Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Schlep Blindness


Paul Graham writes about a serious condition that can keep individuals and organizations from doing their best or surviving. An excerpt:

There are great startup ideas lying around unexploited right under our noses. One reason we don't see them is a phenomenon I callschlep blindness. Schlep was originally a Yiddish word but has passed into general use in the US. It means a tedious, unpleasant task.

No one likes schleps, but hackers especially dislike them. Most hackers who start startups wish they could do it by just writing some clever software, putting it on a server somewhere, and watching the money roll in—without ever having to talk to users, or negotiate with other companies, or deal with other people's broken code. Maybe that's possible, but I haven't seen it.

[HT: Tim Berry]

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