This is an amazing piece. There are so many parallels lessons to software engineers trying to bootstrap a tech startup.

E.g.

- "Note that importance of the results of a solution does not make the problem important."

Parallel: a good product for an unimportant or small market, does not make the market important or big.

- "Thus working on the problem at the right time is essential. Einstein tried to find a unified theory, spent most of his later life on it, and died in a hospital still working on it with no significant results. Apparently, he attacked the problem too early, or perhaps it was the wrong problem."

Parallel: The importance of timing and the market conditions. Too many startups have tried an idea and didn't work at some point in time, but totally worked in a different time period. E.g. Webvan vs Instacart, Uber Eats, et al.

- This is true whether one is searching for a scientific breakthrough or searching for product-market fit: "There are a pair of errors that are often made when working on what you think is the right problem at the right time. One is to give up too soon, and the other is to persist and never get any results. The second is quite common. Obviously, if you start on a wrong problem and refuse to give up, you are automatically condemned to waste the rest of your life (see Einstein above). Knowing when you persist is not easy -- if you are wrong then you are stubborn; but if you turn out to be right, then you are strong willed."

- Increasing the odds of exposure to a positive black swan is similar whether one is searching for a scientific breakthrough or searching for a large new product-market fit: "Many times a discussion with a person who has just done something important will produce a description of how they were led, almost step by step, to the result. It is usually based on things they had done, or intensely thought about, years ago. You succeed because you have prepared yourself with the necessary background long ago, without, of course, knowing then that it would prove to be a necessary step to success."

- Walking the thin line of hubris vs. confidence: "Without courage you are unlikely to attack important problems with any persistence, and hence not likely to do important things. Courage brings self-confidence, an essential feature of doing difficult things. However, it can border on over-confidence at time which is more of a hindrance than a help."

- "If you believe too much then you are not likely to find the essentially new view that transforms a field, and if you doubt too much you will not be able to do much at all. It is a fine balance between believing what you learn and at the same time doubting things. Great steps forward usually involve a change of viewpoint to outside the standard ones in the field."

Parallel: Sometimes industry outsiders are the one who finds a market opportunity and transform it in ways that insiders never thought of.

- The importance of having a vision: "You need a vision of who you are and where your field is going. A suitable parable is that of the drunken sailor. He staggers one way and then the other with independent, random steps. In n steps he will be, on the average, about 3n steps away from where he started. but if there is a pretty girl in one direction he will get a distance proportional to n. The difference, over a life time of choices, between 3n and n is very large and represents the difference between having no vision and having a vision. The particular vision you have is less important than just having one - there are many paths to success. Therefore, it is wise to have a vision of what you may become, of where you want to go, as well as how to get there. No vision, not much chance of doing great work; with a vision you have a good chance."

- "I must now take up the unpleasant topic of selling your ideas. Too many scientists think that this is beneath them, that the world is waiting for their great results. "

Parallel: Great software engineers think that all they have to do is build a pretty product and customers will line up and be banging down the engineer's door. If you're looking to start a business, you have to think about sales / user acquisition.