{"id":2828,"date":"2008-03-24T12:27:04","date_gmt":"2008-03-24T19:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2828"},"modified":"2008-03-25T08:03:50","modified_gmt":"2008-03-25T15:03:50","slug":"the-odysseus-medal-lions-in-the-wild-seem-about-ten-times-more-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2828\/the-odysseus-medal-lions-in-the-wild-seem-about-ten-times-more-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"The Odysseus Medal: “Lions in the wild seem about ten times more alive”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Odysseus Medal this week goes to another truly amazing essay from outside our little RE.net cloister. I knew when I saw this on Saturday that it had won. Teri Lussier convinced me on Sunday that I have a leadership opportunity with the ten dozen people following me on Twitter — so I led them to this article. What is it? You weren’t meant to have a boss<\/a> by Paul Graham. Ostensibly he’s writing about programmers, but that’s a superficial characteristic. What he’s writing about is the nature of human beings. What he’s writing about it you:<\/p>\n

A few days ago I was sitting in a cafe in Palo Alto and a group of programmers came in on some kind of scavenger hunt. It was obviously one of those corporate “team-building” exercises.<\/p>\n

They looked familiar. I spend nearly all my time working with programmers in their twenties and early thirties. But something seemed wrong about these. There was something missing.<\/p>\n

And yet the company they worked for is considered a good one, and from what I overheard of their conversation, they seemed smart enough. In fact, they seemed to be from one of the more prestigious groups within the company.<\/p>\n

So why did it seem there was something odd about them?<\/p>\n

I have a uniquely warped perspective, because nearly all the programmers I know are startup founders. We’ve now funded 80 startups with a total of about 200 founders, nearly all of them programmers. I spend a lot of time with them, and not much with other programmers. So my mental image of a young programmer is a startup founder.<\/p>\n

The guys on the scavenger hunt looked like the programmers I was used to, but they were employees instead of founders. And it was startling how different they seemed.<\/p>\n

So what, you may say. So I happen to know a subset of programmers who are especially ambitious. Of course less ambitious people will seem different. But the difference between the programmers I saw in the cafe and the ones I was used to wasn’t just a difference of degree. Something seemed wrong.<\/p>\n

I think it’s not so much that Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Odysseus Medal this week goes to another truly amazing essay from outside our little RE.net cloister. I knew when I saw this on Saturday that it had won. Teri Lussier convinced me on Sunday that I have a leadership opportunity with the ten dozen people following me on Twitter — so I led them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3,6,5,23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blog-carnivals","7":"category-blogging","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-the-odysseus-medal","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1756,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1756\/vale-carne-vale-recasting-the-odysseus-medal-as-a-carnival-of-real-estate-weblogging-excellence\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":0},"title":"Vale, carne vale: Recasting The Odysseus Medal as a carnival of real estate weblogging excellence","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm pretty fed up with the Carnival of Real Estate. It is what it is, and there have been times over the past year when it has blown tender kisses toward the sublime. But much too often it has chosen to rut around in the mud, and, in any case,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2558,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2558\/a-new-way-to-howl-announcing-the-long-list-of-odysseus-medal-nominees-the-weblog\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":1},"title":"A new way to howl: Announcing “The Long List of Odysseus Medal Nominees” — the weblog","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Apart from the normal crush of business, I've been hammering away for the past few weeks on a huge project -- which I'll be announcing shortly. In the mean time, I've wanted to make a further elaboration on the Long List lister I made a few weeks ago. That tool\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1984,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1984\/get-your-odysseus-medal-nominations-in-now-for-change-is-nigh\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":2},"title":"Get your Odysseus Medal nominations in now for change is nigh","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Jay Thompson fingered this comment from someone named Brandon writing at TechCrunch:If \u201cthe good guys\u201d succeed in \u201cfixing the most screwed up industry in America\u201d, their business model will collapse. Redfin\u2019s success depends SOLELY on the real estate industry STAYING the most screwed up industry in America. Without a co-broker\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1808,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1808\/the-odysseus-medal-some-rule-changes-and-a-clickable-button\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":3},"title":"The Odysseus Medal: Some rule changes, and a clickable button","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I was beyond delighted at the way things worked out in the first Odysseus Medal competition. Even so, I want to make few changes in the rules. Ordinary weblogging carnivals are all about link-baiting. The idea is for you to get your weblog linked by the host weblog, and for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2210,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2210\/the-odysseus-medal-competition-voting-for-the-peoples-choice-award-is-open-6\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":4},"title":"The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Fifteen nominees this week, although ten are from BloodhoundBlog contributors, writing either at BHB or at their home weblogs. I don't know what to do about this. I don't think I'm being biased. The one thing I could suggest is that y'all nominate more posts from a broader range of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1910,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1910\/the-odysseus-medal-superior-taste-no-overdone-sugar-coatingwhich-only-masks-the-real-productand-no-nuts\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":5},"title":"The Odysseus Medal: “Superior taste, no overdone sugar coating which only masks the real product, and no nuts”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It is my honor and privilege to work with some of the best writers in the RE.net. There are other folks I deeply admire but whom it would be unseemly for one reason or another to recruit. But the people who write for BloodhoundBlog are first among the first rank,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}