jansho

> Now women are being pulled into the same trap/punishment as men, and finally we can include them in our own destruction.

Isn't it a fabulous irony. The dream of technology is that it'll free up more time for us to enjoy life, yet we find ourselves more slave to our hamster wheels in an ever more expensive, demanding world, where our only comfort is living the commercially constructed "now".

Women with families are doubly punished. Today they are expected to be both breadwinner and home-builder. While this is welcoming, the reality is that this is a superpower and can be a burden, especially if society doesn't adapt to it (e.g. work flexibility) and men and women continue to not share responsibilities at home.

Sometimes I think that in our intellectual battle for gender rights and justice, we forget another party, the one most innocent yet may bear the most brunt - our children. Who, coincidentally, will also be the next generation.

A while back, the Guardian wrote a piece about their annual expo:

"Everyone is feeling good. Employees weave through the crowd with trays of probiotic juice. I decide I like the Goop expo. It is silly, but most of us seem to be in on the joke"

It's a fascinating read [1] and it seems that not all of the attendants wanted their ego stroked. Some just need a quirky, random excuse to dig in their coffers - I think.

Personally, I felt that the author's trying too hard to be satirical. The whole expo feels slimy; IV drips, oxygen sessions, colour-coded bracelets... it's New Age plus hippie plus hipster plus Paltrow probably cackling in the background.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jun/14/gwyneth...

Just a heads up to UK residents, the BBC iPlayer currently has a wealth of Japanese culture videos, including street fashion

I think we are also conditioned to not trust China. Certainly in the U.K. coverage about China is always negative, from dog stews to mafia-styled political stories. And of course the fact that China is gobbling so much and so fast ... Alibaba is apparently much bigger than Google and Amazon combined. Who's to say that Alibaba isn't the commercial face of the Chinese government? I think that's what we're really wary about.

Rational or irrational, we're definitely jealous, so whatever, that's high compliment for China. But China really is becoming a super, which means it's a threat to the old order. In South East Asia, it was once unthinkable to not see the US as an ally. Now this is shifting, for better or for worse cough South China Sea

Well it's certainly made me pause when I saw HN's fancy grey header.

That's perhaps the intention. Raise awareness first, then come together to do something. It's gonna take lots of days of action over the years to gain momentum..

Well go on then, what's the startup idea? :)

> For example, with Justin TV/ Twitch TV they were "too early" because 4G internet was not ubiquitous, and most average people could not even consume their streams.

I don't think people were ready for this either. In the early 2000s, it was still weird to hang out in forums, for example.

It took an evolutionary-styled journey to normalise live video feeds. Instagram rolled out this feature only recently, once their users are used to the idea of sharing and crave for more ways to do so.

But I also wonder if these "too early" failures are actually necessary to prepare the consumer's mind to the idea, so that next time, they're much more open to it. And, it helps that the next iteration is most certainly improved and more considerate of the human psyche..

"Justin TV" sounds like a narcissist experiment. "Instagram Stories"? You're not a 'voyeur' if this is a standard feature and everyone's using it ;)

Not related to startups specifically (unless edtech?) but I highly recommend Metalearn for personal development. It's interview-based but that's what I like about it!

When does the application for the next cohort open?

Slightly older but I'm learning a hard lesson now: make sure to have at least 6 months worth of savings before going fully self-employed!

Okay let's play this game. Let's accept that women are indeed more emotional creatures.

(So tempted to get all sarky with "wide-eyed" and "fragile" but onwards.)

Now what's wrong with being emotional? Even in environments such as tech, this is a necessity. Ultimately people use tech, so damn right we need to be emotional about it.

'Emotional fits' though uncomfortable to watch don't actually occur often, but when it does, it is usually grounded in a very good reason, which may not be made clear yet.

So either way, actually, it's still way better for us to embrace differences and listen to each other for a richer working environment and output. Diversity is only a barrier when you choose to look at it that way.

Sorry but this still bothers me. I'm not going to wade into the gender war so let me put it this way: we are also 'different' in other ways, so misunderstanding is generally not just down to one factor. So is it right to just simplify the attribution to male-female differences? Normal vs neurotypicals. Secular vs religious. White vs non-white. East vs West. Old vs young. Urban vs country. And so on it goes, plus the greys in between, and life experiences and assumptions and beliefs. Every person has a unique combination of these factors, creating a very grey (or colourful if you like) identity.

Then combine this with the time, place and mood the misunderstanding occurred in. Then you will realise that it's too fuzzy to just put it down to a factor such as gender differences ... so what to do? Simples: try not to judge, because at best it is inaccurate and at worse it feeds into the prejudice. It would be far more helpful to take the benefit of doubt while being honest and empathic, because that's the only way the two parties can meet at the centre. If one party refuses to budge, then perhaps just give in! Victories are ultimately a bit petty.

By the way, please don't take this as a holier-than-thou speech, and I'm not condemning you for being so 'simple'. The reality is that all of us are like this, because it's so deeply ingrained and easy, a shortcut in our search for explanation. But for the sake of peace, we can definitely try to rise above it. Honesty and empathy - without the tree-hugging tone.

Nine CEOs ... what? That made my day.

Seriously though your background story is awesome. I haven't done electronics for a while, so this unhealthy "meh" attitude is starting to creep in ... but now I have an 8 year old kid to compare to (!) What's your startup about?

Awful case. I thought it was a bit extreme at first, until I read the details of how she really pushed for suicide. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40304433

Gender neutrality is currently trending in Harajuku. Source: BBC doc "Ryan Gander: The Idea of Japan" (now have to sign up to iPlayer though)

> The Ask HN thing is so bizarre

Agreed. Second bit though, you just jump on the bandwagon?

I'm mostly in the high contrast camp but in low lighting situations, I have to agree with you. I hit the "Night Shift" button on my iPhone, or flux when on laptop.

https://justgetflux.com/

Allow me to defend my unicorn project:

Typewriters have some psychological usefulness. It's single function-focused (writing.) And objects which have strong emotional value can be very desirable too - hop over to Instagram.

And this one .. can be easily slipped in the pocket, like Nintendo DS.

With e-ink, even better. Longer battery life too.

You might be able to hook it up to a larger monitor.

As for printing. Micro-printers aren't new, some are as slim as rods. Abhorrently expensive though. Or alternatively that Polaroid pre-inked paper. Or just wireless printing.

One of the best advantages of storing writing in a computer is preservation. And if there's a tree-like elegant notebook installed (CherryTree is quite nice) even better.

But doesn't this show that the main players of the solar system are the sun and Jupiter?

Apologies for the source, and my clear lack of knowledge in astronomy.

One of my favourite "doodle projects" is a dumb computer the size of a slim diary which does nothing except type and print. The UX is the main state-of-the-art feature.

Course the smallness will mean that the typing experience will be compromised to some degree. But I've got a matching keyboard for my iPad mini and got used to that. I've seen some of these digital typewriters on Kickstarter but they lack a little something ... I guess a product of this type must have a real endearing value about it. If it's possible to sell mental business plans huh ;)

Well what do you know, Jupiter doesn't actually orbit the sun! Not properly anyway

http://www.iflscience.com/space/forget-wha-you-heard-jupiter...

I enjoyed reading the comments. There might be some selection bias here but more importantly it seems that everyone found the experience to be personalised. I admit that I had doubts about how an online-only programme could possibly work, especially since next year's batch will be even larger. But I think I'm swayed.. might apply after all :)

A kid just told me "I know Python, I did the games." Facepalm.

Jessica Alba to add another. It's so easy to not be taken seriously but her Honest company is now valued at $1 billion.

Admitting that you're wrong may sound like a bruise to your ego, but only if you feel personally tied to the project. Pixar has a good approach; they vehemently emphasise that the project is always separate and thus criticism towards it are never personal. If you try and do it for your own project, you can get a more objective view and explore much more design possibilities.

The downside to this is a longer process, and actually you become more prone to "analysis-paralysis". But still I would argue that it's part of developing yourself to become more objective, at least that's the experience with my project anyway. It's funny that we're taking about this because two weeks ago I had to tear down an entire product architecture, built over 3 years, to start all over again. I had made one flawed assumption at the beginning, and it got buried so deep that I didn't realise for a long time. It manifested itself into a set of problems that I kept hitting into, until I had to concede that there's something rotten at its core.

It sounds like a waste, but no: the new product was actually designed at a much shorter time, and far better than its predecessor (well you'll just have to take my word for now ;)) And yes I do feel a bit silly for being in denial before.

It's particularly encouraging to read the many hours of work and back-stepping he's done, to get the quality really, really high. Startups are often associated with speed, but less so on flexibility, even if lean philosophy purports it. Ship fast. Get the bare-bones MVP done. Aim for viral growth. This is probably why we have millions of apps, but only a few dozens last and actually taken up by the mass. Different types of products mean different processes after all, give or take amount of resources.

In this app's case, it's about re-imagining an existing function - timetables. The designer knows that user experience is everything, and because of this he's willing to scrap everything if need to. And even when this happens, it isn't exactly waste as you understand the problem deeper and come to the design of an even better solution.

Sure you can argue that an MVP can bring about those design iterations. Keeps your focus on the users too. But arguably the market for this type of product is very active - though not necessarily competitive. So rather than get buried with the hundred others, it needs to shine right from the beginning.

Just out: "May has no intentions of resigning" (!)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/09/theresa-may...

That's not the only chance though. It's a chance within a chance within so many other chances over many, many years, from the moment the Big Bang happened.

For sure our knowledge will grow, but I am not so sure if this will apply to our understanding. Yet the more we know, the more we seem we don't know!

Hey thanks for letting me indulge in this thread, I was hoping to test my thoughts and learn something new (I did) :)

> I stopped resisting the distractions

I echo this and many others here. Fighting back to "cure" yourself is almost always counterproductive and very, very painful. Think long-term instead, and think management; let it happen but guide it with the aim of having ultimate control over it.

I think that the stuff in our mind is mostly abstract. We absorb things from the world all the time, conscious and unconscious, and make conscious and unconscious connections between them.

Thinking aloud, whether in the mind, on paper or even vocally, helps us to identify some of these points, and thus quantify a meaning from it. There's only so many points that we can mentally hold though - we're not good multi-taskers after all! So the better we can think aloud, the better we can consciously grab thoughts and identify the real gaps - which we can fill in by searching/ creating more points in our mind, or go external.

Hmm, just thinking aloud though ;)