craigmc

"on like Donkey Kong".... FFS.

Although you are correct in saying that most people on HN could write this post, very few will ever manage to live it.

Of course in the States you guys have that old bloke and his gecko to compete with... and he has pretty deep pockets ;)

These sort of sites aren't a perfect solution by any means, but a large % of people in the UK now use them to buy car insurance, and so presumably Leaky is on the road (see what I did there...) to being a household name by doing the same thing in the US.

They are exploiting a market inefficiency (the gap between small biz and their potential customers) and it one that is closing rapidly via a multitude of sources, and not just from competition within the daily deal sector.

And although this post title is clearly being deliberately provocative, one thing is true: there are going to be plenty of businesses and deals currently being lauded, which turn out to be total disasters (as there were in previous cycles - Enron, AOL Time Warner, Excite@Home, Webvan, et al). It is certainly not unthinkable that the Groupon IPO is going to be one of them...?

(the amount of money that has already been taken off the table must be a near-deafening warning bell)

Definitely worth buying his video series that accompanies the book (which is free online).

then:

http://railscasts.com/ (start with the early ones and work forward - I found these great to do at the end of a day)

Although I'd certainly also recommend the books that glasner mentioned, particularly "The Rails Way" by Obie Fernandez (although, from experience, it will freak you out a bit as a beginner if you try to read it cover to cover...)

Finally, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/ruby-on-rails - there won't be many questions you'll have initially that haven't already been the subject of a great answer (or indeed multiple great answers).