[mquander]

This seems like total nonsense to me. Compare:

"If you do everything the way the average runner does it, you should expect average performance. The problem here is, average performance means that you won't win a race... So if you want to win a race, you'd better be doing something odd. If not, you're in trouble."

Obviously the typical way runners win races isn't by doing something "odd", it's by combining natural talent, normal advice about training, and a ton of effort, more effectively than the other runners. Why would that be less true about successful startups?

[sdenton4]

We understand how to run faster, through a combination of hard work and favorable morphology. We're don't understand what will make a startup successful. But we do know that easy and obvious ways to make money are already being done by someone else. If you want to do something new, you have to do something different.

But I also appreciate the viewpoint that you need to be strategic about what you do differently. Buying solutions to problems you aren't actually trying to solve is very reasonable.