After few years of reading more than a few articles on startups and more than hundred books (audible + kindle only) it is hard not to think about it good part of the waking time and harder not to talk about it at all. But your friends do not quite understand what you are talking. Specially when your family and friends think that, you have a job that pays, a nice family (this is true) and a "hobby" of reading about startups but they are very annoyed when you sometimes (they view as almost always) skip the weekend funs for doing some boring stuff staring at the monitor. Some will say, some will be nice not to say, but still will think about almost certainly. Worse part is there is no way to argue any of these since you have nothing tangible in your hand other than few stories X lines of code or a working beta where users grow not in millions, not even in thousands but just a few every week.
Sounds like you have a great life. I would not take it for granted.<p>I think that you have to be careful about the start-up dream stories. They are like chocolate cake. Eating it makes you feel good, and you want to eat a lot of it, but it is not good for your long-term health or happiness. Time spent reading a start-up book or story is time you will never get back.<p>If you are serious about starting a start-up, you have to be working tirelessly on the product. This is what I have gathered from watching start-up school videos. It seems that people who are successful focus on building the product (and catering to their user base) for much of their waking hours.<p>I am being sort of a hypocrite though, because I peruse Hacker News almost daily! Haha, but I do spend a good amount of time trying to build a product, too. I feel less guilty about reading so much by taking action to try and counteract the lost time. At least, it works that way in my mind.
It's important to seek-out like minded people, especially those that have successfully a chartered a similar path. As for competing time demands with family/friends. We all have that. Eliminating time wasters like TV & web surfing can be huge.
Famous inventors like Tesla and Frederik Chopin had quite bizarre working habits[1] that became part of their mythos, so go ahead and embrace your obsession as much as possible - without harming your relationships and losing your humanity.<p>[1] <a href="http://cbpowerandindustrial.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/work-rituals-famous-inventors-artists/" rel="nofollow">http://cbpowerandindustrial.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/work-ri...</a>