solution. Repeat if necessary.

(This may be technically illegal, but the fixing company may technically belong to someone else than you.)

Comment author: Epiphany 15 August 2012 08:06:07PM *  1 point [-]

I just realized, this might actually have been intended as being in support to me, not a continuation of shminux's line of thought. I don't know why I interpreted it that way in hindsight. Maybe it was that I had a 6 hour night of sleep the night before. Sorry if I misinterpreted.