The World is His Gameboard | Hacker News Reader

The World is His Gameboard

inc.com

10 pointsraphar5 comments

Honestly I've yet to find scvngr useful. Maybe I'm not their demo, but the app just doesn't get me excited. I've had it installed on my phone for well over a year and have maybe opened it twice? I think the idea is kind of cool, but I am not sure how it is relevant or why life ought to be modeled as a video game in the first place.

   > Companies and institutions are paying 
   > $2,000 a year to north of a $1 million 
   > a year to use the Scvngr platform

I'm impressed if those numbers are legit, but a $1M contract sounds pretty high to me for what is really an unproven platform.

Inc. mentions the Navy, could it be government pork?

Anyone have more insight?

Maybe it's just me, but working 24-7 and keeping a sleeping bag at your desk sounds like a really easy way of burning out quickly.

You have no choice. Give in to Startup: a roller coaster of external self validation through articles (young! college drop out! attractive! pointless mission!), funding (let's raise $30M!), and high power friends also stuck in external self validation cycles (omg, another hit on my google alerts search for my name!).

When you find out you aren't the person reflected back at you externally, you do what you did the first time to get back into the spotlight. So what if you burn through $30M and still can't make money? Just raise more money. Remember: shoot for the moon. Start an inferno with a match. Worst case, you get a free pity acquisition from one of your slightly older, slightly uglier, but much smarter friends.

(I must have woken up on the wrong side of my VC this morning.)

I tried it for about 4 months. Spent some time at the hospital a few weeks later. So yeah, probably not the best idea if you plan to last.

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