Hacker News Reader

dbossonon The TechCrunch party (Y Combinator startups were there in full force)

suits suck

dbossonon The Dilbert Blog: The Secret - Is success socially contagious?

People should read Think and Grow Rich before they read the secret.

"any feedback you had on making it better" --PeepFlow-- I don't know too much about the product, but I definitely think you guys are on to something.

dbossonon Paul Gram, his following, and the hacker partiality

Hopefully I can speak better than I can spell [sorry for spelling your name wrong]. Looking back at my first submissions I am embarrassed at how insecure I sounded. I hope this does not get in the way of an interview if you like our idea.

Dave Bosson

dbossonon Video Podcast CalacanisCast #30 With Angel Investor Ron Conway

Does anyone know how Ron got his start?

dbossonon The Equity Equation

"Remember also that every time you open your mouth in the presence of a person who has an abundance of knowledge, you display to that person your exact stock of knowledge or your lack of it! Genuine wisdom is usually conspicuous through modesty and silence."

dbossonon The Equity Equation

Remember that success comes from improving OTHER people's lives. All your achievements, while probably very gratifying to your mother, have not improved my life at all.

dbossonon Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A man's power to connect his thought with its proper symbol, and so to utter it, depends on the simplicity of his character, that is, upon his love of truth, and his desire to communicate it without loss."

I think this sentence and those that follow are very insightful, when it comes to communicating our ideas.

dbossonon Summer YC startup launches: Versionate's Wiki End Run Around Google Docs

After watching the screencast I got some good insight into what Versionate can do [the features], but I still don't know how it will improve my life [the benefits].

I think you should really stress the benefits and tell people why it is so important to have their files online.

Peace of Mind. You never have to worry about losing important files when your computer crashes.

Instant access to your files from anywhere. If you forget your computer or flash drive at home [no need to worry] your files are online and you can get them when you arrive at work.

I think some simple comments like this could really help.

dbossonon Applications Open for Winter 2008 YC Funding

I agree with Jey. I had no motivation to explore past the learn more page.

dbossonon Do you want money or freedom?

Freedom

dbossonon Lisp:Good News Bad News How to Win Big

In the essay "The 18 Mistakes that Kill Startups" Paul Graham mentions how it is impossible for business guys to hire good programmers. I posted this essay because it shows why it is impossible and will give business guys a deeper understanding.

dbossonon Applications Open for Winter 2008 YC Funding

Yes, you should be candid with people regardless of the circumstances. Doing so makes life more efficient for everyone.

dbossonon Word Problem

For clarification, I did not intend this last statement to be condescending. I have begun to immerse myself into the Hacker culture and have noticed that it is very different than popular culture. I think that with your skills and my knowledge of the customer we can make something wonderful.

dbossonon Word Problem

I allready made an offer for facebook but I think Yahoo out bid me.

dbossonon Word Problem

If you did not have any friends in High school because you were programming the nights away then that is why we need each other ; )

dbossonon Word Problem

The [how] of the concept is simple so I won't go into that until I have protected the IP or have developed trust in the individual. But I believe I have a way to inform people of [all] the upcoming events that they {the individual} is interested in but did not even know where happening.

Think of the application as your most popular friend in high school - the guy/girl that just knew everything that was going on. The guy/girl you would call to ask "what are you up to tonight?" "what else is going on?" And they could tell you all the fun things that were happening and what your other friends were planning on doing.

I believe I have a way to provide a more complete version of your most popular friend to the world.

I could not go into the other value proposition or sources of revenue without giving away the concept.

I greatly appreciate everyones advice. The YC community is an amazing place.

dbossonon Word Problem

I am open to alternative approaches please expound.

dbossonon Word Problem

David seems to have put the cart in front of the horse and needs to very quickly find some top-notch programming talent.

It would be nice to find top notch programming talent quickly, but I am not going to rush this decision. I need to make sure this person[s] has integrity, good energy, is in a position both mentally and financially to do a startup, and above all if we enjoy each other.

I will email you to get in touch with the developers you know My email is dbosson@gmail.com if anyone else want to get together.

dbossonon Word Problem

I could spend 18+ hours a day learning to program but that is just not what I am passionate about and it would take me longer than 1.5 years to get good. I would much rather spend my time designing and working with people, and I would much rather spend my money on servers than rent.

dbossonon Word Problem

Your right I dont know for sure, but I think the idea will require lots of code and be difficult to implement. I also feel the idea has some viral qualities and may need to scale rather quickly. I would be willing to take on more than one cofounder as long as we were all on the same page, and vested. I dont think outsourcing would work, because I already have some more ideas to implement down the road, plus I want somebody to share the struggle and joy with.

Thanks for your advice and the option to contact you for more. I will probably email you soon. Let me digest my thoughts. I still want to find out about provisional patents and what I should do to protect my IP as I look for a co-founder.

dbossonon Word Problem

I am very confident in both the idea and the design, but I am not stuck on either. The idea has already completely changed once, and has slightly changed several more times.

I know a lot of people claim to have big ideas and it is tough to believe them because talk is cheap, but this is real! Something is going to happen and if anyone is serious about doing a startup I would love to get together to talk. Even if we dont end up working together [passionate young people discussing Ideas, the future, and making life better] couldnt hurt.

dbossonon Word Problem

I don't know any developers and I agree with your opinion! I thought about explaining my situation to Stanford CS professors and asking for recommendations. I still might do this, but I wanted to get the opinions of the YC community first.

dbossonon Word Problem

It might not be that hard to find any old developer, but if he is getting ready to invest his life savings and is living out of his car because he wants it so bad he is not going to want any old developer he wants the right developer. You got to get the right people on the bus before you start driving. So how should he go about finding the right developer/co-founder?

dbossonon Word Problem

A recent college graduate named David decides to pursue entrepreneurship instead of employment, so he moves to the Silicon Valley. He has a big idea for a web application, $50,000, and the application designed in adobe illustrator. He does not have a technical background or a co-founder[s]. WHAT SHOULD HE DO?

dbossonon When developers design (be invisible: don't create something that some people may love, but the majority completely hate)

How much time do developers typically spend designing their application?

dbossonon Paul Gram, his following, and the hacker partiality

I wanted to debate whether being partial to a specific group of people limits creativity, but it seems people would rather debate the importance of business guys so I too will give my input on business guys.

I would like to make an effort to reframe the word business guys. Currently when people use or hear that word they think MBA, consultant, Wallstreet, Investment Banker, VC, Money, and ego, all of which are destructive to a startup.

But someone who simply understands the basics of business can be very beneficial to programmers and startups.

A lot can be learned from a business guy who understands how to manage cash flow so that the inflows are greater than the outflows, who has an ability to be close to the customer, who understands sales and marketing so that when he communicates he talks about the benefits and not the features, someone who can speck publicly and inspire others.

This value is a lot less tangible than 40,000 lines of beautiful code but I can assure you it is just as important.

dbossonon Paul Gram, his following, and the hacker partiality

In regards to staunch's comment I feel A Hacker would implement someone else's ideas if they felt enough people would want the idea to be implemented.

I would like to thank [willarson] I found his comment to be insightful and will take to heart what he has said about a non-programmer not understanding the capacity of programming.

It sounds like hackers are not completely shut down to working with a non-technical person as long as that person can add his fair share of value.

I am now going to throw a kicker into the business / hacker relationship. What if a business guy has a vision that both he and the hacker agree has a chance to improve peoples lives. And on top of this vision he has the money to fund it. What is the hacker's response? And how should the equity be divided?

dbossonon Paul Gram, his following, and the hacker partiality

I would like to debate Paul Gram's partiality towards hackers and whether or not this has a negative effect on creativity.

I will open the debate by arguing that being partial to a specific group of people, in this case hackers, does limit creativity. In Paul Gram's essay 'The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups' he says "when I think about what killed most of the startups in the e-commerce business back in the 90s, it was bad programmers. A lot of those companies were started by business guys who thought the way startups worked was that you had some clever idea and then hired programmers to implement it. That's actually much harder than it sounds--almost impossibly hard in fact--because business guys can't tell which are the good programmers. They don't even get a shot at the best ones, because no one really good wants a job implementing the vision of a business guy."

I don't understand why a really good programmer would not want to help implement the vision of a business guy.

The whole point of a startup is to improve people's lives. Paul Gram understands this; he even says the most important aspect of a startup is making something people want.

Well what if that business guy has a vision that will improve a lot of peoples lives? What if that business guy has an idea for something a lot of other business people would want? Why would a great programmer not want to work with the business guy?

My concern is that if hackers do not keep an open mind about working with others their creativity will be limited to their own interest, needs, and desires. If Hackers are only willing to implement their own visions they may be missing out on some wonderful opportunities to make something people want.