Top all-time · #135
Jason Cohen
Personal blog · blog.asmartbear.comstartupsbusinesswriting
Jason Cohen writes @ASmartBear, a personal blog at blog.asmartbear.com about startups, business and writing. Since 2008, 292 different Hacker News readers have linked it 485 times, most often “Rich vs. King in the Real World: Why I sold my company”. The last post was in 2023, but the archive is still widely read.
Sometimes recommended · 7 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Jason Cohen's startup, marketing and money posts, especially the 'rich vs king' piece on selling a company and the unfair-advantages and pricing essays. Commenters treat them as practical reference reading for founders.
- Recommended for · 7 comments
- One commenter calls the 'rich vs king' post 'Love' and says it is about more than its topic. Others call a death-clock post 'a very good post', a founder self-d
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Rich vs. King in the Real World: Why I sold my company11 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2009-10-19
- Startup Competitive Advantages that Work7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2010-07-19
- What Can't be Solved with Money?7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2010-09-15
- Vetting a startup (or two): The systematic birth of WPEngine6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2010-12-20
- You’re a little company, now act like one6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2010-06-01
- Color wheels are wrong? How color vision actually works5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2011-01-31
- Alternative to the MVP: Simple, Lovable and Complete5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2017-08-22
- Startup Kung Fu5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2019-02-26
- Solving the "marketplace" business model5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2010-05-10
- Employed with a side of startup4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2010-03-08
What Hacker News says?
I kind of assumed .name was a product of relatively new TLD explosion [1] [1] https://blog.asmartbear.com/free-markets-bad/ Gotta wonder what other possible disasters introduced with gTLDs.
Comment linking /free-markets-bad/
on “.name Termination”Submitted The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company as a story · 360 points
HN discussionIt seems the article you're talking about is the opponent color process, which here's some great articles about it: https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color2.html https://blog.asmartbear.com/color-wheels.html I had some fun modeling the color space in 3d on codepen: https://codepen.io/torleifw/pen/jOwjPxp (or a more boring slider option here: https://codepen.io/torleifw/pen/OJgdyPJ ) One of latest papers I've read rec…
Comment linking /color-wheels.html
on “CSS Gradients that avoid the “gray dead zone””Submitted Things I’ve never heard a successful startup founder say as a story · 356 points
HN discussionI like this approach. A Smart Bear wrote about it on his blog once: http://blog.asmartbear.com/how-to-say-yes.html
Comment linking /how-to-say-yes.html
on “Talking About Money”Submitted Never say “no,” but rarely say “yes.” as a story · 295 points
HN discussionRelevant article that covers this: https://blog.asmartbear.com/two-big-things.html
Comment linking /two-big-things.html
on “Finishing my first game while working full-time”Submitted Why I feel like a fraud as a story · 266 points
HN discussion> No wonder you feel like hell, where is time for people, leisure, exercising and all the other activities that will help you move faster by feeling better? You can't do all of that and have a job and also make significant progress on a side project. There isn't enough time in the day. https://blog.asmartbear.com/two-big-things.html
Comment linking /two-big-things.html
on “Finishing my first game while working full-time”Submitted When you want to quit because it's just not worth it as a story · 262 points
HN discussionI've been meaning to test to see if I'm subject to nostalgia bias on this. Any suggestions for how to do so? FWIW, I have a VERY strong feeling that the content on HN has shifted since about five years ago, to the point that I've been trying to find a site that has more of the entrepreneurship / practical advice that I used to see on HN a lot. ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10190783 ) However, I don't have d…
Comment linking /consulting-company-accounting.html
on “The Macro”Submitted The unfortunate math behind consulting companies as a story · 259 points
HN discussionUpvoted..... I appreciate your perspective on things - it's refreshing. However, it's important to note that an either/or "our way or their way" mentality limits one's options. And there seems to be two worldviews (your terminology by the way ;)) - two cultural camps and people in various communities are basically being asked to choose. "Either you're with us or them!" Lifestyle business owners have a mental equatio…
Comment linking /rich-vs-king-sold-company.html
on “Entrepreneurshit”Submitted You're a little company, now act like one as a story · 240 points
HN discussionhttps://www.marksdailyapple.com/ - Ancestral health and lifestyle https://earlyretirementextreme.com/ - Financial independence. No longer adding new posts. https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/ - Travel "hacking" and the miles and points "game". https://jamesclear.com/newsletter - Habits and human potential. Email newsletter - not a blog, per se. https://blog.asmartbear.com/ - Startups and marketing https://recrai…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: What niche blogs are worthwhile to follow?”Submitted Color wheels are wrong? How color vision actually works as a story · 225 points
HN discussionNo, that's not the problem with Open Source games. Open Source developers are more than capable and willing to work on a game. The problem is: they can't agree on anything except most basic game concepts. That's why you get: - Freeciv - Wesnoth (Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics) - Nexuiz, Cube, Warsow, Open Arena, Alien Arena, and the other 68 quake 1 clones There are very few creative Open Source ga…
Comment linking /ignoring-the-wisdom-of-crowds.html
on “Portal Released For Steam On Linux”Submitted The unprofitable SaaS business model trap as a story · 223 points
HN discussionIt's fine; the source code to their product is not a competitive advantage ( http://blog.asmartbear.com/unfair-advantages.html )
Comment linking /unfair-advantages.html
on “I am doing a startup (putting virtual machines on the web)”Submitted Color wheels are wrong? How color vision actually works as a story · 214 points
HN discussionAny chance the original post you're talking about was http://codingvc.com/why-this-why-now-why-you/ or http://blog.asmartbear.com/five-whys.html ?
Comment linking /five-whys.html
on “How to Pitch Your Company”Submitted If you can't find 10 people who say they'll buy it... as a story · 212 points
HN discussionHi samh, I revisited my old blog post as part of this interview: http://blog.asmartbear.com/balsamiq-studios-uncommon-intervi... - I hope it will be helpful! :)
Comment linking /balsamiq-studios-uncommon-interview.html
on “Balsamiq Makes 1.6 Million with 70% Profit in 2009”Submitted Startup Competitive Advantages that Work as a story · 211 points
HN discussionAs you lower the price, more people can and will buy your product giving you (hypothetically) more profits than before. I’d like to think Apple has done all their homework about what price point to sell at to maximize profit but honestly at this point I think they just make up whatever huge number they want for the Mac Pro price to make it seem cool and go with it. https://blog.asmartbear.com/price-vs-quantity.html
Comment linking /price-vs-quantity.html
on “AMD’s 64-Core Threadripper 3990X, only $3990 Coming February 7th”Submitted A vote for me is a vote for dipshit businesses everywhere as a story · 200 points
HN discussionI'm still amazed no one mentioned an amazing post about the same subject by Jason Cohen from Smart Bear: "Why I feel like a fraud" http://blog.asmartbear.com/self-doubt-fraud.html
Comment linking /self-doubt-fraud.html
on “I'm a phony. Are you?”Submitted Why I Feel Like a Fraud as a story · 197 points
HN discussionI don't think you'll win support with such passive-aggressiveness. ;) Imitation is part of business. If you create something that's valuable and profitable, it's only a matter of time before someone copies you. Here's a good and relevant read for you: http://blog.asmartbear.com/unfair-advantages.html > "... The real question is: What are you going to do when another smart, scrappy startup copies it, and gets $10m in…
Comment linking /unfair-advantages.html
on “Show HN: InstaMotor – Taking the pain out of selling your car”Submitted Rich vs. King in the Real World: Why I sold my company as a story · 195 points
HN discussion
