Gobitron

This is the best comment in the thread.

By and large I agree with this, but I think there is another element to consider, which is your overall energy levels. If you exercise, eat right, laugh, spend time with family and friends, then you're more likely to be able to consistently put in this kind of effort. I don't think you can or should aim to do much more than 4, but I think a very large proportion of the world isn't capable of even coming close to 4, because they don't or can't manage their energy effectively.

I also agree it is possible to do longer bursts, but that is pretty rare in my experience.

Agreed. In addition to what you've said, too much personalization means too little agency for the user. I wrote a blog post on this a couple of days ago: http://www.ritc.io/you-are-not-the-query/

I'm extremely thankful we were at a hospital when my wife had an emergency c-section. I'm quite sure modern medical facilities and capabilities contributed significantly to us having a healthy baby.

Ritc (http://ritc.io) is launching soon. It's a rule engine as a service (platform + api) that allows you to efficiently connect cloud services together to bolt on functionality into your applications.

Think of it like an API that lets you build an IFTTT clone.

Please excuse the site...we haven't quite launched yet!

This is fun and works nicely.

We're building something similar to what you're looking for and we're getting ready to launch soon. It's a Rule Engine as a Service (basically a Rule Engine API that connects to Web APIs). I'd love to get your feedback. Let me know if we can connect to chat you can reach me at davejonathangoldberg at gmail.

I'm at step 1-5

Interesting, but how is this different than Context.io?

Like a few others here, this hits home for me. However, even with a family and day job I struggle less with sleep and keeping a healthy schedule, and I'm not convinced of the value of the need to "make a dent in the world". I question whether that is the right goal.

For me, there are three things that I want (in priority order) 1. To provide for my family 2. To own my own time. 3. To work on interesting problems.

I wrote it in that order, but mostly I think I over-prioritize #3 over #2. I think things would be much easier if I first focused on achieving #2 and then went on to #3.

This is a pretty cool site. Unfortunately for me the DC/MD/NOVA area has almost no breweries at all. Pennsylvania appears to have a ton though.

Two suggestions: (1) Pictures of the bottles/cans, (2)Information on where a certain beer is available.

Despite the fact of no breweries around me, I would still love to try some of these PA brews. I'm sure many are sold in Maryland. Is it possible to get that info?

I work for and believe in the mission of newspapers, but I beg to differ. I think a more accurate statement would be that if a critical mass of the institutions of journalism as we know it today ceased to exist, it would (and will) have far-reaching implications for society. We casually talk about the death of newspapers, and they will likely disappear, but I think we don't talk enough about the important things that may disappear with them and what we're doing to preserve those things.

As far as the NYT goes however, I don't believe that the impact would be much more than sadness based in nostalgia. The talent that exists there today would still exist, and be applying their skills at other institutions, both new and old.

That's a fantastic looking curve, but keep in mind the absolute numbers shown. They are at 1.6 million direct queries per day. Still a ways to go to be truly competitive (3 billion per day for Google). Still, if they keep up with current growth rates, they could do some real damage.

The guided nature of the signup process is oddly effective. I say "oddly" because I just signed up, but I had no idea what your app does. I had some guesses, but no solid idea.

So I would say that the interface is nice, but the experience needs work because I'd have like to get some context before being asked to enter tasks.

I think a lot of people here are missing the point. It's not about GoDaddy. It's about results. This is a very public about-face, and regardless of their actual intent shows that these types of campaigns can be successful.

May I suggest the next target? Comcast and the other cable providers. We should threaten to cancel our cable service unless they stop supporting SOPA. Obviously they will not do this, so we should actually cancel our cable subscriptions!

Thanks. I have a somewhat similar story to yours, and I ended up building my first app during the first 6 months after my daughter was born. I'm trying again now (slightly different approach), but I actually am finding it more difficult now that she is older.

I hope you keep it going and good luck with it!

Great story. Can you add some detail on how much time you've dedicated to learning on a daily/weekly basis and how it fits into your family and work life?

Interesting story.

Do you have any regrets about your decision? Were you making money before you dropped out and are you making enough to support yourself now?

Isn't this what Mendeley does?

As someone who works in newspapers, I cannot tell you how accurate this is.

I know the founders at Rent the Runway, and they just posted for a social media person.

"JOB OPPORTUNITY: Rent the Runway’s brand marketing team is seeking a social media specialist with an entrepreneurial spirit, superior writing skills and 1-3 years of relevant experience. The ideal candidate is a creative individual with a passion for writing and a love of fashion. This is a unique opportunity to help define the future of social media for a fast-growing fashion brand."

Connect with me @davidgoldberg if she is interested and I can forward her CV on.

I'm not sure I totally agree. I think we are already possess the best filter that guides us generally to the news we want to read. What we need are better experiences from news apps and sites, and not someone else's idea of the perfect overall filter. However, I do think that better selective filtering will prove helpful. I wrote a blog post on this recently. http://goldbergfam.info/blog/2011/06/03/personalized-news-si...

You should read Vinicius Vacanti's blog, "How To Make It As a First Time Entrepreneur" (http://viniciusvacanti.com/). He quit a prestigious finance job to do his own thing, and it took him a while to figure his way around. I recommend reading his whole story from the beginning, I think it will inspire you.

When I tried to start a game, it put me in a game that was in progress already. How can I just start a new game?

The best site that I know of for this is http://www.city-data.com/

It looks terrible, but frankly there is some great information on there, and the forums are pretty useful too.

I completely agree with this. Even with the text add-on that box initially made me think only those retailers were included.

The first thing I did was try it out at an off-brand online store. It worked great and I was "surprised and delighted" (to us a term that may be familiar to HNers).

Great job!