thetrumanshow

No one wants their advantages whittled away, regardless of whether it helps other people or not. This is simple self-preservation. It is a type of selfishness, yes, but I personally don't consider it a dishonorable type of selfishness.

My telecom company was helpful at first, but then we began to see circle-the-wagons behavior from them. We were at least able to get the call forwarding off of the account, but they would not tell us any details about what had happened on the account.

Until your story (and even now) I'm not exactly sure if my hacker had been able to forward the text messages or simply routed the phone call to his phone and using Google's password reset process was able to get a robo call to accomplish the same thing.

All of this is seriously making me consider creating my own 2FA service, only slightly better.

One quick recommendation I would add would be to put a passcode on your account with your mobile provider. Just call them and say "I'd like to add a passcode to my account", so you can at least add one extra layer of security there.

I'm not sure that you're not a notch above the mean when it comes to concentration skills in the first place Andrew. :)

For some, an MVP seems to simply be a tool used to verify a concept in a marketplace. Some MVPs in this category are landing pages, mock-ups, or a shoddy app that you can hold up to someone and say "This isn't done by any stretch, but does this solve your problem?". For others, as may or may not be the case of what the author is imagining, the MVP represents the minimum useful product that you can deliver to the end-user to create value for them in exchange for money. The hair-splitting is then around the value exchange and the expectations between the creator and the end-user. And, there are probably still more permutations of the concept that I haven't even begun to imagine yet.

However, I would say that using this MVP concept is more about learning what works while setting expectations with the end-users than it is about delivering the ugliest piece of non-functioning tripe you can fool the customer into paying for.

Just be genuine.

Cleverly done my nemesis. :) As you note, this is effective in many other places too.

If you're in a Q/A mood, I'm curious: When you start to see one of the YC batch companies struggling... what does an intervention look like?

The core problem with HN seems to be the tendency for people to lambast ideas before we've given them a chance to germinate. PG gets fiery mad at this behavior. Scoffing at ideas adds nothing, in fact it reduces the value of the conversation to the point that it has less-than-zero value.

To use a (poorly constructed) analogy: if I want to laugh at nerds and their nerdy ideas, I should go join the ranks of nerd-scoffers at any local high-school, where I'd be a better fit. If you want to be part of the conversion here, you should bring a positive or constructive voice and try to improve on ideas, rather than tear them down.

If it feels a bit like networking... thats because it is.

Another alternative is Amy Hoy's (ahoyhere) 30x500: http://30x500.com/

Those are a couple of the public-access gates. Enter therein, and bring with you optimism, a willingness to share knowledge, and determination.

There's no way HN is still the center of this world for long. Its where you invited all your friends and co-workers to, and now its a mess. Now you have to move upmarket to find better information, and getting into those other communities is harder. They don't just let anyone in. They watched what happened to HN and they're scared of killing quality.

If you want into those communities, you better have created something, and you better be willing to contribute in a positive way. They won't tolerate many Jeremiahs.

I'm truly surprised that I haven't had a visit from one of those black Suburbans yet.

With regards to the salesmen and their business propositions, it doesn't sound like stolen data. Sounds like he played the role of company-man and threw people under the bus for the good of the company, believing that he would benefit in the long-run.

One of the first things I learned from the old engineers at Lockheed was to identify and actively avoid the company man. You interacted with the company man at your peril. It was basically like this: in dealing with a company man, anything you say can be used against you, but nothing you say can help you.

Since there are so many new makers with engineer-like skills, it means you'll have more sociopaths in sheep's clothing in the future.

Still, there are ways to interview for meritocratic behavior.

I personally felt it this morning when I was getting ready to reply to an email to a friend with a cold-war joke that in times past I would have never thought twice about sending. I didn't send.

Young pastors, especially in the independent circuit (ie. not a seminary) are hustlers. They get told "NO!!!" a lot and it makes them very resilient. But, I don't think it necessarily makes them good salesmen which is what you need to be in a startup.

The kind of sales that missionaries (and pastors alike) are suited for is the pushy kind where you force fit your solution on top of any circumstance. The kind of sales a start-up needs to do (IMO) is the kind where you understand the businesses problems and provide a solution that meets the business requirement.

What is your best guess as to what is causing that? Is it primarily penguin/panda related?

1) You SHOULD disallow that. Why tolerate a system that creates incentives for that kind of abuse.

2) "dirty immigrant bastards" - You're assigning a point of view that the commenter isn't advocating at all. Protectionism is generally more about looking into the future and being scared for your ability to continue at your standard of living and less about disliking certain kinds of people.

And to add my own anecdote to this discussion without siding with anyone else's viewpoint (because I'm a special snowflake with my own nuanced opinions): I've worked at companies that chronically underpay H1B workers. The ones that got fair pay were the ones that were brave enough to demand it.

Best of luck!

Aaannd herein lies the second-order problem for many: that they aren't involved in anything interesting outside of work. This is, by the way, also a problem for us that have already acqui-hired Ms. Right.

Then again, there's something to be said for being willing to be scrutinized by your heroes. Therein lies my admiration for Sean.