My friend is discussing starting a startup with a few other co-founders. He doesn't read HN, TC, or any of the other standard reading we all know and love.<p>How best can I help him learn the breadth of what he doesn't know?
As much as I love HN, do you really think it's <i>necessary</i> for an entrepreneur to be part of this site, in order to be successful? Actually, considering what a time sink this can be, the best advice you can give him might be "don't join HN, whatever you do." :-)<p>I get that one shouldn't operate in a bubble, and I assume that's what you're getting at here... but does he do anything to gain exposure to outside ideas and thoughts on the tech startup scene? If so, maybe what he's doing is enough?<p>Has he read any books, or anything, related to this subject? If not, there's a fairly recent thread on "Good books for startups" maybe hand him a copy of one or two of the titles off one of those lists?
1. Hear his pitch and reasoning for what he does, then objectively break any fallacy he may have that doesn't fit the norm of solid advice (which is subjective since even weird things can happen in wonderful ways). Link him to proof by people who have been successful and why his thinking might be wrong.<p>2. Tell him to get more involved with the startup community and in some sense, read up on things he doesn't understand. Few other cofounders sound like a bit more than necessary but since I don't know the background on this, I won't comment.<p>3. If he won't listen and continues doing what he wants to do, let him. He has to learn on his own. The biggest thing about any entrepreneur (the successful ones) is they must be teachable, adaptable, and constantly changing. If he is fixated in his ways, nothing you do will help.
Get him to at least read a few of PG's articles on startups.<p><a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html</a><p><a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html</a><p><a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html</a><p><a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html</a>
Read HN, or more appropriately just read about what your doing / getting into. But most importantly do. Failure and Success are a result of continuing to try.