GraffitiTim

Funny how similar this is to the famous comment on Dropbox's Launch HN post in 2007.

"1. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software."

Exa (YC S21) is trying to solve this problem by re-indexing the web in an LLM-friendly way.

This is why we need Freshpaint (YC S19) for analytics and other services for healthcare companies. A primary focus on regulatory compliance, privacy, security.

Also: if you've been the new CEO since last July and haven't figured this out, you'll fail to save Medium.

You mentioned paying attention to the sentiment and linked to the HN survey where people explained why they don't like Medium. The top comment was someone explaining this exact reason.

It's highly admirable that you are on here trying to listen, communicating issues transparently, and working to fix problems. But I think you need to listen even more deeply.

Unfortunately this will push you into the depths of the business model that you won't want to change, but is the fundamental reason for medium's eventual failure.

Right now is the moment to save it, as you read this note!

These aren’t the key problem.

The key problem is that you’ve lost the trust of the authors you want to attract. It’s no longer a place I can post and know that my content will be cleanly accessible to readers. I now think you’ll pepper it with pop ups and account demands.

It went from being a minimalist and trusted place to post, to now a feeling of feeding my own content into someone else’s machine and losing control of it.

AI will also be able to fill in dialog, plot points, etc.

This was a very nice thing to say.

Your memory would be more credible than mine certainly!

Perhaps I'm remembering my/people's reaction to first seeing reviews on Amazon.

My memory is there were some stores that had "customer reviews" before Amazon, but they were all screened by the company before being published. So every product would only have 5 star reviews.

When Amazon came out with real reviews, it seemed crazy to many at the time -- like why would you want to share bad things about your products on your own website? I thought it was awesome.

My daughter (who just turned 4) seemed like she might like programming, so I started out having her "program" a stuffed walrus, by telling it whether to go forward, backward, left, or right to get to a piece of food. Her natural inclination was to point to where it should go, so I first taught her that the walrus doesn't understand pointing or the word "here", just the directions.

Then we started "programming each other" by telling each other where to go, and I introduced doing multiple steps at once (like "step forward 5 times").

My goal wasn't literally to teach her to program, but just to introduce that way of thinking, which is pretty different from how we normally think in day-to-day life.

She was excited about it, so I got her the Osmo programming kit for iPad. You program a little monster walking around, using physical, scratch-style code blocks. She's been excited about programming the monster every day, and is able to (sometimes) do some short programs of a couple blocks.

If she learns a bit more, my plan is to show her how to program a simple lego robot with scratch, like one that spins a flag when it sees something pink. I love that idea because with 2 lines of code you can make something really happen in the world, plus she'll be able to come up with new ideas for the robot on her own, and learn about the constraints, sensors, and eventually more basic programming logic.

My 3 year old daughter really enjoyed this! Very nicely done.

We've been using Rally for our happy hours, and internal meetings where there are more than ~5 people. It's great being able to easily hop between tables as conversation topics shift. It brings back a lot of that serendipity that we're all missing from in-person events.

In fact, I find it allows for more serendipity than a lot of in-person events. In person, once you're sitting down at a table it's socially awkward to get up and move to another table. Mostly you just talk with whoever you're sitting next to or across from. With Rally it's much more fluid. I find myself hopping around all the time.

In our internal meeting this week we split into groups of 3, and then took turns jumping on stage to report back to the group.

Disclaimer: we invested

I imagine some kind of VR tracker for the Quest will come out eventually. Something like the Vive trackers but smaller. Agree, it would open up all kinds of interesting applications.

I think people will be surprised how well this works.

There are a lot of great startups that will be born in these times. Many of them will be "remote native" -- operated remotely, remote YC, and potentially tackling problems that have arisen due to the remote world we're living in.

After this crisis is over, some things will go back to normal, but a lot of the changes will endure to varying degrees.

I think people are used to the power of in-person connection and physical reality, and most of us are craving it. But an incredible amount can happen in digital reality, and we are only just beginning to scratch that surface.

At minimum it is an interesting and necessary experiment.

How is that different/worse than a startup? Early founders/employees get stock at a lower price, and then the price goes up if the company makes progress. There's only a return if the market values it.

This seems like a good idea! Could even charge for admission.

They took the feedback to heart, built fast, and got paying users! Where's the big mistake there?

I think one of the good things about YC, is if you try to optimize for getting into YC, you're actually building your startup in a constructive manner.

Actually pretty good for a 50 year prediction!

Anyone want to make 50 predictions about 2069?

Funny, most people have the opposite question: they can't understand what it would be like to have aphantasia.

The way you're describing "knowing what a sphere is" and being able to describe it, is how I explain to people what aphantasia is like.

Consider the possibility, even if unlikely, that you yourself have aphantasia. It is common for people with aphantasia to not realize they have it until a conversation like this -- they simply assume they are experiencing what everyone else is experiencing, and that the concept of "visualizing" something is more metaphorical than it really is.

Can you really see a sphere when you're not looking directly at one, in any sense of the word? Or do you just know what a sphere looks like?

It's insane to refer to this article as a fluff piece. It's a detailed, transparent, numerical, inside look at how a particular founder runs various aspects of her business.

It's one of the least fluffy pieces I've seen about a startup.

I want to put a plug in for Boundary Layer Technologies. Their crazy Demo Day goal was to build a freaking hydrofoil ship during YC.

The founders I know who worked with them before said "They may actually be able to pull this off."

And there it was, right out front on Demo Day.

I think corners are probably more dark in games and movies than in real life, due to dramatic lighting. It's often an artistic choice.

That doesn't address the cases where there are weird artifacts as he mentioned. Those can be a pain to avoid in game engines since you're often using lighting "hacks" (like SSAO and others) for performance reasons.

As a counterexample, I used to be like you (loved eating meat) and was convinced not to by allowing myself to entertain the notion that it was wrong, and learning about animal suffering at factory farms. I was able to make a moral determination that went against what I wanted or craved. I still crave meat years later, but I don’t eat it.

Probably similar arguments to yours were made in favor of slavery not so long ago. “It’s convenient and makes my life better, and the morality of it is irrelevant.” Now slavery is repulsive, and in the future we will look back at how we treated farm animals in a similar way. For me it was worth considering which side of the moral history I wanted to be on.

It would be interesting to see ML recommendations of the form "There is a 75% chance you'll LOVE this movie, 25% chance you'll hate it" rather than only "98% chance you'll like this movie". Right now those 75% movies are actively hidden, as 75% is considered a bad prediction.

In other words, rather than optimizing for zero risk of disliking something, allow the user to optimize for the possibility of truly loving something, or being surprised. Especially on Netflix, where the risk is you stop part way through and switch to something else!

Thank you! You can reach out tim at fearlessvr.com

Thanks eblanshey. Let me know if you have any ideas about it!

Thank you rubicon33. Did you fill out the survey linked above? If so I'll let you know when it's ready.

We're building a VR simulation of flying specifically for the purpose of overcoming fear of flying. It uses some of the same principles you mention:

-Repeated exposure to a realistic flying experience (in our case, it goes gradually since it's designed for people with a fear)

-Specifically learning about some of the different noises planes make

-Getting exposure to the vibrations, noises, turbulence, etc that you'll encounter on a real flight

And on top of that, we teach various techniques for overcoming the fear, give new logical/rational approaches to reinforce how safe flying is, understanding the underlying anxieties and emotions involved in fear of flying, etc.

But we don't teach you how to fly! That would be a very neat addition.

The company is called Fearless. I put up a little Fearless for Flying survey here for anyone interested: https://goo.gl/forms/11dINvQlgSnvOaQE2

We are almost done with our VR program for fear of flying: http://FearlessVR.com

It's based on exposure therapy / systematic desensitization. It has special sections for turbulence as well as other common underlying fear of flying issues.

I successfully overcame my fear of spiders using Fearless for spiders.

>I'd be interested to know how "smoke-free" time is established. Are users self-reporting that they have or haven't smoked with the app? And 28-days of not smoking is great, but it feels dishonest to call that "smoke-free".

Well, they're not actually claiming "mission accomplished" after 28-days smoke-free -- they continue to help people stay smoke-free on an ongoing basis. But 28 days seems like a challenging and reasonable milestone to me.

(Disclaimer: I invested in QuitGenius)