startuprules

The post needs a modification.

If you're building an incremental product, please do ask 10 people.

If you're building a revolutionary product, build a prototype first, then ask 10 people. Otherwise people will just ask for horses with wheels.

...Because you're weak

Because you can't stand the pain.

Because you would like to end up with 10% of the company after working 14 hour days.

Because you need someone to complain to after every setback.

Because you don't have the money or patience.

Because you don't know how to hire the right employees.

Because you're not an entrepreneur.

The older Japanese population are pretty nationalistic. However, the Japanese corporations, not so much.

For Japan, it's all about 'tradition'. So society/entranched interests resist changes heavily. For example, the entrepreneur who started 1000-yen haircut chain in Japan (severely undercutting the barbershops) used to get death threats on his life, and had to fight tooth and nail to get spaces in shopping centers.

You should see the blank stare I get, when they ask me about how to be successful in life (I'm a bit older and have my own company) and I tell them to start a business.

I totally agree. I should add that I was surprised merely because in my head, I had this notion that Japanese people were mostly hard working and true to their crafts, before I had entered Japan.

To add, young Japanese people also don't have the option of being an entrepreneur, because that notion is still widely shunned by society. So they toil in misery for many many years without escape.

Anybody with personal accounts from Iceland?

You're asking about countries that suffered from hyperinflation (US had a hyperinflation before also during the civil war)

here's a popular blog from a citizen currently living in Argentina http://ferfal.blogspot.com/

"Millions of Japanese aged 25 to 34 toil as temps or contract employees-- up from 1.5 million 10 years ago, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. These workers tend to earn about one-third the typical "salaryman" wages that their fathers earned"

I lived in Tokyo last year in a cheap apartment with alot of young Japanese people, and I was very surprised by their lack of work ethic/prospect from my first time in Japan. They would bounce from temp work (typing) to temp work (waiter) to temp work (salesperson walking everywhere in tokyo door to door), quitting every 2-3 weeks. They would sometimes sleep in and not show up for interview, and wouldn't even call to reschedule. The way they would quit a job they didn't like is by....not showing up anymore. Keep in mind these are people that went to pretty decent universities in Japan, and speak ok english. And when they do get a full time job offer, they would have to wait almost half a year to a year to start working (which I would think depress their morale).

"we're back in the 80's " We're not. Baby boomers were in their prime during that time, therefore consumption still increased over time, and innovation still thrived. Now, the biggest consumer market in the world is disappearing, with no comparable replacement in sight.

"10 times better than the kings of 500 years ago." Yes, but both you and jacquesm are confusing technology advancement with an economic phenomenon, which is defined by high structural unemployment rate and many business failures

"pack cans of beans and ammo and head for the mountains." Nobody says you have to do that. 75% of the people that lived through the great depression lived a normal but frugal life. However, if/when the dollar suffers from hyperinflation, that's another story.

"all this doom talk about a worldwide depression." Pretty sure I'm one of the only few posters here that would say the words 'great depression'. and 'voldemort'.

"It's depressing" I know it is. But we as a population have to realize we are in a depression, not just a run of the mill recession like the mass media would have you believe, so we can react accordingly and not doom our future offsprings to even greater suffering.

"As long as we're not seeing hyper-inflation, the general population still has food on the table and you can actually think about where you're going to take your holiday this year we're not even close." Hyperinflation, not yet. 25% unemployed in the last depression, but they had soup lines to not go hungry. US has ~20% unemployment, and we have food stamps/unemployment benefits mailed to our house. As for the holiday..well you and I, we're in the lucky 80%.

Not when we're in a great worldwide depression. When the US baby boomers, the world's biggest/baddest consumers, are retiring or being too expensive to be hired. When automation/free software have permanently reduced human worker needs. When the developed countries - the ones with trillions of debt and aging population - have willingly given up their factories to the emerging countries, and are desperately searching for other ways to pay back their debt besides financial engineering.

Europe includes such countries as Iceland, Ukraine and Romania

I agree, but just like a bubble crash, when one major party loses confidence and sells his stake, all the other parties panic and sells as well.

I have a feeling you've never traveled to other countries. How sad.

A very easy solution to this: Go live in a cheaper country. Go now, before the heavily debted countries lock down money transfers (In which case, buy gold/silver)

How about the cost of living/cost of hiring? Can you elaborate a little on that?

No problem. I am looking to establish a foreign beachhead myself. If you ever pick one, and go through with your decision, I hope you would post your experience here.

EDIT: I found a better link here for ease of business: http://www.doingbusiness.org/economyrankings/

as well as tax rates: http://www.doingbusiness.org/ExploreTopics/PayingTaxes/Detai...

Using countries submitted in this discussion:

Top penetration of broadband: 1. Netherlands 2. Norway 3. Germany 4. Hong Kong 5. Canada 6. Israel 7. UK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_...

Best countries for small business based on regulatory climate 1. Singapore 2. Hong Kong 3. UK 4. Canada 5. Norway http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/10/smallbusiness/best_countries...

Lowest corporate tax rates 1. Hong Kong 2. Russia 3. Chile 4. Singapore 5. Poland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_around_the_world

Countries with the least debt (asked by the OP below) 1. Singapore 2. Chile 3. Poland 4. India 5. China

Top quality programmers (oDesk) 1. Hong Kong 2. Israel 3. Finland 4. Poland 5. France 6. Chile http://www.odesk.com/community/oconomy/outsourcing_countries...

Vancouver had a big housing bubble, and now their sales have plummeted, so I would imagine the state government might struggle a little bit. http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/07/vancouver...

However, overall Canada is in good shape financially compared to the other G20. Not alot of public/external debts. Here are the stats, as well as the other countries mentioned in the thread

Canada - 833 Billions external, 75.% GDP public

US - 13 Trillions external, 52.9% GDP public (~70T owed in social security/medicare uncounted)

England - 9 Trillions external, 60% GDP public

France - 5 Trillions external, 77% GDP public

Germany - 5 Trillions external, 72% GDP public

Israel - 84 Billions external, 78% GDP public

Netherlands - 3 Trillions external, 62% GDP public

Chile - 60 Billions external, 6.0%!! GDP public

Poland - 201 Billions external, 46.5% GDP public

Singapore - 19 Billions external, 113% GDP public

China - 340 Billions external, 16.5% GDP public

India - 223 Billions external, 58% GDP public

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_d...

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...

The S&P, adjusted for inflation, has returned -30% for the last ten years

But go ahead and feed the machines at goldman sachs some money.

You're correct; middle class don't do slave labor at $1/day. (I had rambled on a bit) They make $20/day in dead end jobs.

Check my submissions. They'll have the details you want.

I would propose that there currently exist a third reality: a combination of the two scenarios described in the comics. An authoritarian state which restricts materials that are hazardous to the state's health, but also encourages huge debt taking/mindless consumption that zombifies the majority of the population.

Case in point: US. It restricts information that would undermine its authority as the world's dominant power, such as BP spill, bankruptcy of its banks/cities/states, ineffectiveness at resolution in afghanistan, etc. The government offers discounts/low rates for large home mortgages, expensive cars, and big student loans that would shackle the majority of the population in debt chains. It also condones mindless consumption such as reality TV, sports, celebrity news, and facebook games by not taxing them as addictive hazards.

Case in point: China. It restricts, well, pretty much anything it doesn't want the people to know with the great internet firewall and state news programs. It also encourages huge risk taking in mortgages, which recently has seen home prices go up to 30X average income. It encourages its citizens to forget about the abysmal living condition by allowing internet game cafes to spread like wildfire and trapping the players in pointless alternative realities. So they don't realize they are doing slave labor at $1/day to make ipads.

I further propose that this will continue as long as these governments worldwide can keep feeding its citizens at a minimum (food stamps, unemployment benefits, carb/sugar loaded cheap food), while offering cheap, mind-numbing entertainments to keep people at home, so they don't go out and riot on the streets. They can then keep on taxing/raising the retirement age on the productive workers

Until oil is at $150/middle class is wiped out/Iran is attacked/North Korea attacks/US defaults on SS and medicare/Japan defaults on its bonds/food prices double/Israel is attacked/automation renders most of population useless, anyways.

"debt is virtually a necessity created by prosperity: otherwise, the folks with all the capital end up with very lumpy mattresses. Take the Japanese government debt..."

Very incorrect. It was the Japanese government that decided that instead of demanding the banks to be responsible for their risky and ultimately bad real estate investments, they would prop the banks alive by stealing from their citizen's savings via massive borrowing. Fast forward to today: Japanese elders have their savings dwindled down, the government owes 200% GDP debt to its people, and the Japanese economy/innovation stalled because the 0% rate for 20 years policy drove all investments overseas.

There are many people that think US will have the same fate as Japan, but they're also incorrect. Japan had the massive savings rate and a booming global economy to prop itself up. US will have no such luxury. And there are many other people in this thread who thinks debt is a good thing. Well, when the US government, having to pay out 65T in medicare and social security in the next 20 years, decides not to one day, you'll see why that's bad.

That paragraph alone made me vote up the original article and shed a few empathizing tears inside.

Unfortunately, then I go read about how we've killed the Gulf of Mexico http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1536572, and my blood boils and hatred for this world grows.

Such is the life of an entrepreneur, I suppose. Full of love and hatred. Full of contradictions.

The majority sentiment in this discussion seems to be favoring Zuckerberg. I am not sure why hackers, with the usually higher integrity and honor than most, will defend this scumbag who seems to defraud not one, two, but three different parties, and laughs with his buddy on IM about his ability to steal people's information.

Is it because Zuckerberg is now rich/powerful? Are we being more lenient to those folks now? Because these are the folks, the ones without integrity but with money/power in our society, that are ruining US. These are the folks that are crashing people's 401k, devaluing the dollar, giving bailout money to their buddies, shipping jobs overseas, cheating, lying, and stealing their way to the top. These are the folks that are bankrupting our world. Pretty soon, one day you wake up, you'll have the social security/medicare benefit disappear. your house will be worthless, and so will your 401k. After you've worked hard for 30 years. Maybe then you'll hate the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world.

"Ceglia may be planning to argue that the statute of limitations didn't start until the contract was breached, which would have set the clock ticking in 2004, said Scott & Scott partner Julie Machal-Fulks."

Check my response http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1533668

Nobody crosses the Russia Mafia....I mean investors.

"This is not necessarily an open-and-shut case for Facebook. The fact that the judge froze Facebook's assets suggests there may be extenuating circumstances favoring Ceglia, Gendelman pointed out.

Also, Ceglia may be planning to argue that the statute of limitations didn't start until the contract was breached, which would have set the clock ticking in 2004, said Scott & Scott partner Julie Machal-Fulks.

There is room for that argument in New York law, she told the E-Commerce Times.

As for the last-minute challenge, that too makes sense -- at least, it can be argued in court, said Jonathan Askin, associate professor of clinical law at Brooklyn Law School.

"Logically, these ownership challenges only occur after a company has value or is on the verge of success. Why would anyone sue a company before it has value?" he asked."

from http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/70403.html

Oo, I finally will get to see a punchcard computer in person! Very cool, thanks! Reminds me of the time I accidently found a Thomas Edison exhibit in Bandai Museum outside Tokyo.