Why the Smartest People I Know Have Built Nothing

The hidden cost of being too smart to start.

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The algorithm rewards certainty.

“Persistence equals success.” Gets 10,000 likes.

“Persistence, when applied intelligently to the right problems while remaining flexible about tactics and learning from market feedback, increases the probability of success.” Gets ignored.

So everyone compresses sophisticated truth into simple slogans. Not because they’re dishonest. Because that’s how you get heard in a world with infinite noise and zero attention.

Then something predictable happens.

Someone in the comments attacks the simplicity. “That’s not true. Persistence doesn’t guarantee success. You’re oversimplifying. What about luck? What about market timing? What about all the people who persisted and failed?”

They’re right. Obviously right. Success is multivariate. Luck matters. Survivorship bias is real.

But here’s what I’ve noticed after interviewing hundreds of successful founders and watching thousands more fail: the people screaming about oversimplification are usually the ones who’ve built nothing.

They position themselves as sophisticated skeptics. The ones who see through the motivational bullshit. The ones who understand that nothing is simple and anyone offering clear principles must be selling snake oil.

And they use that sophistication to avoid ever trying.