Paul GrahamVerified account

That's good perspective. I was confused by that initially when starting YC. For us, local maxima was to grow our Google Sheets connector whereas the big opportunity was to recreate a spreadsheet software.

Don't you think that what has the largest capacity to trap a company into a local maxima is more likely to do with the costumers they serve and less to do with the tools they use (software)? I think it's essentially the whole point of the innovators dilemma..

The probability of getting stuck in local maxima seems a lot lower than most people assume when starting out (so I’ve heard from other founders) For problems like supersonic jets, getting stuck in local maxima once in a while may be worth it for the momentum of regular progress

Is Airbnb a good example of a software company or a company with a flat local maxima? I would think not, but I also have very little idea what I'm talking about

I think the answer is that short-term thinking works best when you don’t know yet what you want to be. Once you know, you’ll naturally pursue short-term goals that move you towards your long-term goal.