[conrey]

Hard to argue with this post. It really breaks out the "everyone can start a company" myth into something I've been trying to explain for a while.

The analogy I've been working with is comparing startups to the mid 2000s Poker boom - once the internet made it easier for anyone to play competitive poker, more and more people started doing it. Once one "regular guy" - Chris Moneymaker - won the WSOP and ESPN televised the hell out of it, poker rooms were flooded.

But who did you see still sitting back there taking in this new money? The same old guys who had been grinding out livings on the card table for years. The same guys you see regularly placing in the top 20 at WSOP events around the occasional flash in the pan newbies who get a hot streak.

[andrewhyde]

It is really odd to think of the skill development it takes to be in the top 20 of poker, or your niche league. Does this have anything to do with 10k hours of development time or being built as a 6'9" athlete (or the intellectual, or drive equivalent).

[candybar]

This isn't really true in poker - the online poker boom created tons of new poker celebrities and lots of online pros who are technically better and more profitable than old-school grinders.