Top all-time · #2684
Ben Casnocha
Personal blog · casnocha.comstartupsbusinesscareer
Ben Casnocha's personal blog at casnocha.com covers startups, business and career. Since 2012, 28 different Hacker News readers have linked it 36 times, most often “10,000 Hours with Reid Hoffman: What I Learned”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-08-23, and you can follow it by feed.
A blog about entrepreneurship, books, current affairs, and intellectual life.
Most-linked posts?
- 10,000 Hours with Reid Hoffman: What I Learned4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2015-01-22
- 10k Hours with Reid Hoffman: What I Learned3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-08-21
- Happy Ambition2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-05-30
- /2009/03/scalable-vs-non-scalable-careers.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-03-11
What Hacker News says?
> But if you even need to write that long-ass prompt, might as well just write the story yourself! Nah, that's just restating the infamous 'how to draw an owl' advice: https://casnocha.com/2010/11/how-to-draw-an-owl.html#comment... The thing is, that "long-ass prompt" is step 1, and LLM then draws "the rest of the fucking owl" for you. That's quite a big difference to doing it all yourself.
Comment linking /2010/11/how-to-draw-an-owl.html
on “An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip”- zt · 2015-01-31
Submitted 10,000 Hours with Reid Hoffman: What I Learned as a story · 153 points
HN discussion Programming is a non-scalable career (in the Talebian sense[1]), like being a lawyer or doctor. The relationship in earnings vs success is much closer to linear, with the most successful programmers getting only about 10x (100x if we're really generous, but probably more like 2-4x on average) more than the least. In contrast pro sports are a scalable career, where incomes can scale separately from effort, similar to…
Comment linking /2009/03/scalable-vs-non-scalable-careers.html
on “The loneliness of the low-ranking tennis player”Submitted 10,000 Hours with Reid Hoffman: Lessons on Life and Business as a story · 14 points
HN discussionI was feeling similarly for a long time except on one point: I think you are really wrong about taking a different path being futile. Your reason for not starting something new because you won't compare to people who have been doing it for years is not a good reason. There are tons of people who have been doing their job for years and are just plain not good at their job at all. Aim for their jobs for now. If you pi…
Comment linking /2010/11/the-30-steps-to-mastery.html
on “Ask HN: How do you stop regretting?”Submitted Confidence Placebos as a story · 4 points
HN discussionsetup in a 'winner takes all' kind of way Photography is what is known as a scalable profession. A quick search turned up this good explanation: http://casnocha.com/2009/03/scalable-vs-non-scalable-careers... It's something I've been thinking about as I try to guide my children into selecting a college and major.
Comment linking /2009/03/scalable-vs-non-scalable-careers.html
on “The Helsinki Bus Station Theory of Careers”Submitted Impressions from a Longer Stay in Tokyo (2023) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThis is the distinction between scalable and non-scalable. I first read of it in one of Nassim Taleb's books (where he advises people to pick a non-scalable career, since the outcomes are more certain and the risks lower) but I'm sure it's been written about many other times. Ben Casnocha talks about it a bit [0]. Startups aim to be scalable. But you should note that you don't have to start out scalable. Doing so mi…
Comment linking /2009/03/scalable-vs-non-scalable-careers.html
on “Working While You're Asleep”Submitted Why Do So Many VCs Say They’re Introverted? (2019) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionArguably it has been for a while: https://casnocha.com/review-cowens-infovore
Comment linking /review-cowens-infovore
on “The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)”Submitted Reid Hoffman: Sixteen lessons as a story · 3 points
HN discussionA post by one of TechStars mentors: http://casnocha.com/2009/06/understanding-what-keeps-a-perso...
Comment linking /2009/06/understanding-what-keeps-a-person-up-at-night.html
on “Ask HN: What keeps you up at night?”Submitted The Goldilocks Theory of Being Rich as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted You Learn From People Who Mostly Agree With You as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Intentionally Vague, Mystique-Infused Explanations of Talent as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted 10k Hours with Reid Hoffman: What I Learned as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted “Mindfulness of Consciousness” Meditation Retreat as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted 10,000 Hours with Reid Hoffman: What I Learned as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Happy Ambition as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Pros and Cons of Being an Insider vs. Outsider as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted 10,000 hours with Reid Hoffman: What I learned as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted When talent can easily find opportunity, how do you retain talent? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Network at an Unstructured Happy Hour as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted 10k Hours with Reid Hoffman: What I Learned as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted 10k Hours with Reid Hoffman: What I Learned as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Most VC Firms Are Fragile Partnerships, Not Institutions as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Happy Ambition as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Network Literacy in the Networked Age as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Book Review: Sum by David Eagleman as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
