When to Copy Ideas, When to Steal Ideas

Re:When to Copy Ideas, When to Steal Ideas by phsource on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @06:50PM (#22622247)

> Copy [means] to borrow an idea for its known useful results; steal [means] to take ownership of an idea and extend it to create some novel result.

> Copy the same sponge any cake could use, then using your own creative talents as icing to make something uniquely great (steal) in the areas that make a difference in your product's niche... Steal strategy! Copy tactics

As an engineer working on product, this is good advice. It's often appealing to reinvent the wheel and succumb to "not-built-here" symptom. Especially when it comes to questions like "what stack and language to use", often, the best answer is "whatever has worked before." Rather, what's worth reinventing is the actual features or user-facing aspects of the product.

Don't go crazy making your own global Javascript store: just roll Redux or MobX. As someone who loves engineering challenges, I find myself reining myself in a lot on this at Wanderlog (https://wanderlog.com). But I realize whether we're successful or not isn't going to be our technical infrastructure. That needs be solid, but what really matters are the little things we can do to wow travelers

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Re:When to Copy Ideas, When to Steal Ideas by sidesquid on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @07:58PM (#22622818)

Why do people always plug their companies in their comments? It turns me off completely.

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Re:When to Copy Ideas, When to Steal Ideas by hazz99 on Thursday March 19, 2020 @01:05AM (#22624664)

WanderLog is a YC company. This is a YC website.

It also shows that where their experience comes from, adds validity. In this case, I can go directly to their website and see the results of them "reining themselves in" on a production website.

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Re:When to Copy Ideas, When to Steal Ideas by sidesquid on Thursday March 19, 2020 @01:21AM (#22624745)

I’m more inclined to dig into his company if his comment offers insights but when you just plug your company in, it just makes your comment feel insincere like pr speak.

Am Googler, ex-FB, Uber, want me to list my resume?

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Re:When to Copy Ideas, When to Steal Ideas by bryanrasmussen on Thursday March 19, 2020 @01:39AM (#22624832)

I think his plug was only about a 4th of his post, I would have expected a little bit more shamelessness if that were really his goal.

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Re:When to Copy Ideas, When to Steal Ideas by ackbar03 on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @10:36PM (#22623824)

I think since most of the people reading hackernews are the startup type most people here just sort of tolerate the shameless plugs out of understanding

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Re:When to Copy Ideas, When to Steal Ideas by chris1993 on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @08:59PM (#22623236)

I would guess for SEO as links from HN are probably high value for google rankings.

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Re:When to Copy Ideas, When to Steal Ideas by abraae on Thursday March 19, 2020 @04:24AM (#22625580)

Not this one:

<a href="https://wanderlog.com" rel="nofollow">https://wanderlog.com</a>

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Re:When to Copy Ideas, When to Steal Ideas by _jal on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @09:41PM (#22623498)

That appears to be a YC company, possibly club-behavior?

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