Hacker News Reader

joshberton Suspicious Minds – Why No One Trusts People In Authority

The Century of the Self is one of my five favorite documentaries, I would recommend it to anyone regardless of profession.

joshberton My First Year of Coding

You and your project are truly inspiring. Congratulations on everything!

joshberton Microsoft Will Soon Bring Back The Start Menu In Windows 8.1

I'm all for flat design should the context call for it. I don't feel like Windows 8 calls for it. I feel like that start menu looks infantile and cluttered.

Yes Microsoft, we get it, you invented metro. Stop trying to push it on us on the desktop.

joshberton I'm done with haters

Ah, there we are. Away you go, just like the wind. Ego as frail as ever and notions as untouched as they'll ever be. Godspeed to you, you beautiful soul.

joshberton I'm done with haters

I'm lost. Now you're defining "hate" as an exercise in irrelevant factoid regurgitation? And juxtaposing that against a priority to excel? At this point I think you're just playing a semantics game.

My questions went unanswered also.

joshberton I'm done with haters

Not to engage in "hate", but why did you post this? I'm sitting here wondering who this benefits. Was your epiphany so massive that you just had to tell us all about it?

I'm genuinely thankful for "hate". Never have I engaged in conversation with a "hater" where I didn't come out of it with a deeper understanding of the subject matter or a new perspective. That's invaluable. Raw negativity is an entirely different beast, however, which is rarely helpful to anybody in any capacity.

There's a big difference between criticism and hate. Not every valid critic is a hater nor is the opposite true. Honestly, your thread made me cringe it's so vapid, specially the end of your comment. Ugh.

You may now call me buddy and just turn around and walk away.

joshberton Wanelo: The First Million Users

Exactly, that was the original title.

joshberton Wanelo: The First Million Users

Can someone tell me why it could possibly be relevant to say that she is single?

joshberton Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

That is a shallow and inaccurate assessment of what's one the best articles that's been posted in the past month.

joshberton Update on Julie Horvath's Departure

I agree that the statement is good. I only wish they'd addressed the concerns that were raised regarding them having access to/messing with private repos.

joshberton Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

That is largely the stand out of the article for me. I know this story will be forgotten and buried in no more than a week, but until they address this, I'm going to use BitBucket instead.

joshberton After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

Agreed. This tendency has been really noticeable lately. No constructive criticism, no insight or analysis. Just pure negativity.

I really think that what OP did is great and very few people could have done something similar.

joshberton The Five Year Itch

That's exactly what I thought. "Say that to my face, not online and see what happens."

joshberton Dropbox-Hosted Websites

Yes, you can. The thing is that Github is still intimidating for a lot of people. They can use this as a simpler alternative.

joshberton Semantic UI – A language for sharing UI

Looks great. I am also using a Chromium-based browser, so half the elements do nothing when I click on them, but that's understandable seeing how new this is.

Keep up the good work!

joshberton Ask PG: Do you still own books?

The problem is that I like to read a lot. Usually a book per week, so I keep almost everything in eBook form.

As a consequence, my personal approach is to only keep up to 5 physical books at any given time. Basically I buy the book in eBook form and if I like it a lot - like really, really love it, I can order a physical copy. At that point, I should have already made the decision of which one of my 5 physical books is going to get donated to make space for this one.

I hate clutter and my best work is done in focused and clean environments, so that's why I do this.

joshberton Instagram says it now has the right to sell your photos

I've been living under a rock, then. Although, it's fairly ingenious.

joshberton Consider Not Setting Goals in 2013

I'm not. I'm setting and doing goals all year long, this year won't be any different.

joshberton How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle

Most people would rather have an excuse to fail than have a reason to be successful.

joshberton LinkedIn Users Can Now Call Each Other for Free

Isn't this what Clarify.fm is trying to get resolved in some capacity?

joshberton Let's All Shed Tears For The Crappy Startups That Can't Raise Any More Money

I think that's pretty much the gist of it. Only solving real problems can bring in real revenue.

joshberton Instant Motivation

I'm wondering if maybe by getting these kinds of instant motivation bursts you're attacking a symptom instead of the problem.

joshberton The Myth of American Meritocracy

This is a massive over simplication, but my personal take is that the people who make it big always had a nag that they were going to be successful.

Success doesn't strike me as something that you just stumble upon. There is always work to be done, but most people just won't do it. I'm not saying most people are lazy, I just think that they decide to work on the wrong things.

Furthermore, if your determination can be deterred by an article, I wouldn't bet for you to be successful to begin with.

joshberton LivingSocial expected to lay off 400 in U.S.

Maybe the fact that this company created it wasn't optimal, but I still think it's a very solid idea.

joshberton How I Wrote a Book in 3 Days

I believe in the vision that these guys have. I contacted Drew and before ordering and he was very pleasant to deal with, so I went for it.

I would be lying if I say that I'm not curious about the quality of the content, which is exactly why I decided to jump the gun. Worst case scenario, I'm out $29. Best case scenario, I improve my execution abilities.

Will keep you posted.

joshberton Ask HN: As a startup CEO, if your HR is screwing up, do you want to know?

Of course I would like to know!

Gathering a team of stars in critical to me and my Startup, so if the processes aren't optimized in order for us to get the talent, something is wrong and my job as a CEO has not been done.

joshberton Ask HN: I want to hack entrepreneurship, are you interested?

Consider it done, thank you. I'll be making the first update when the month runs out and take you up on that suggestion. Google spreadsheet is a nice idea. Appreciate it!

joshberton Ask HN: Why do many start ups have a "we launch soon" site?

You want to keep your customers informed about the status of your project.

However, you did hit the nail on the head; it's better to have a viable product to show or something to offer to potential customers/users in exchange of their email addresses.

joshberton Ask HN: I want to hack entrepreneurship, are you interested?

Thank you! I'm adding you to the list of interest. Can I get your email please or should I use DigLig to contact you?

joshberton GroupMe acquired by Skype

It's not a guessing game. $85M is the reported price.