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nostratas

14 karma · joined July 3, 2026

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nostratas··on Giving up on smart rings
I loved my Oura Ring 3, but one day it just stopped working, and it was past the warranty period so that I couldn't get a replacement. I thought it was stiff to pay _another_ $300 for a new ring.

At first, I thought I could try to fix it myself. But I found that the repairability scores for the Oura Ring are atrocious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqCp-z9WAkA

Even looking at Pebble's new voice ring, it's designed to be thrown away when the battery runs out. I like the idea of smart rings, but they seem wasteful and products not really built to last.

nostratas··on ElevenLabs, TwelveLabs, ThirteenLabs
There's always some kind of popular dumb naming scheme. I remember when it was prefixing "Zen-" to your startup. Some things never change
nostratas··on Half-Baked Product
I think the opportunity cost for not moving to a different gig really hurt me, since AI/LLMs were just about to explode at the time I noticed the red flags. I chose to stay because I strongly believed in the mission of my last company (aka really wanted to make that perfect oven), and had some misguided sense of loyalty. I ended up staying a few years.

A wiser version of myself would have cut my losses after at most one year, or much sooner, especially after noticing the red flags. This is something I'm keeping in mind for my next gig.

nostratas··on Half-Baked Product
This one hits a little too close to home. I left my company around 9 months ago due to being "Mario" at my old company. It was a good decision because it ended up being a sinking ship. I wish I left much sooner, but I didn't know the red flags at the time. An expensive lesson for me