The interesting thing I took from it was that a real world, non-tech small business -- in some senses the polar opposite of a VC-backed startup -- still benefits from the same principles; listen to your customers, act on their feedback, etc. And every field has their new techniques and fads, not just tech; if barbers had forums, there would probably be debates between the hipster "wash sitting up" fans and the greybeard "wash lying down" advocates.

It might be an obvious point, but sometimes it's worth remembering that there's a lot of commonalities between businesses in very different industries. So talking to strangers isn't just a nice thing to do, but can actually give you some practical value.

I think this stems from the fact that a lot of people in the tech world, come from a pure tech background, and never bothered to educate themselves much with what a regular business functions like- to realize that - well - at the end of the day a business is a business - and the internet is mainly a medium - the basics will be same no matter where you are based. I'm a tech guy - but I made a conscious effort to read things occasionally that are not about tech businesses - it makes a world of a difference - in fact there are some businessy books I'd recommend to anyone - even if they arent ever interested in starting a business of their own - because they're also great life lessons hidden in those books :)