Comment by saulpw
2 months ago
That's right, you're not producing paperclips unless one minute you have metal wire and the next minute you have a paperclip.
2 months ago
That's right, you're not producing paperclips unless one minute you have metal wire and the next minute you have a paperclip.
The ways in which you can do things around, but never actually producing a single paperclip are infinite.
That's true, but the number of paperclips you'll produce if you only devote effort to things that directly produce paperclips is also very low.
It can be really difficult to strike that productive balance.
Somebody once said in light of this dilemma: Do things that don't scale.
This never meant: "It's fantastic if things don't scale". It means: "Trying to start by doing things that scale is probably bad". I mostly believe that.
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There's "producing paperclips" and then there's "increasing paperclip production". Then there's "making money in the paperclip business".