robjohnson

Every day I think to myself that I should drop what I am doing and dive into HTML5.

I also agree. That being said, there are some incredible communities out there for 'testing' your ideas. Check out the 'Lean Startup Circle' Google Group.

The Stanford Intro to CS course was the best reference for learning Python that I used. The companion manual was How to think like a Computer Scientist and I thought it was just great. I can't speak to the DIP books, but I would wholeheartedly recommend the references above to anyone I knew.

I agree with the author of the post in that the frequency of posts written that postulate blanket statements that are supported by anecdotal evidence of "something that happened to my friend" is way too high.

As for gender diversity, I think most founders would argue that the more diverse a team you have, the better. The 'Business Model Generation' book goes into this quite a bit and has some incredible insights into correlations between diverse teams and the creativity of their brainstorming sessions.

I couldn't agree more. I started programming because of the iPhone. (There's a longer story about my difficulties of going from zero-knowledge to publishing my first app, but that's for another day.)

The platform is so polished and ubiquitous, that it gives me a sense that any app I write could potentially have a significant impact on the users. Since I've begun my programming knowledge quest, I've done a tiny bit of web development, but nothing is more satisfying than opening up Xcode to start something new. The tools, frameworks, simulator, IDE, polish, feel, etc. are just so incredible.

I think that a throttled balancing act between total-invention and mild-integration is probably the best outlook to take at 90% of issues right from the start. There are exceptions to all rules, and the interviewer will have a better grasp on where in this spectrum they need the candidate to fall, but this "describe something you've built/hacked" seems to be a fairly common question that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone interviewing.

Kudos to the author. His research/due-diligence in tracking this guy illuminates to the community his nefariousness. If everyone took this type of a pro-active defense in injustice, the frequency would be much reduced.

First off, you should hold your head high for the things that you have already accomplished. As for it not working out, welcome to the real world. You can either let that eat away at you, or you can get back on the horse. My first venture failed and I took about 1-2 weeks as a mini-mind vacation but then I immediately started brainstorming for what my next project was going to be. Failing is inevitable. It's what you can accomplish through the failure that is the true question. Identify the mistakes you have made so that you don't make them again, and then do it all over. Genius is merely persistence in disguise. (Oh, and BTW, as I am in a very similar situation to you in terms of 1 failed venture/age/experience, shoot me an email sometime - robertajohnson83 [at] gmail.com.)

I tend to agree. While the largest unknown independent variable here is how the Airbnb handles this crisis, I feel that they will be able to steer the ship through this.

Absolutely not a failure. You almost surely gained knowledge through the process of developing the app and that knowledge is an intangible asset that will contribute to every future project you work on.

This seems to be the crux of the issue right here. When I heard the airbnb business model, this type of situation was the first thing that came to my mind. Airbnb absolutely does provide an incredible service, but these types of issues need to be solved. A 24/7 line should be step 1.

Each and every day.

API design is something I have been meaning to look into - thanks for the link.

That is absolutely incredible - makes me want to dive into learning HTML 5.

It's really nice to see GAE add yet another support language, in addition to Python and Java. I'm pretty new to Python web development, but GAE seems absolutely fantastic. It's so easy to use and such robust features.

I've been meaning to learn JS for a while now, thanks for all of the resource links.

Yeah, I know that it's fully expected to have reduced functionality during a beta, but it's getting annoying that I can't use Netflix, HBOGo, or G+.

If you discuss MVP in terms of Customer Development and the Lean Startup methodology, I think that Eric Ries puts it best by saying that whatever you, as the entrepreneur, think the MVP is, is already WAY too big. Whatever you think the minimum viable features are for your product/service, you should cut it in half - and then do that 2 more times. That's your MVP.

Success is the intersection of luck and opportunity. Unfortunately, in this case, luck was not on your side. That being said, genius is merely persistence in disguise. Your app very well may recover, but if it doesn't, keep at it and start the next one.

I see a lot of comments about how Quora is only providing value or attracting users in the valley and while I hate anecdotal premises that are used as support for arguments, I live in the midwest and over three quarters of my friends use Quora on a daily basis.

I don't see it as a direct competitor to Facebook or Stackoverflow, but instead as filling a niche unto itself. I can't speak to the value it adds for all subject matter categories, but for the ones that I am most interested in (startup entrepreneurship, technology, mathematics) it has some incredibly thought-provoking questions and answers.

The biggest value that I get from Quora is not when I am looking for a specific answer, but the serendipity of scrolling through my favorite topics to find questions that I wouldn't have thought to ask.

If Quora died, it would be a sad day for the world's intellectual curious.

Thanks for providing so much detail into the inner-workings of your venture. Most people wouldn't have the guts to put themselves out there like that. If you think about wealth in terms of 'prevention of loss,' you've just made everyone on this forum quite a bit wealthier.