[overgryphon]

It's hard to give others advice that will help them. You know what you wish you knew 5 years ago, but much of that may be inapplicable to others in a similar position now.

Take the list posted here. It could be terrible advice to a different start-up founder with similar goals if that person already knows how to code, and is working on a product that is more complicated than a 2 week prototype can cover.

[mgkimsal]

agreed, the 'learn to code' is bad advice for someone who knows how to code. almost self-explanatory, really. but other 'advice' - guidelines, really - that I've doled out has centered around networking and marketing. And I get ignored, in favor of people burying themselves in code and minutia (logo sizings, colors, etc).

But if when FamousPersonX suggests that "you should be networking more, getting feedback, and iterating on smaller offerings of functionality while expanding your network of interested customers", somehow that's revelation from on high, and how insightful that is, and wow... no wonder they're a huge success, etc.

Doesn't even actually mean the people in question follow the advice (generally they don't) but the reaction is annoying.