watsonc73

Does anyone know if there is or was a HN meetup in Dublin, Ireland? Thanks

Agreed.

Good point baha_man, that's a fair comment. It was just one of a number of studies available that seem to highlight this.

I don't disagree with the author's logic in calculating the different variables about when he can retire. My issue is that retirement in general shouldn't be held out to be some kind of promised land.

There have been plenty of detailed studies carried out recently (one about Shell workers here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1273451/) that demonstrate how the life expectancy of a retiree drops the earlier they reitre.

I am all for frugality and am currently saving roughly 50% of my take home pay but a significant portion of that goes into my 'outlandish expenses fund' which is spent on travelling, living well etc during different periods of my life. What is the point of scrimping if you're going to spend your retirement years living like a bored domestic house husband/wife?

I'm lucky that I work at a job I love and would not know what to do if I retired. As informative as this article was, I think the overall focus is misplaced as retirement in my book equates to a life of mediocrity and boredom.

Once Facebook acquired Gowalla and Glancee, the writing was always on the wall for Foursquare. They need revenue as their business model is still shaky at best and seeing Facebook cannibalize this opportunity must have been a deciding factor. The irony is that they should probably should have sold to Facebook (who reportedly offered them $120M). Facebook would probably have done a better job monetizing check-ins with their current advertising clients than Foursquare will ever be able to. Too little too late IMHO.

As for the user, if people don't realize by now that they are the product, by receiving a service for free, then they probably deserve to be taken advantage of.

There's no such thing as a free lunch if you check-in ;-)

Great point - Unfortunately, it's endemic in European society that bankruptcy should be labelled as a permanent branding of failure for an entrepreneur. Until this year in Ireland, an adjudicated bankrupt could not apply for €630 credit without disclosing his status as a bankrupt (which could last for up to 12 years!)

I'd bet that the countries with the lowest barriers to exiting bankruptcy (eg 6 months in the US) also have the highest start-up success rates.

Bankruptcy laws are inversely proportionate to an innovative start-up ecosystem.

Getting rid of the '040' label is definitely a step in the right direction and I'm delighted to see that Hollande recognizes how important it is to remove this stigma.

On a side note, Liam Boogar, the editor of the Rude Baguette (source of this article) is an absolute gentleman who works tirelessly to better the fate of French start-ups. Keep up the great work!

That's a shame. I've done the opposite recently and moved from a 'corporate' job into co-founding a start-up. Without the fear of making payroll each month, I know now why it's easy to rest on your laurels and become a clock watcher.

My advice would be to start something up again on the side. Remember why you loved the autonomy of the start-up in the first place and transition yourself back towards a self-sustaining lifestyle.

If nothing else, the thought of working on your 'real' venture will get you through the day at work.

Ryaniar (a budget travel airline in Europe) have started using this type of thing to their advantage. Each Captcha is about flight insurance, low cost, on time etc. Annoying and good advertising at the same time.

I think most seasoned experts (in their respective domains) have applied this approach in one shape or form to their individual strategy. Working smart instead of hard has to be learned the hard way though. It's very difficult to see the wood from the trees unless you're actually in a forest. A certain amount of trial and error is required before anyone can reach this point in my opinion.

Colonel Sanders has to exemplify the late bloomer. From odd job to odd job, he was broke at age 65 before he franchised out what is now KFC. 10k+ hours of frying chicken without anything to show for it. His decision to sell on his recipe to restaurant owners changed all that.

Lesson: Master a skill that you can franchise and protect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2E0jMx0AqE

PR by numbers:-

1. Get in front of the problem; 2. Offer a full and sincere apology; and 3. Provide a forum for users to rant and moan.

The taxi regulators were always going to put up a fight and use whatever lobbying they could to nip them in the bud. The reality is that Uber have done a great job of ploughing on regardless. In Ireland and the UK, Hailo have managed to keep the taxi regulators on side and the taxi drivers love them. A bit like Spotify vs Napsters approach to the labels. Seems like the carrot works better than the stick!