healthyhippo

I'm loving the author's repeated statements in the comments, "To be clear, this is a concept, not a real game."

I just sent this out to a friend who was trying to figure out whether to build his simple app in ruby vs. php. Think it made up his mind.

I really liked this, until I used the shared HN one and it got really laggy / Chrome kill button came up

In high school US history, there was a daily homework assignment where we had to turn in a 1 page paper on some historical topic (for example, the battle of antietam in the civil war). Teacher never really read the homework- just scanned it for some keywords and made sure no one was copying off of anyone else.

I made a deal with the girl that sat next to me that we would do each others homework on alternating weeks. On her weeks, she'd write two different versions of something similar, paraphrased from the textbook.

On my weeks, I'd copy /paste some blurb from online for her version. Then I'd take that blurb, and run it through babelfish a couple times for mine. Worked great.

One time I got sloppy, and didn't even run mine through the translator. I just handed in identical things in different fonts. She got a check +, and i got a check. I can't describe how furious I was.

This is pretty dope. The design is particularly excellent. Nice work

Its really ridiculous how many sites still store passwords that way. SurveyMonkey still sends forgot password requests in plaintext email. You'd think with $100M of funding they'd have sorted that out by now.

I haven't been managing our email messaging, but this seems considerably cheaper than Sendgrid which charges something exorbitant (I mean, its like $80 a month, but they're f*cking emails).

Does anyone have a perspective on whether their service is just as good?

Sure, he could just run it like Swoopo.com and charge people for each bid they make

I don't know much about photo editing, but I've used Gimp for a little while along with Inkscape for editing. I use it for simple stuff- drop shadows, minor logo work, etc. Is there a noticeable difference vs. photoshop on that level?

They make money for three reasons:

1. Their music is excellent and consistent. Dave Matthews is one of the best songwriters of this generation.

2. They constantly make concerts exciting by playing completely different versions of their songs live, with emphasis on improvisation. People go to DMB concerts two nights in row because they never know what they're going to get. They won't get a repeat show- they'll get something completely different, often times. I don't know many other bands who have fans that would go to a concert two nights in a row.

3. They also seem to genuinely love touring / performing. They give up a lot to be on the road that often, and I don't think its money or fame they're chasing.

I think it is a bit shortsighted to imply that every sector of the web besides small businesses has been conquered.

African Americans and Asians Americans are people. I heard that Finland has people (though I'm not really sure). So, their school systems seem comparable. Because after 1st generation immigrants, race is more linked to identity within a society.

Asians perform better on tests when they are reminded beforehand of their heritage because it reinforces their own stereotype of themselves. African Americans perform worse. There are racial subgroups in most diverse nations (including Japan) that have the same effects going on, despite the fact that to a foreigner there would be no appearance on

But to say that in some way African Americans are "comparable" to people in Africa, or to say that of non-1st-generation Asian immigrants, doesn't really seem fair.

Frankly, on a more personal note, I found this analysis to be structurally unsound.

What I take away is that America spends more money on its schools than any country vs. Luxembourg, but doesn't have the highest test results. So throwing money at the problem may not be the right way to fix it. Or it may have some impact, but its going to be like running water through a leaky fire hose.

We haven't developed the right educational system yet. A lot of smart people are working on this issue, and probably the right solution is to throw more money at them specifically.

I was actually talking about the colors to the side of the font-- the blues, oranges, and reds that shaded the outside of the black. It turns out that most type in my mac shows up like this, though it doesn't show up like that in inkscape where I've been doing my mockups.

Thanks all.

Alex- if you're interested in the work, drop me an email and we can talk

Agreed, thats a miniscule share of the equity. i know people who have joined companies with 20+ employees and gotten that much or more

Pretty sure Joe gets more equity here. Joe had the idea, wrote the initial code, and has stuff up and running. I'd guess the split here should be 75/25 if Joe worked on it full time.

If I were the biz-dev cofounder, if Joe gave me 50%, I would ask "why the charity?". In fact, I'd flat out be suspicious.

http://startuplawyer.com/incorporation/how-to-split-the-star...

All sorts of problems can crop up if you don't resolve the equity situation up front. Its good you're trying to resolve it as soon as possible.

Depending on how much thought leadership he's provided and how much direction he's given you, it should range from 50/50 in the very best case for you to 80/20 in the worst case (assuming you if you're the #2). That split also depends on whether he is paying you or not to do the work, and whether you really want to loop in with him long-term on the startup.

Are you guys incorporated? Regardless, make sure that the terms are in paper.

When making equity decisions with my co-founder, I found these posts pretty valuable: http://startuplawyer.com/incorporation/how-to-split-the-star... http://startuplawyer.com/startup-issues/keep-your-startup-co...

Hope that helps.

I agree that competition validates a market, but as an entrepreneur I'm still hesitant to launch a competing product that I had an idea for. Here's why:

1. My competitors may be ahead of me. If something is just out there launched, that means that someone's been working on it for 3-6 months prior. I'm at month 0 and have catch-up to do.

2. Sometimes, competitors are just really good-- like their products are fully adequate for your specific needs, and probably pretty good for a bunch of other people as well. I have a hard time saying I should pursue something if I'm content using someone else's product.

The whole issue is that this leads to a conundrum. If my idea is fresh and new, then market validation becomes difficult because competing startups are in stealth mode. Only 6 months later do I say "Shit, that was actually an awesome idea". The only thing I can rely on are my own convictions and market tests that customer need exists.

Really enjoyed this- the best customer acquisition strategy is building a compelling user experience.

Agreed that its generally backwards looking and at times just strange (urban entrepreneur?? really?), but there were a few points that resonated with me: 1) Conway's point that UI/UX is becoming far more important. Hipmunk seems almost entirely based on taking a crappy UX and turning it into an awesome one; there's lots more room for disruption in other industries as well 2) Point that there's a data issue-- there's tons of social information and monetization strategies are still work-in-process

If you're dedicated to being an entrepreneur for "love of the game", there's value in doing diligence on the vertical/idea that you might spend your next 1-4 years in

The psychological impact of being wrong is big enough to do it very often. Everyone going "oooooh... AHH" when they show the slow-motion ball cam, and most of the time its out.

Then everyone looks at you like you're the asshole. All of a sudden you're vilified, and home court advantage can shift over. There's little to be gained unless it was truly very close and the call went against you.

The post boils more fundamentally down to hiring managers who have well developed skills of empathy. When people can put themselves in the shoes of others and feel as they feel, its a lot easier for them to act in the collective good. Most average managers I've worked with have competence; the exceptional ones combine it with empathy.

There must be a faster way. I sit around waiting for 10 seconds for it to reload, and I've got the attention span of a goldfish

You should quit, especially if you don't major obligations (debt, family). In 10 years you'll always regret not having done so. And definitely think you can emerge on the other side just fine- thats largely a function of how you're willing to market what you did. Its a constant fear of people to have to explain gaps in their resume, but recruiters at companies that you'd actually want to work for (e.g. ones that aren't looking for docile employees) won't care about that as much as your drive.

I spent the last 3 years working at a firm where luckily, the concept of "sabbatical" was accepted and almost encouraged in your third year. I've seen a number of different things that people have done, and given your goals, here are a few ideas that you might find relevant:

- Take a job that you absolutely would never take for the money, but want to do for the experience. Former colleagues of mine have taken eye-opening jobs working for various non-profits all over the world, had the chance to travel, and reboot. The benefit here is you get a chance to think about your career and what you might actually want to do. Take a job at another company that you're interested in, if permitted - If you're going to spend time doing stuff you can do remotely, do it in a foreign country where you can ride the currency exchange and do really cool stuff when you're not working (e.g. buenos aires, china, etc.). Mobility is priceless