timjahn

In Chicago, we have junk pickers who scour the alleys daily for exactly this sort of stuff. They load it in the back of their pickup and it's gone. All you have to do is put it in the alley.

Couldn't agree with you more on the healthcare costs. The difference between being W2 employed with company provided healthcare for a family and being self employed with self purchased healthcare for a family is absurdly huge.

America punishes those who don't work W2 through the healthcare costs and it's just plain horrible.

I find it sad how people are so lazy when it comes to long form content. I understand we all might not have time at the moment for the long form content, but there is time somewhere in the day. Somewhere.

Mint.

I thought about this too last year. Such a service could also audit your services list every so often and ask you if you're still using them. If not, they could remind you to cancel or cancel for you, saving you money.

From the post: "Nearly 80% of commuters currently drive to work alone."

Anecdotally in Chicago: Look at the Kennedy any day during morning or evening rush hour. Easily 8/10 cars have a driver and nobody else in the car.

I see this effort as more bringing the idea to the masses. Yes, carpooling has always been an option, but clearly nobody chooses to do so (for a myriad of reasons I'm sure, like logistics, coordinating, communicating with strangers, etc). Maybe things like this will help those solo commuters reduce the number of cars on the road.

Certainly can't hurt.

My thoughts exactly.

How does Github alone determine a good match? If I don't have much on my Github, I'm ineligible?

I call bullcrap. Drive to Lincoln Park zoo on a Saturday and find parking near the zoo that doesn't involve 25 min of circling around hoping you win the lottery.

Or visit a friend in Wicker Park by car and try to find street parking somewhere near their place.

You must just be really lucky or really skilled at parking.

Keyword being rare.

Not sure where you live but I'm off the Kennedy and its absolutely true.

"The big advantage of driving to work over taking the bus is time. A bus ride just takes longer: walking to the stop, waiting for the bus, picking up passengers, all while toughing out the same traffic as cars."

Generally, yes, driving will always beat a bus. Train is always the way to go, as there is no traffic on the tracks (a majority of the time).

To me, it's a common misconception that driving is quicker. In Chicago, driving is almost never quicker (due to traffic), and regardless, it's always wasted time. You can't DO anything while you're driving. Taking the bus or the L, at least you can work on what you need to work on.

Sidecar is a joke in Chicago. They have only 2-3 drivers available at any time, wait times of 15-30 min, and 98% of the time they refuse your request anyway.

I fully expect Sidecar to just give up in Chicago any day now.

The real answer is a third of the way through the post: "First-time founders care most about their exit. Every time after that, you focus on legacy."

The author already had a successful exit, so they have their money. Now they want to make a difference.

Anybody used this in Chicago? Does it work well?

Could've used this about 2 months ago when our group got hit with insane 4.5x surge pricing.

Welcome to Chicago! There's a ton of events always happening, meetups, etc. Lots of co working spaces full of entrepreneur communities.

Definitely subscribe to the Startup Digest. Feel free to shoot me any email with any questions. Tim at matchist dot com

Where are you sourcing the jobs/gigs from?

Doesn't having to pick up a package defeat the purpose of delivery?

If I wanted to pick up packages, I'd go to stores and buy things. I don't want to go to the store though, so I pay Amazon to deliver it to me.

"we only counted users that really tried the app"

...which are the only ones that matter, no? So if only 300 "really" tried the app and 2,201,302 signed up, you obviously only care about the 300 if that's the number you're mentioning.

Why try to sound mightier saying "these figures are very conservative" and "we only counted users that really tried the app"?

Amen. There's so much more the life than work. I think I probably realized this more after I had a kid, but it saddens me when people work and that's it.

That's definitely their choice, and if it makes them happy, then kudos to that. But if it's because they haven't tried other things, that's the part that's sad.

I don't understand this argument. Verizon can take away unlimited data at any moment (and most likely will at some point).

Congrats to Dusty and team!

"I'm not sure how that's fair. Should they also adjust your salary based on how expensive your car is? The value you provide to them remains constant despite where you choose to live. Why should you be punished for living somewhere less desirable?"

Well said and couldn't agree more.

"I think a lot of Silicon Valley startups cannot see beyond their Bay Area bubble where everyone earns $150k, treats their time like gold dust, and will pay a premium for menial services."

Couldn't agree more. Amazing how tunnel visioned they are.

Yes! Couldn't agree more. Touched on this in a comment a while back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5039418

So much time wasted.

Leaving something as important as driving the quickest route possible to the driver seems silly, when that greatly affects the bottom line. UPS is built upon delivering packages as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Yes.

"But Monterrosa admits that even though UPS tracks his trips down to every time he opens the truck door, the company doesn’t even provide its drivers with GPS navigation systems, or a phone with maps. It’s up to him to figure it out on his iPhone."

What?? Is this really true? In 2014, UPS provides zero navigation options to its drivers who drive around all day from point to point?

"Something I would pay for: a rolodex social network. No centralized feed. No useless info. Your profile is 2-3 sentences and your current city (with some sort of maps integration for when you travel, to see who's near you). Two buttons, one to request to view resume, and another to request to view email. That's it. With the idea being, you use the site to enable you to keep up with people. You add people you know or have worked with to your network, and you can easily get their current email and catch up when you're in the same city. Simple, no obnoxious ads, no slimy tactics to increase time on the site."

I really want this too. I need some sort of simple contact rolodex that simply shows who I know, why I know them, and why they're important (where do they work, how do I know them, who are they connected to, etc.). Just a simple UI, something that I would use most of the time simply to search.

Can you talk more about what the app is and what it does? Curious.