The post isn't mean to be an attack at all -- even on a strawman :) It's an opinion piece where my goal is to remind founders that they should spend time thinking about the idea and also that equity splits should account for the value of the idea.
Part of the motivation from the post came from watching some otherwise excellent teams working on some rather mundane, me-too ideas. Another part of it came from hearing some awesome ideas, but realizing that the team didn't have the DNA to execute on it.
The discussion on HN seems to be very bipolar with respect to the value of ideas and execution (people execute, so you can call it either people or execution), which ignores my point about ideas and execution needing to happen hand in hand.
All too often we 'simplify' things to the point where they begin to loose the original intent/meaning. If this post makes people have a discussion around this, and makes you explain the 'fairly complicated' thing that people are saying when they do say execution matters more than the idea, then my job with writing the post is done.
I see your point, and while it is largely sensible (both ideas and execution matter), it doesn't seem to add enough because no one is really trying to argue the other side. We all agree that the idea matters, and that every now and then there is an extraordinary idea, in and of itself.
The thing to remember though is that we simplify messages in life and online all the time for effect. I think "Ideas don't matter, execution is everything" is just another example of a useful (and powerful) simplification, but it's far too simple and distilled to argue about.
Part of the motivation from the post came from watching some otherwise excellent teams working on some rather mundane, me-too ideas. Another part of it came from hearing some awesome ideas, but realizing that the team didn't have the DNA to execute on it.
The discussion on HN seems to be very bipolar with respect to the value of ideas and execution (people execute, so you can call it either people or execution), which ignores my point about ideas and execution needing to happen hand in hand.
All too often we 'simplify' things to the point where they begin to loose the original intent/meaning. If this post makes people have a discussion around this, and makes you explain the 'fairly complicated' thing that people are saying when they do say execution matters more than the idea, then my job with writing the post is done.