It could make a psychological difference by putting a shame/pride/credibility/game achievement effect in place. I'd put it in "feature requests" here and see what pg thinks--he is definitely interested in keeping the HN addiction in check for YC companies too.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363

In terms of an easy implementation, it could be something users self-manage on the honor system, and perhaps a "ship" icon could link to the product if applicable.

As an angel investor, does that mean I can start funding companies with badges instead of money?

That's a great idea, but how do you define 'product' though? Plenty of people here work on things that are really just tech demos, which don't necessarily have an audience beyond, "Look at this cool thing I was able to do." E.g. that color-picker/slider thing that changed the colors are you moved the mouse (and the scroll wheel changed the contrast). I wouldn't necessarily call it a 'product,' but I would qualify the time spent making it as productive.

Like a Ship-It award? ;)

I like to equate these sorts of ideas with the "grinds" that one sees in MMORPGS. We have reputation grinds on places like HN already, where you gain special privileges based on your point total (actually, it is your average now, right?). So do we want to add more of these things? Instead of talking about gaming the system, it will actually be a game.

Or a badge for having > 10 customers for your shipped product.