mauricecheeks

I thought it had probably made it up here before... but i had no good way to search, so i thought i'd offer it just in case.

If there was a good discussion last time though, could you link to the original?

What is the context of the question? Does it matter for what?

I found Tara Hunt's thoughts on fostering online communities quite interesting.

The worst thing to me about the rise of the NDA is the return of the colloquial phrase, "i could tell you... but i'd hafta kill you"

:-P

We have had some late night white boarding sessions formulating both incredibly simplistic and overly complex algorithms. The middle of those two is the hard thing to get to.

The most recent white board session ended in me deciding I need to write a letter to my 9th grade math teacher. I think i gave her crap about how algorithm homework was a big waste of time, but she made me do it anyway.

The idea of considering replies is interesting. On digg however, I find the comments tend to be 98% worthless. I miss /. comments.

Probably the best/easiest thing to do is plan to be adaptive to how the community uses your site. Your algorithm will likely need to change over time.

vlad-

in keeping with the theme:

A startup is like being a mosquito trying to fly a hanglider-boat while waking on your hands... simultaneously trying to negotiate the wind to keep you up in the air and convince your teachers to get in your boat rather than fail you.

;-)

is this thing more weird than anything else?

IMHO - I don't think there is a very good way to "tell" someone you are a visionary.

Nor do I think there is any good way to know of yourself that you are a visionary to the tune of Steve Jobs. People say that the ideas that Jobs has that seem to "change the world" come to him as clear solutions to obvious problems. So you likely think your ideas seem fairly simple and makes perfect sense, only assuming that others could come up with them just as well.

I think the mentality of "something is obviously broken and if no-one else can see this seemingly obvious solution, then I'll just do it myself" is common among great inventors.

Steve and Woz shared this inventor's mentality, however Woz was content building stuff for fun to show friends. Jobs (being a visionary) saw the business potential and wanted to lead the technology into changing the future.

So to answer your question: All that you can show PG (especially in these applications) is that you have a cool idea, and that as a visionary you have plans for a real business that will make sense (aka have value) to people.

If you have an idea that will change the future, or just improve people's general quality of life... it is your responsibility (as Jobs) to mold that idea into your vision for a business that will make you and your co-founder(s) some money.

Woz created the Apple computer, but SJ convinced Woz and investors that they had a greater market than DIYers, and that "personal computers" was the way of the future.

Hopefully your vision works out as well as the Personal Computer, and then whether your start is with PG or not - people will be able to see you for the visionary that you are.

I missed it when they went to start-up school. That would have been awesome! I am growing in my level of interest in justin.tv - mostly as a fascinating experiment.