Ask PG: How did you come to that conclusion?

If we take the odds of a startup surviving as 1:100, then the odds of both Digg and Reddit surviving are 1:10.000. If we assume that either Reddit will crush Digg or vice versa, the odds of Digg crushing Reddit are 1:20.000. If we assume that the odds that the marketplace will support more than one company are 10:1 the odds that Digg will crush Reddit go to 1:200.000.

Even if the denominator us high by an order of magnitude, the first order problem is just surviving and that depends on luck and execution. All the other factors do as well.

The mistake is in confusing game theory with a Sport metaphor. Sport focuses attention on beating particular opponents. Game theory prioritizes a diversity of outcomes. Beating Digg isn't an objective measure of success. Reddit could beat Digg and not create value.

My apologies for just being a random person on the internet and being neither PG nor Alexis Ohanian.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think the quote you used is actually pretty worthless and not smart on its own without the other discussions they were having together. If you ever have a chance to see him in person, you should. He has a lot of fun little anecdotes--like what the first downvote of reddit was.

It'd be great too if https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kn0thing popped in this thread as my memory is pretty fuzzy.

It's common knowledge that startups self-sabotage through either founder personality conflicts, running out of money, or not making something people want (then running out of money).

Rarely is a startup destroyed by "competitors."

@brudgers thanks for your impressive comments. And I totally agree with you on "My impression is that PG often says things that require unpacking. There's not a lot of meaningless fill." Actually I keep wondering why not everyone who is into building/developing something users want, analyses his quotes to the bone.

@rubiquity PG had no reason for being arrogant.

@27182818284 Of course you are right. Alexis mentions in the book that this quote stayed with him until today. So the reader expects this quote to have a certain significance. And of course, the quote by itself has to be put into context. That is the reason I was asking for context :)