The nature of competition

A massive coincidence was unearthed today!

A bit of backstory: it’s no secret that others have hit upon something similar to “my idea.” (Quotes for emphasizing the amorphousness of such a thing.) There’s the awesome folks at Google+ Cooking School, for one. However, today I found another group doing a similar thing. And they’re called Table for Ten.

I was actually thinking of naming my thesis something like… “Tables for Ten.” With a difference of one letter.

This got me a little panicked about competition for like a second. Then I thought about this for a while. Yes, this means I should probably think of a new name. But no, I’m still not going to change my thesis. After all, I’ve read / been lectured at far too much about the nature of competition to fall into this trap.

What is the nature of competition? To remind myself as much as anything, here’s a brief digest of what I know:

• As Paul Graham said, “You can only avoid competition if you avoid good ideas.” (A nice lil sip of the YC Kool-Aid for ya)
• Every good idea has a million different approaches.
• Competition helps you narrow focus and clarify intent like nothing else does. It forces you to defend your product’s identity.
• You don’t compete with ideas, you compete with execution.

And, at the end of the day though, I love cooking. I love the Internet. I want to convince my friends to cook and love their food and get to know where it comes from. At risk of sounding a little selfish, I want to do what I like, using platforms I enjoy. Because I know that’s the only way I’m going to put my whole into it, and end up making something truly awesome for others to enjoy.

So. Let’s execute!