Inmates Go High-Tech as Startup Mania Hits San Quentin

That couldn't be more stupid. There's a very simple reason why startups target rich consumers - it's because they have money, and without it, resource constrained startups die.

Important problems are for NGOs, national governements, hundred billion dollar universities and international organizations to solve. The very reason problems so important still exist is for the fundamental reason that they require huge amounts of resources over many years at little to no return on investment to the business.

Going after "important problems" as a startup is a very fast way of becoming bankrupt.

This was my first thought. The amount of money we waste on these types of criminals (the non-violent drug offenders) is simply horrible to stomach.

In addition to letting them out they should never have to put drug convictions on a job application. At least in the software world I see no reason this is relevant. One could argue it demonstrates poor potential for a nurse/doctor/etc, which could be exceptions.

Yeah, those terrible people who invent accounts to create a false level of activity for visitors are terrible people. I mean lying to users is probably one of the worst things we can do.

Get off your high horse.

> anything worth doing in this life take some smarts and years of slavish devotion

Sounds like prison life is well suited to catch up.

Since Y Combinator is too competitive to get into, can someone recommend a suitable crime that I can commit in order to be sent to San Quentin? Preferably a felony whose prison sentence matches the length of the program. Given that the incubator program in San Quentin accepts 1 in 5 applicants from the general prison population, as a developer I think I'm a shoe-in for being accepted.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and I look forward to submitting a "Show HN" article once my SQ W2013 startup launches. Goodbye, ramen noodles and sleeping on my buddy's floor... hello, three hots and a cot!

Did you read the article?

How in any sense of the phrase are these people taking shortcuts? The one inmate cited in the story acknowledges that he has a lot to learn and that he's not actually going to start a startup after being released.

The one investor who is cited talks about being there to educate, not invest. The program itself is trying to get internships for these inmates when they're released. Internships are pretty much the bottom rung when it comes to jobs - starting with an internship and then working your way up is the complete antithesis of taking shortcuts.

> Taking shortcuts, as these people have done and were punished for, is not how it's done.

The guy interviewed was Griffin and was in there for drug possession—not exactly taking shortcuts. There are many people who work hard and go to prison for other reasons. Saying "Taking shortcuts" and insinuating that all people in prison lack the job skills (ignoring the fact that being in prison makes it extremely difficult to find employment even with skills) implies laziness, but saying "these people" is a tricky way to reduce an entire population into a single characterization. Some would consider this classist or racist given the the classes and races which make up much of the population of prisons. I'm emphatically not accusing you of this, given that I would imagine people on HN would be above that, but A) you should be sensitive to it, not only for those in prison but also for all the people who have people in their lives who are in prison, and they may find this painful or offensive. But also B) remember that directly going after people with money is sometimes shortsighted. We share the same culture regardless of income, including (importantly) much of the internet, so taste and internet traffic may be dictated by people who come from literally anywhere—Cristal was built from a nothing brand into a billion dollar industry by being name dropped in hip-hop music, and lost business after racist/classist comments leading to Jay-Z boycotting them. Not everyone in prison is going to have what it takes to do a startup, but they should also not be ignored. Some of the richest people in America were born to poverty, so don't discount them immediately.

I say this as a member of the target audience of pretty much everyone on HN and an immense fan of Trailer Park Boys.

"Taking shortcuts" is a pretty common theme behind successful startups. Sometimes even illegal shortcuts (look at Uber), or ethically questionable ones (look at Oracle)...