To expand on this a little bit: I do think that sharing a vision and purpose and stuff is important, but that doing little things together and for each other can also make or break a long-term relationship. This applies to both marriages and founding startups. If your co-founder helps you take out the trash, you’ll be a little less pissed off at them for whatever important stuff you’re disagreeing about this week, which in turn will help resolve those disagreements more smoothly.
I think I agree with this bit, but the question at the time was “empirically, do the founders get together because they help each other take out the trash?”, which I think is a bit different from “does their relationship work better, once started, if they help each other with the trash?” (which is what the linked article seems to imply)
My thought (at the time I was chatting with Satvik) was “hmm, when I think of what sort of people end up having the opportunity to consider becoming founders, do I expect small acts of trust-building to be relevant?” and upon reflection… I dunno I don’t expect most potential founders to even really have the opportunity to take out the trash for each other before they get into business with each other. (Unless they were, like, roommates beforehand)
This might be why people start companies after being roommates with each other. The “group housing for rationalists” thing wasn’t chosen by accident back in ~2009.
Yes.
https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-magic-relationship-ratio-according-science/
To expand on this a little bit: I do think that sharing a vision and purpose and stuff is important, but that doing little things together and for each other can also make or break a long-term relationship. This applies to both marriages and founding startups. If your co-founder helps you take out the trash, you’ll be a little less pissed off at them for whatever important stuff you’re disagreeing about this week, which in turn will help resolve those disagreements more smoothly.
I think I agree with this bit, but the question at the time was “empirically, do the founders get together because they help each other take out the trash?”, which I think is a bit different from “does their relationship work better, once started, if they help each other with the trash?” (which is what the linked article seems to imply)
My thought (at the time I was chatting with Satvik) was “hmm, when I think of what sort of people end up having the opportunity to consider becoming founders, do I expect small acts of trust-building to be relevant?” and upon reflection… I dunno I don’t expect most potential founders to even really have the opportunity to take out the trash for each other before they get into business with each other. (Unless they were, like, roommates beforehand)
This might be why people start companies after being roommates with each other. The “group housing for rationalists” thing wasn’t chosen by accident back in ~2009.