This is a matter of regional vocabulary, and the local cultural expectations that go with it.
You ask any aspiring developer in Silicon Valley what they're working on and it's always "oh yea, I have a startup I'm trying to get off the ground on weekends."
In Toronto, there's a very vibrant startup community, but back there we call them "side projects". Really same idea but the word "startup" means something rather different than a few kids eating ramen. There are plenty of freelancers who band together into a consultancy and have a couple of startuppy products they're working on together. Effectively a bootstrapped team working towards a unified vision, but they'll still be shy about calling it a startup.
I suspect a lot of this has to do with the investor and acquisition community. As someone who moved down to Silicon Valley from Toronto, I was very uncomfortable calling what I did a "startup" up until I was raising funding or entertaining acquisition opportunities. It just sneaks up on you when it's an option, and these options hardly exist in Toronto.
> This is a matter of regional vocabulary, and the local cultural expectations that go with it.
This slow realization made me give up calling people out on calling themselves hackers. It used to be that a hacker was someone who was particularly adept at finding clever ways to misuse, change or exploit something. http://hacks.mit.edu/ and http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html were the canonical references. Hacks were contrasted with engineering -- both constructive creative output, but one involved detailed in-the-field knowledge while the other was a more principled approach. 'Street smarts' vs 'book smarts' if you will. Both were needed for a successful enterprise. Calling oneself a hacker was equivalent to giving yourself a nickname -- socially awkward and decreasing the likelihood the moniker would stick.
Now 'hacking' is synonymous with prototyping, or even more esoteric types of development (what the hell is 'hacking education' supposed to mean?). This isn't entirely untrue as quick prototypes often contain "awful, we shouldn't be doing this" kinds of code. However, they do tend to lack the righteous "awful, we shouldn't be doing this but damn is that awesome" code tradition calls for.
Like you said, definitions change and the only thing that matters is if your idea is communicated; ultimately you have to go with the flow...
Very true, that's another example of the same phenomenon. In Toronto, "entrepreneur" is often a dirty word among who actually get stuff done. It usually refers to your typical MBA with no industry experience looking for a code monkey to fulfill his vision.
I don't think "hacker" has yet been tarnished in Toronto the way it has been here, though.
Yep. I think the term "startup" is soooo over used. I don't know if it is just here in Silicon Valley (the SF Bay Area in general) but it seems like everybody wants to say they are working on a startup. Because, really, if you are not working on a startup then you're just working and where's the cool factor of that? A lot of the "startups" I see here on HN aren't really much more than "side projects"... some aren't even that. I don't have either... I just have a good job and I tinker with stuff in my spare time.... I'm such a failure. :)
True. In some countries, specially in the developing countries, going to the goverment for money is actually a common course of action for relatively risky but promising tech ideas.
You ask any aspiring developer in Silicon Valley what they're working on and it's always "oh yea, I have a startup I'm trying to get off the ground on weekends."
In Toronto, there's a very vibrant startup community, but back there we call them "side projects". Really same idea but the word "startup" means something rather different than a few kids eating ramen. There are plenty of freelancers who band together into a consultancy and have a couple of startuppy products they're working on together. Effectively a bootstrapped team working towards a unified vision, but they'll still be shy about calling it a startup.
I suspect a lot of this has to do with the investor and acquisition community. As someone who moved down to Silicon Valley from Toronto, I was very uncomfortable calling what I did a "startup" up until I was raising funding or entertaining acquisition opportunities. It just sneaks up on you when it's an option, and these options hardly exist in Toronto.