[purplelobster]

I have not yet created a sustainable business, but I know for sure that if I had tried without reading HN, articles and books every day for 2 years I would have had to learn those things "on the job", by creating failed start-ups.

In particular, what I think I have gained most from reading is developing my ability to search for good problems and solutions in the idea space, while in the past I was just adept at developing technical solutions without thinking enough about what else I could be doing. It took a while to change the mind set from "I want to build cool technology and hope it can make money somehow" to "I want to build something useful that people are willing to pay for, that is perhaps also interesting technology wise".