Many successful bootstrapped businesses start with an audience, a specific niche. They find their customers’ critical problems and provide valuable solutions that people gladly pay for. Their product is centered around continuously providing value to new and existing customers. Audience, problem, solution, and product can be looked at individually.
Successful businesses are built by addressing critical problems for an audience willing to pay for solutions to their issues. The Preparation Stage is when you make these foundational choices. Once in motion, a business has certain inertia that makes these decisions difficult to alter. While pivoting your business into new markets can be the right move at times, it requires additional effort. This is why it’s wise to invest significant time upfront to get things right initially. ...
A business would be nothing without customers. You can have the best product in the world, but you won’t be able to build any meaningful business if there is no one to pay for what you offer. Who am I helping? You will discover how to find the perfect niche and make sure it can support your business in Step One: Your Audience. Why do they need help? Learn how to find and validate their critical problem in Step Two: Their Problem. How can I help them with that? Find a good solution and make sure it fits into your prospective customers’ workflow in Step Three: Your Solution. What can I create to help them that way? You’ll learn how to create an easy-to-maintain and reliable product in Step Four: Your Product. ...
where do you find those paying customers? The first step to building a business is answering that question, and for bootstrapped founders, there is one critical component: finding the perfect niche.
His mind was more or less pure, with no knowledge of those “unspoken words” and never “contaminated” by real social life. The world as seen through a child’s eyes is unreal; it is an imaginary world that has been instilled into their minds. When they grow up and encounter society in the future, they will discover that what they thought was true when they were children is absurd and ridiculous in reality. +++ ...
智力越高的人，越愿意去思考那些惊世骇俗的思想观点。这不仅仅因为聪明人本身很积极地寻找传统观念的漏洞，还因为传统观念对他们的束缚力很小，很容易摆脱。从他们的衣着上你就可以看出这一点：不受传统观念束缚的人，往往也不会穿流行的衣服。 ...
在思想和言论之间划一条明确的界线。在心里无所不想，但是不一定要说出来。我就鼓励自己在心里默默思考那些最无法无天的想法。你的思想是一个地下组织，绝不要把那里发生的事情一股脑说给外人听。“格斗俱乐部”的第一条规则，就是不要提到格斗俱乐部 ...
你不要让自己成为人群的一分子，而要尽可能地远离人群，观察正在发生的事情，特别注意那些被压制的思想和观点 如果一个命题不是错的，却被加上各种标签，进行压制和批判，那就有问题。因为只要不是错的观点，就不应该被压制讨论。所以每当你看到有些话被攻击为出自 XX 分子或 XX 主义，这就是一个明确的信号，表明背后有问题。不管在 1630 年还是在 2030 年，都是如此。当你听到有人在用这样的标签，就要问为什么。 ...
Hearing that the richest 5% of people own more than half of society’s wealth often leads to the conclusion that this is unfair. An experienced programmer might also find this unfair because the top 5% of programmers write 99% of the world’s excellent software. +++
You do what people need or want, and then you get paid for it. Some people earn more because they do it better. Superstars make much more money than regular actors, even though the latter may have the same talent as the former. When people choose which movies to watch in the cinema, they tend to be attracted by superstars. Of course, making things that people need is not the only way to make money. Robbing banks, extorting bribes, and monopolizing markets can also bring in money, and these methods are often used by some wealthy individuals. However, these means do not represent all wealth, nor are they the main cause of income inequality. The difference in skills among individuals leads to differences in income, which is the primary reason for income inequality, just like Occam’s Razor principle in logic states: the simplest explanation is the best one. +++ ...
李自成到底是流贼头目呢，还是仁义之师的领袖呢？这个问题不好答。事实上，李自成一直是暴力集团的好领导。作为暴力集团头子，李自成始终在追求血酬的最大化。流贼烧杀抢掠，追求一次性血酬的最大化；进城后秋毫无犯，追求打天下坐江山的长期法酬的最大化。 ...
抢劫行为存在的前提，是有可抢的东西；绑架人质勒索赎金的前提，是人质有支付赎金的财力。如血酬定律所说，人质的命价，是由当事人支付赎金的意愿和能力决定的。在风险和成本相同的条件下，人质越有钱，抢劫对象越富裕，绑票和抢劫的收益越高。反过来说，抢劫绑票的对象越穷，抢劫的收益越低。低到得不偿失的程度，土匪就没法干了。 ...
晚清军阀防区经常易手，实施杀鸡取蛋的政策，恶果未必由自己承担，眼下还可以壮大力量。实施养鸡生蛋的政策，将来未必吃得上蛋，鸡也可能让人家抢去吃了，眼下的营养不良又可能迅速导致溃败。在这种格局中，竭泽而渔 —— 标准的流寇行径 —— 便是最有利的选择。 ...
要是能坐上时间机器回到过去，不管哪一个年代，有一件事都是不会改变的，那就是“祸从口出”。你一定要小心自己说的话。 自以为无害的言论会给你惹来大麻烦。 ...
也许事情并没有这么巧合，你的观点就是从别人那里听来的，别人告诉你什么，你就相信了什么，你把别人灌输的观点当作了自己的观点。 有时候，别人会对你说：“要根据社会需要，改造自己的思想 (well-adjusted) 。”这种说法隐含的意思似乎是，如果你不认同社会，那么肯定是你自己的问题。你同意这种说法吗？事实上，它不仅不对，而且会让历史倒退。如果你真的相信了它，凡是不认同社会之处，你连想都不敢想，马上就放弃自己的观点，那才会真正出问题。 ...
首先，我们可以看看，周围的人因为说了什么而陷入麻烦。 只有同时满足两个条件才行。 第一个条件是，这些话不能说出口； 第二个条件是，它们是正确的，或者看起来很可能正确，值得进一步讨论。如果达不到第二个条件，大部分情况下你都不会有麻烦。 ...
一个现代的 APP 是如何诞生的？ 从创意到产品上线运营所的所有步骤与工作岗位和他们需要用到的工具： 创意 产品经理：负责制定产品的目标、功能和用户体验。 设计师：负责设计产品的界面和交互。 开发人员：负责开发产品的代码。 开发 开发人员：负责开发产品的代码。 测试人员：负责测试产品的功能和性能。 质量保证工程师：负责确保产品达到质量标准。 上线 产品经理：负责制定产品上线的策略。 运营人员：负责产品上线后的运营工作，包括推广、营销、客服等。 运营 运营人员：负责产品上线后的运营工作，包括推广、营销、客服等。 数据分析师：负责分析产品的用户数据，并根据数据做出改进。 以下是一些常用的工具： ...
明朝中后期，由于社会经济的发展和人口的增长，农民对土地的需求增加，而土地的分配不均和赋税的重压使得许多农民无法维持生计，因此他们开始寻求寄籍、游寓、下海经商等方式改善生活 12。 明朝中后期，由于官吏的腐败和监管的松懈，黄册和路引的管理出现了混乱和漏洞，许多冒籍、假籍、私造路引等现象屡见不鲜，使得户籍制度失去了约束力 12。 明朝中后期，由于天灾、战乱、瘟疫等原因，许多地方出现了人口锐减、户籍缺失、土地荒芜等情况，使得黄册和路引的数据与实际情况严重不符，无法反映真实的人口动态 1。 ...
从王朝的中期走向末年，常常伴随着一系列标志性的变化，以下是一些常见的变化： 政治动荡和权力斗争：随着时间推移，王朝朝政往往会出现动荡和权力斗争。政治腐败、官员任命的不公平和争权夺利的现象可能日益加剧，导致内部的政治不稳定和混乱。 ...
朝代末年伴随经济衰退和财政困难的原因可以有多个因素： 统治者的失职和政治腐败：朝代末年，统治者的失职和政治腐败问题往往加剧。官员的贪污腐化、贿赂受贿以及任命不当等现象导致政府的效能下降，无法有效管理国家财政和经济。这样的腐败行为削弱了财政收入，导致财政困难。 ...