Founders that are willing to take on problem areas that are unappealing because it seems like a lot of work is a moat. Schlep blindness, as Paul Graham calls it, is mostly subconscious and causes hackers to choose easier, but more competitive areas. This explains why you see thousands of todo list apps, but not a thousand employment compliance companies.
See also:
- The most effective people care a lot and if they are obsessed with something others think is a schlep, their effectiveness goes up due to lack of competition
- The combination of schlep blindness and using time horizons as a competitive advantage is even more powerful (people don’t want to do things that seem like a lot of work for a long time)
Links to this note
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In business strategy you’ll often hear a competitive advantage described as a moat, but most moats are more like a long bridge. The moat is the thing that prevents others from easily replicating another business. A long bridge takes a time build and is effectively a moat if it’s impractical to catch up or simply makes it a schlep.
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Do the Hard Thing Perfectly That No One Wants to Do
A tried and true way to build a large business is to do something that is difficult really well that no one wants to do.