Engineer vs entrepreneur mindset

When I launched meetups on Indie Hackers in 2019, I had a whole plan in my head for how I needed to build basically a fully-featured clone of Meetups.com into Indie Hackers itself, with events, email invitations, scheduling, search, etc.

I spoke to @PatrickC about it and he suggested (paraphrasing), "Why don't you just skip all that and create a post on the forum that asks people to host meetups?" So I set up a Google Form, created a post that linked to it, and got ~200 meetup hosts in a a few days, no coding required.

I still remind myself of this whenever I slip into thinking something will take a while. "How could I do this near-instantly?" That, to me, is the entrepreneur mindset.

The sharp distinction makes little sense for an indie hacker as he has to be both.

The deep work sessions are central to the engineer mindset. That's why meetings and calls can be so disruptive. Throughout the years I've learned: If I focus for 3-4 hours every morning, uninterrupted, I can pretty much get the bulk of my day's work done. The rest of the time, and especially afternoons are spent on calls, meetings, any research or planning I need to do, potentially attending events or setting some time for learning...but at least all of the "maker" tasks I need to get done are out of the way first thing.

While the thesis is so trite as to invite counter-points (especially the notion that engineers overestimate; I find we chronically underestimate), I think the interesting thing is the distinction is worth keeping in mind as a check on one's own tendencies. Oftentimes I'm so code-focused as if I'm still in my regular career, whereas building a business and product involve owning every part of the user journey from discovery to acquisition to first-time experience to ongoing support. I had to get my head out of the mindset of "just build the product" because there's a whole bunch of stuff around the product that needs to happen, which I took for granted because a company full of other people were doing those things.

Thanks for sharing! Although there are grey areas to this, being both an engineer and entrepreneur myself I could see myself ticking boxes in both categories.
I guess the trick is to realize "when you're what" and if it's helpful or not ---> Mindfully making the switch

So true. And so important for indie hackers, since we often wear both hats.

I really struggle with balancing the two. In the beginning of a project, I focus on doing it right. But once I get it right, I just keep doing it the same way and I focus on getting it done. It's effective, but it doesn't leave room for innovation.

My advice: Find a partner who skews to the opposite side. It'll be frustrating as hell, but you'll be a more effective team if you accept (and leverage) your difference.

It’s taken me (an engineer) a long time to realize how crucial networking is. It isn’t talked about enough because it’s a clearly non-meritocratic part of entrepreneurship.

Talking to your users / building an audience are kinda just forms of networking that don’t have the negative stigma 😂

While some truths, I think the term engineer is now overly used (as the bar has significantly lowered to become engineer). I’d say there are engineering and then there’s engineering as an art. Not everyone is an artist

There's a lot of wisdom in this article, rings true in my experience! Interesting how the line between engineer / entrepreneur starts to blur once you've done this for a bit.

It's like reading a Pisces horoscope - contradictions everywhere. It's so true, for any engineer who decides to start their own business, there's always going to be an element of rebalancing priorities and working to catch yourself either jump the gun or dwell on the minutia.

I think that those are complementary mindsets, not opposed.
The goal is always to build faster with less resources spent, but with no less of a quality of the end product. In order to achieve that one needs always to think about both sides of the process - thinking clearer, building smarter.

I think the two groups, engineer and entrepreneur, also share a definite trait especially when we look at those top-level samples in each group: They both weight on time a lot and are long-term thinkers. A steep learn-curve is never a concern for them as long as the vehicle can carry them to the destination within a certain time window.

Efficient entrepreneurs stay away from these attention robbers [...]

It is a kind of irony, that the article states that entrepreneurs should 'stay away from attention robbers', and is posted on a platform on which 75% of the users who post are looking for attention.

which field is best for the app developer?
I have a site on WordPress and how could I learn HTML to enhance the beauty of my site, name apkwhats.com

Thx for sharing! Made some things more clear for me

Interesting article.

I just got turned onto IH from an engineering buddy and I'm approaching your article from the standpoint of an entrepreneur who doesn't code. In the first year, I had to learn how to ask questions to find the right frameworks and then utilize them.

Thank you for sharing your perspective!

This is definitely me. I was a software engineer for 8 years before I became and entrepreneur and I'm still holding onto traits that make my journey hard.

Like not trusting my instincts, wanting to have all the options before I make a decision, needing to learn all the things and checking and rechecking 100x till I feel what I'm working on is perfect.

But slowly I'm starting to take more action and do what feels good even if I don't have all the answers.

To the entrepreneur/engineers in here, how do you bring out more of your entrepreneurial self?

The entrepreneurs I know make staying up-to-date with news/social media an actual part of their job. Knowing what's happening in the world (or your corner of the world) means knowing what's happening with your customers too. And that's important. So, that paragraph on"selective ignorance" and the idea that entrepreneurs avoid the news makes no sense to me.

About 60% of a SaaS success is NOT engineering - stop building features and sell. Don't wait for seo.

It's hard to shift your mindset from engineer to entrepreneur.

I strongly believe that getting things done is more important than getting things perfect in most cases in the startup world, but once I see something wrong or inefficient I can't help myself but focus on fixing the problem.

Well written ! Although a little bit in the streotype territory but easily gets the idea accross

The engineering background also has a huge influence. An engineer who has worked mostly for startups is likely to be closer to an entrepreneur than someone who worked for large corporates in regulated sectors.

Sadly I'm very much in that latter camp! :-D

Really insightful article, been going through the process of shifting my mindset to be more entrepreneur focused as of late