Hacker News Reader

I agree. Not too much new here. I've upvoted it however because I've learnt that:

* You can give away in-app purchases for free. (Wasn't sure if it could be done.)

* They didn't spend any money on advertising. Nothing new there either, but it's another datapoint and it'll help me a bit in the future, when I need to figure out if we should spend money on ads (probably not).

tom_ilsinszkion Show HN: free filebased Dropbox synched Tasklist App for iPhone

How did others feel about the iTunes link?

It started my iTunes as I clicked it (a bit frustrating), but then I thought it might be great for increasing the number of people who buy the app.

tom_ilsinszkion Ask HN : Is there an HN for graphic designers (web but mostly print)?

A graphic designer friend and I are working on a hobby project (startup?) - we meet weekly. Behance to him is like HN to me.

EDIT: He's more into print than web.

tom_ilsinszkion Show HN: My useless but fun laser eyes web app

My 2 cents...

I'd put the "Login with facebook to post pictures to Facebook!" box under or next to the picture.

Also keeping it hidden and making it appear after the laser has been placed, might also be a good idea.

tom_ilsinszkion When Smart People are Bad Employees

"[...] if you’re an entrepreneur, generally you don’t like working with a lot of people. That’s what an entrepreneur is." - Robert Greene on Mixergy

tom_ilsinszkion Working hurts less than procrastinating, we fear the twinge of starting

I also fear, that I start working on a problem, give it my best and still fail. It's easier to explain why I failed if I've procrastinated.

I don't think that the pain of context switching explains procrastination fully...

tom_ilsinszkion Small iPhone 4 holder raises 100k at Kickstarter and counting

"something that set Diaspora up for a far more epic failure"

Is Diaspora a failure? How did the Kickstarter model set them up for this failure in your opinion?

tom_ilsinszkion Ask HN: Share a gem. Teach me and you.

Would you prefer if someone else had already decided the meaning of you life?

tom_ilsinszkion Ask HN: Share a gem. Teach me and you.

The only reason why another person will do what you want, is because they want to do it. Look at their viewpoint as well as your own, when you ask them to do something.

If there is nothing in it for the other person, you're just wasting time, both his and yours. 'Because I want it done!' will only get you a half-hearted effort or worse.

tom_ilsinszkion Hacker News User Base Changed?

Living in Europe, it's exciting to think, that I'm part of a conversation with people from the valley.

But maybe you're right; maybe working together with others (on an open source project for example), or helping someone on stack overflow for example is a better way to develop more meaningful relationships.

tom_ilsinszkion Why is computer science a sausage fest?

This might be a risky comment for me, but I'll bite the bullet.

Why I'd like to see more female developers?

* I wanted to have more women (girls) around at university. Yes, one reason is sexual attraction (I hope it's not a problem, that I mention this, but I am a human being after all), but I also found that girls are an essential part of how human groups are formed. You might become really good friends with another guy at uni, just because you like hanging around the same girl at the beginning; on the other hand, you might not chat up and start hanging out with that other guy initially.

* It would be far healthier for (young) people to socialize in a mixed environment.

* A lot of women that I know are more social and caring than me in day to day communication. I'd also love to have and learn more of that.

* Women tend to think differently. They have a different approach to problems, which is what teams are all about; having people with many different approaches, so that when a there is a problem, someone can think of the easiest possible solution.

What I'm not sure I like about this post, is that it seems defensive. Tries to prove that "there are female developers who are just as good as men" too hard, while it forgets to focus on what women are better at, and also what the tech community would win if we all _actively_ knew that the community needs more women.

I'd love to work in a mixed community of men and women.

tom_ilsinszkion Please check out our side project, OhLife (from MeetingMix, YC S08)

Also wanted to write: a, b, c, d, x

tom_ilsinszkion We're happier when busy but our instinct is for idleness

Complicated user interface + no reward: "majority (68 per cent) of students chose the lazy option" == the majority of people will simply hit the back button in their browsers.

Complicated user interface + reward: "majority (59 per cent) chose the [...] 'busy' option" == the majority of people will use a complicated interface, if there is (social or other type of) reward.

tom_ilsinszkion Ask HN: Loosing Faith - the startup killer

"But how?" We, startup people, are visionaries. We see possibilities in things that don't even exist yet. We envision our company as the next Google, and ourself as the next Steve Jobs. There is however a really long period of time, where you just have to be like a wind-mill and grind all day (mostly alone). Grinding requires a whole different mindset than envisioning. You need to switch modes in your brain and must find a way to enjoy the small activities, in other to make it.

How to enjoy grinding? Get absorbed in the daily small tasks and focus on them completely. Our brains are built up in a way, that it's impossible for us not to enjoy ourselves, if we really focus on a single task. Multitasking really kills the flow experience, so it's good to to avoid multitasking whenever possible.

Have a grand strategy and know where you want to be in life. Review your strategy every one or two weeks. Look at the week ahead, and the week just passing. Is there an activities you should focus on? Look for small improvements.

Track your resources (time and money). How much time and money do you spend on certain activities (you think you know, but you have no idea without actually tracking it). There are time tracking apps (eg. Eternity for iPhone), that could help. Look at your spendings (again time and money) each day and find things, that you could do better / things that you shouldn't do / things that you should do instead.

There are a million things that might work for you, but the bottom line is to find a way to enjoy the grinding process.

tom_ilsinszkion How To Succeed Like Apple

How To Succeed Like [the currently hot company]: Don't copy them.

Google didn't copy Yahoo when they created a new search algorithm and a minimalistic search page. Apple didn't copy Microsoft when they focused on design, marketing and on producing most things themselves.

You shouldn't copy others either (only learn from them). Look at, what the big guys are missing instead.

tom_ilsinszkion Ask HN: How can I get better at design?

Consider working with a designer even on small projects, because it's a low-cost and low-risk way to get to know designers and filter out the ones, you'd love to work with on bigger projects.

Also, I don't have proof for this, but based on my experiences, designers need to be less analytical, and a little more intuitive. While programmers need to try to be as analytical as possible (while programming at least). So, I think it's not really easy to be good at both (again, my opinion).

Advice: develop an eye for design, so you know what's good and what's not, and learn how to communicate with designers more effectively than most programmers.

tom_ilsinszkion Ask HN: I have time and energy but I don't find good ideas

It might be, that you, simply aren't an "idea person".

You could ask for ideas (eg. here on HN). or you could join other people, who have (useful) ideas.

Either way, it might be helpful, if you provided some more info on what kind of work motivates you and what your technical skills are.

tom_ilsinszkion Ask HN: check out my new web app lystener.com

I love rap music, and have been looking for meaningful and deep rap lyrics on the web more than once in the last couple of years (haven't found a webapp for that yet). I'd love to have a place on the web, where others (or your webapp) could recommend such rap lyrics to me as a user, based on my listening history for example. Also, you could also let people discuss lyrics.

I might be biased, because I'm a rap listener myself, but you could add any other genre to your repertoire, that has a lyrics-aware fan base.

tom_ilsinszkion How I learned to become a failure

%s/small failure/reality checking/g

tom_ilsinszkion Android vs. iPhone: How Google is winning hearts of developers

The cutting edge apps will be developed for the iPhone first, and then ported to Android (if it's even possible).

Reasons behind my claim:

Device fragmentation: If an app makes heavy use of a built-in sensor (eg. accelerometer), it's much harder to test the app with all Android devices. Some of the Android devices might not even have the sensor, that the app uses, which will result in an angry customer. And angry customers are bad news, when you aim for word-of-mouth marketing.

Low-level coding: With the iPhone, it's possible to implement cpu intensive code blocks in assembly optimized for each generation iPhone, and thus optimize the code, so that you make the most of your resources. If I'm not mistaken Android only supports Java.

tom_ilsinszkion Creative minds 'mimic schizophrenia'

_"Creativity is uncomfortable. It is their dissatisfaction with the present that drives them on to make changes."_

Guess a lot of entrepreneurs feel the same way. Not saying, that everyone who starts a small business is a genius, but I think most people who do, feel uncomfortable in "normal" society. Otherwise why would they risk it all, while eating cheap food and working a lot more than at a 9 to 5?

I read the biography of van Gogh. He was in constant mental pain (based on his letters to his brother) and did not fit in anywhere. He tried learning math (if I remember correctly) 18 hours a day, also tried being a dedicated pastor, etc. He just did not fit in anywhere, until he started painting and drawing. Of course, he didn't fit in the mainstream painting trends either, but I don't think that matters, because the mental discomfort would not have stopped even if he got rich or famous.

Also Dali has wrote a diary, which I heard about before. I will definitely pick it up at the library and read it.

tom_ilsinszkion Ask HN: Number of iPhone apps you published & income you get from them

Why did the "No offense, but that app really blows." comment got down voted, and the "i think it's pretty cool" comment up voted? They both voice opinions, only difference: one is positive, the other is negative.

Aren't people allowed to not like an app?

tom_ilsinszkion Ask HN: Why U.S. people dislike Nokia?

A week ago, I watched the movie 'Who killed the electric car?'. At one point the narrator said something like:

>> US customers feared that by getting accustomed to small electric cars, they wouldn't be able to have large SUVs, and would eventually be forced to live like Europeans!

At that point I laughed out loud and rewinded the video just to hear it one more time. Maybe for people in the US, Europe reminds them of the concept of compromising; which is not great, as far as marketing goes.

I agree, that iPhones and Androids are superior now, but how come Nokia wasn't really successful in the US, before the iPhone? I think they had (and still have) great non-smart phones.

tom_ilsinszkion Ask HN: How do I become smarter?

FYI, I'm 26; anyway here is my advice.

* Don't focus on the goal: You might set some big goals, but don't focus on them too much (focus on the process instead and probably you'll be happy with the outcome).

* Change slowly: Monitor yourself, summarize what you did each day and try to change things one at a time. Changes that need time to take effect cannot be made quickly (the same way it's not a good idea to adjust water temperature quickly while you're showering).

* Know yourself: Know your limits, and what makes you tick. Monitor yourself and your friends. Figure out why those people are your friends. (It helps to understand yourself better). What are your weaknesses, what are strengths? Hint: what are the things you enjoyed doing when you were a little kid? Try to find activities / work that's similar to that.

* Learn from others: Get to know people, who you respect, and are smarter than you; learn from them. (Also a great way to keep your ego checked)

* Remember to spend time with your loved ones. Do it for them, and for you.

tom_ilsinszkion There Are No Famous Programmers

Checking your ego (against reality) and getting rid of it completely are 2 different things.

tom_ilsinszkion There Are No Famous Programmers

Agreed. When you have a really hard programming task, you need to be in problem-solving mode, and a lot of times you have to find errors in your own thinking. A big ego will only limit your capabilities to find misconceptions you hold true.

A big ego might help to project an image of how cool you are, but computers couldn't care less.

It also explains -in my opinion- why geeks are not the aggressive type. It's just a waste of energy when you're dealing with a computer.

tom_ilsinszkion Why A Good Memory Is Bad For You

Animals may plan sometimes, but it seems to be the exception, not the rule.

"According to the 'mental time travel hypothesis' animals, unlike humans, cannot mentally travel backwards in time to recollect specific past events (episodic memory) or forwards to anticipate future needs (future planning). Until recently, there was little evidence in animals for either ability. Experiments on memory in food-caching birds, however, question this assumption by showing that western scrub-jays form integrated, flexible, trial-unique memories of what they hid, where and when. Moreover, these birds can adjust their caching behaviour in anticipation of future needs. We suggest that some animals have elements of both episodic-like memory and future planning."

source: http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v4/n8/abs/nrn1180.html

tom_ilsinszkion What real life bad habits has programming given you?

If I understand what you say correctly, you don't like when geeks act out the geek stereotype. I feel the same way. We like computers, but that shouldn't stop us from having a nice conversation, being funny and attractive to others (intellectually and otherwise).

tom_ilsinszkion What real life bad habits has programming given you?

Whenever a non-technical person asks a computer related question, like: "Is it possible to do X?", I have to force myself to give a short answer, without going into details, in a way that it will fit that person's needs and abilities.

I have to concentrate and run some scenarios (real time) while we are talking about what that person is capable of, so that I can give them useful information, without confusing them. Not really a bad habit (I think), nor is it frustrating, but it definitely comes from my technical background, and it takes some brain power.

tom_ilsinszkion Some Tips to Improve the Civility on Hacker News

See your point (btw I liked the comment you posted about your gf; I feel the same way).

Okay then, there should be an option to mask your identity as anonymous, if you're not totally comfortable with a subject and post it like that. But those who would comment under their (real) name could get a higher priority for that given comment.

EDIT: an algorithm to verify identity (far from perfect and not necessarily for HN)

1) Give 1 person a verified account (linked to facebook) who the admins know personally. 2) Let that person invite her _facebook friends_ to the system. ... and so on