kirillzubovsky

Consider posting your highlights to SmashNotes for maximum distribution, would very curious to see what’s inside.

Most browsers are switching to hiding the full page url from the user anyhow, so although the parameters are making the url ugly, it's not exactly breaking the UX.

The url is not the UX anymore.

This is why building "the obvious next steps" [1] is such an important concept. This is also why apps like Facebook or Pinterest have been so successful. Within this new UX, users are not looking to leave, they just want to find more information that is relevant to them.

[1] https://www.gkogan.co/blog/ridiculously-obvious-next-step/

Can you use your own domain as the `utm_source` and therefore, even if the session is being reset by an update in source, you will know that the sources is your own domain?

Might even be good, as a way to calculate how well your internal links are working in keeping the users within the property.

For example, put a link at the end of the blog post, and then track how many users clicked it, vs. how many exited on that page.

Yeah, "direct" traffic is so elusive. It's just a big bucket of visitors. It's a pity because I would have loved to reach out to folks who send this traffic and thank them, or ask for their thoughts on the product...etc.

Mailchimp adds their own trackers on top of the links you insert into the newsletter, which they use for tracking open/click rates, but that's almost less interesting than the source.

Why does it matter that I have a 36% click rate on the last issue, is it good? What if instead I have 10% click rate, but 1 of those people shared it with 10k more?

I understand why in general people don't like tracking, especially here on Hacker News, but I think some of it could lead to much better outcomes for all parties involved. I wonder what other solutions there are to help piece together your audience, and their interests.

That's really useful! It's actually surprising that something like this doesn't come as a default with Mailchimp forms. Just forked it and will give it a try. Thank you!

I use Twitter a fair bit to DM with people that I find interesting, on Twitter, but lately it's become too much of a firehose of opinions, rarely backed up by data or even sound logic. Now I try to use it only once a day, or even a few days. So far, so good.

Instagram on the other hand, that got out of control quickly. I found myself browsing through the feed and liking a lot of content, only to eventually realize that what I really wanted to do was to BE in places that I was liking; spending time on Instagram certainly wasn't going to get me there faster. That was the point where I deleted it.

Suspending the account, deleting the app... none of that has worked for me with Insta, there was always some pull to get back into it. Once I deleted the account, some number of months ago, I haven't had the need to even think of it.

Can you clarify your statement about the PBCs? I can't figure out if you're saying they are a good thing, or just a theatrical performance.

I am curious because B-corps have been popularized in the recent years, but when I looked into what B-corps are, it seems to me those are just bogus certificates that aren't doing any good, except enriching the people who print certificates for these types of corporations.

I don't really know whether I am right or wrong here, but I weren't able to find anything that actually makes a B corp different than any other. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Although I would consider myself to be a technical person in general sense, I was definitely a non-technical light user of Keybase. More specifically, I was not really concerned of how they did their encryption, as long as they did it well, and I had Keybase just in case I needed to encrypt, rather than than actually using it daily like some here.

Looking back on my usage of Keybase, I realize that encryption to me is a feature, not a tool or an app. I prefer my conversations encrypted, but I don't seek out an app that does it. I would like my files to not be tampered with, but I just kind of assume that's the default on Dropbox at el, even if it's not.

From this view point, it might be a good thing that Zoom acquired Keybase. I would have rather it be Slack or Google or Microsoft, but Zoom will have to do. If they don't murder the acquisition right away, there is a chance they turn Zoom and all their future tools into a more secure environment, in which case it's a win-win for all.

Interesting, does it mean France doesn't have. its own version of HN-type community, or it's just that HN covers the world, which makes it more interesting?

Oh yeah, that's something I've started to spend a lot more time on now. Sometimes the threads are hard to read/follow, but once in a while there are such gems in the comments, it's definitely worth it.

Perhaps next time someone on HN is complaining about "yet another subscription" business, send them to this and 10k other posts as a reminder how good businesses die without proper revenue.

Have you read "I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59" ?

Apparently in the early days of Google Ads, some clever people made large sums of money. Some were scammers, but many were just very clever opportunists who found a way. Sound like this woman figured it out!

Earlier in a podcast Chamath also explains that we are basically facing a choice: save the people, or save the markets, and we are choosing to save the people.

If you look at the link from Draper, he is a VC, and is clearly looking at the situation from a more financial stand-point. His push to reopen business as usual might sound cold, given the situation, but it has legs, at least from a purely economical point of view.

Definitely. This is also going to make sure we all take a deep breath, and stop being so consumerism focused for once. It's insane that our economy takes a nose dive the day people aren't allowed to spend frivolously for two weeks.

When is Facebook's next investor call? The number of newly active users (who showed up for this) is going through the roof!

No government or regulation can strop entropy, and given the tools and the knowledge, a Robocop is inevitable. The best we can do is prepare the rest of the world to deal with these things, and the time when without a doubt they get hacked, or become self-aware. The question is, what are we going to do?

Never mind the robot, I want the bullet proof glass that never took a dent in that rampage.

Interesting article on the technical aspects of scaling such a service, no doubt. One question remains - was any of this necessary? It's amazing how much work their machines are doing to analyze the data, and it sounds like all decisions are made on data, but I would love to see is an article that defends all this data in exchange of humans making decisions. Is this algorithmic approach optimal for the outcome, or is it optimal for decision making? Would love for someone from LIN to explain the big picture!

Congratulations on a valuable experience. You have learned a ton and summarized it wisely. This is all worth a lot more than 40k!

Although the typical SF startup drum is about changing the world, it takes a lot more than just a good product to do it, as you've found out, and especially in healthcare, where the barrier to entry is extremely high.

Also, your doctors forgot to mention that Pharma companies actually pay them (indirectly) for prescribing a certain drug. Your software was not just not useful to them, it was actually telling many a story they did not want to hear. Sure, Tylenol might actually be #3 of the list, but their sales rep is a real friendly one, and next time they go out for dinner, it would be a shame to have prescribed something else...

Anyway, now you know. Isn't that an amazing feeling that you've learned so much that others would never dare, and it had only cost you $40k? Keep going, good lessons are worth it!

p.s. Just because your original iteration of the product was not needed by doctor and not valuable enough to be paid by the consumer, it doesn't make it useless.

Perhaps if you made it the #1 on Google, consumers would notice, and use it, then you could use it as a lead-gen for other products, and sell that space/time/data.. whatever.

The funny thing about startup ideas, your first iteration is probably almost always wrong.

If we are to get technical, Silicon Valley is not listening to your secret, workers in the rest of the country are.

I didn't realize Benchmark was an investor.

Yes, it was good. It's rare to see articles that go even one-step in depth, so this was a good change! Good luck with your writing.

Curious, how did you get to contribute to TC? Did you reach out to them with one of your posts, or did they find it interesting and ask to repost?

Those are good examples, thank you. I've seen Stratechery and Exponent mentioned on HN quite a few times. Curious, do you care if this analysis is "correct," or are you happy to get the newsletter even if his is just an opinion that will potentially help you think about a topic in a new way?

Got ya. That makes a lot of sense. I was a subscriber to a few newsletter that were advertised as niche, on topic, but found to be getting an aggregate of news/ideas that could be easily found anywhere else. I'd get 3 pages of 'insights' that could be summarized in a sentence. Maybe it was just a choice of newsletters on my part!

Got it. Do you have an example of what is a good niche newsletter? Are we talking about ~30k subscribers, or more like 300 subscribers?

Brian Chesky said the actual amount is not $500M, although he's not able to disclose what it is due to confidentiality agreement [source: https://twitter.com/bchesky/status/1196521238752948224].

Love this distinction. Makes a lot of sense, and is probably a key to happiness, to both realize which tribe you're in, and whether you're trying to argue with the tribe with another set of principles.

Hi AlchemistCamp, Kirill here, I made Smash Notes. That's strange. Can you tell me what device/browser you're using? Are you able to click-out of the signup form? Usually hitting the X should close it, and prevent it from popping up again, but obviously I should look into this. Would love feedback, thank you!

From what I understand the scripts usually find an anchor in the page, then load some iframe/html content and update the anchor with new data. That in itself doesn't seem too bad, but ... it can't be that easy. I mean, each one of those widgets usually is 100s lines of code. I feel like I am missing something very important.