[blaenk]

> Slope is more important than Y-intercept.

That's nice :)

[nostrademons]

Not my invention. Usually credited to John Ousterhout, although it's been repeated by many:

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-profound-life-lesson...

[kps]

I first heard it in the late '80s, in the context of grad school admissions, but perhaps Ousterhout was the first to port it from math to computing.

[petewailes]

I agree with this wholeheartedly. The problem with it is that until you're most of the way towards being at the point where those things meet, it can feel pretty terrible, if you're not mentally good at dealing with being behind.

The trick is being able to support those with decent slope while they're still under those who had higher y-intercept so they continue.

[nostrademons]

For a real treat, try replacing a curve that is fundamentally linear (say, optimizing your salary as an employee) with one that is fundamentally exponential but with a much smaller constant factor (say, founding a startup). Not only will you be below the Y-intercept for a considerable period of time, but you will also have a slope that is indistinguishable from zero.

This is probably the biggest killer of startups: it doesn't feel like you're making any progress at all, until you have a sufficiently deep picture of your marketplace to know exactly where to hit it that your competitors aren't, and a sufficiently solid product that your customers realize this.