@frisco: I can understand how you lumped Just Landed in with other Silicon Valley startups some of whom are creating frivolous apps and raising vast sums of money against small ideas. I suppose those irritate me too for the same reasons you mentioned.

However, in this case, you would be wrong to assume that Just Landed is just another overfunded startup trying to conquer the world with an airport pickup app. First off, Just Landed is not a startup. Just Landed is an app, built by myself and two of my buddies, because I kept making the mistake of forgetting to leave for the airport on time to pickup my girlfriend. After finding that no other apps were solving this problem (and that flight apps generally sucked), I decided to take a crack at it.

I don't make any claim that this is an important problem in our society (I built this app for myself), that this would be a good idea for a startup (it probably isn't), or that it's worthy of venture funding (so far it's not a great business). Just Landed was built with $15k of my own money as a fun side project while I figured out what I wanted to do next with my career. Frankly, I'm amazed how successful it has been - it was totally unexpected. Also, it's not even really a company - it was released under Little Details LLC because I needed to protect myself with limited liability (I also plan to make other commercial apps).

Finally, while we have certainly had offers, it is also not my goal to be "acquihired". I'm actually working on a mobile game right now, and am thoroughly enjoying myself. My goal is to be free to work on my own fun projects for as long as I'm able. If I come upon an idea worthy of a startup, something that can really change the world, that's a different story. FWIW I've already failed twice at a startup (went through YC once), so for now I'm taking a break and building apps.

Just Landed is not going to change the world, but it sure saves my ass (and helps hundreds of thousands of other people) when it comes to going to the airport to pick someone up.

Just Landed does that, but it's not an "important" enough problem to solve. He "wasted" his talent and should have focused on the larger problems that plague humanity.

I get that entrepreneurs need feedback, but there's a difference between helping and just plain being an asshole.

This kind of stuff isn't helpful to the community - we see it over and over. My hope is that people won't be deterred by it in the future....otherwise HN will lose it's value.

@jgraili I think this app is cool - kudos to you for the awesome execution. I'm downloading it - I could have totally used it yesterday :)

I'm actually quite proud of myself for keeping the costs so low. Try asking some big companies what they spent on their apps - you might be in for a surprise (think huge numbers)!

15k isn't really that much. One month of his time is probably at least 10k, especially once you start thinking about health care and other benefits.

For many of us, side project time is enjoyable and not thought of as a cost center, but a happy-center.

:-)

Big things often start small. In fact, usually start small.

And in any case it's just mean of you to piss all over these guys' efforts. It makes me embarrassed for HN when people launch something new, and this is the sort of response they get.

It saddens me that the most common response these days seems to be some version of 'Let me list all the reasons why this is crap.'

What happened?

Now that the population has grown, there are more commenters and more Show HNs, yet the presentation hasn't changed to accommodate this (same number of posts per page, same comment layout despite more comments, etc).

Maybe something like "Review HN"? Whatever it would be, it may be time to get more specific. Ultimately you're trying to filter out unhelpful comments. Those will always appear, but now there's just more of them in the same space...

I agree assisting people to reach the airport on-time may morph into a larger corporate vision, but I disagree it's likely to contribute to solving cancer, making better fuel, or reaching strong AI. ...And it's arguably a distraction of rare talent from that calibre of problem.

Conversely, a startup that grows sufficiently big can contribute to the solution of almost any problem, including those you mention.

This generation is heartless!

Also, is there a word that refers to this sort of cyclical argument? ie: someone makes generalization, I say "all generalizations are bad" in reply, someone else makes a generalization arguing against mine, and so on? I feel like there should be.

As to why most software developers aren't working on harder problems, however, is that harder problems usually require more up-front investment and require the investor to take more risk. Without a previous record of success, it is difficult to get that trust.

SpaceX and Tesla don't happen by someone without a track record. Be a little easier on those who are trying to establish one. :)

That shouldn't be surprising, Zakat is one of the pillars of Islam...

As Turkey gets wealthier, many of these problems will arise. Homelessness is truly a first world problem, for example.

They're destroying the slums without making alternative housing arrangements. (Turkey's done some of this as well. Tarlabasi and Sulukule are prime examples. It's destroying communities, but India is much worse about it.)

I'd argue that Turkey is actively trying to destroy cultural identity as an extension of decades old habits, regardless of the government in power. (I'm not a Turkish apologist by any means.) However, I think this is getting off the main point of original post, so I'll stop here.

Easier problems are solved first, and that's fine. There's less risk and so more growth per money invested. Not everything should be invested into super-high risk technology or something. Besides, this company might be bootstrapped.

It's also worth to note that first-world people tend to work on first-world problems. There's nothing wrong with that. It makes sense to work on problems that you're familiar with. I wouldn't start a restaurant since I've zero experience in that industry.

The problem is not that they're fixing a "easy problem". The problem is that for some unknown reason it hasn't been fixed yet.

That reminds me, I wrote about this after seeing quite a few companies like this at TC Disrupt: http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/14/how-to-disrupt-petty-inconv...

Now, this is probably a completely rational move from your perspective. HN over the last few years has been backstopped by middlebrow-dismissals and other such poo-poo-ings, and bored programmers desperate to win karma are often very willing to waste hours crafting popular but mean comments. From your previous comments at least, it certainly doesn't look like you are just trolling. You're probably a very talented, capable person.

Since you seem to work at Transcriptic, I won't begrudge you your karma. However, I do lament the idea that the best minds of a generation are being focused on getting people to dismiss others' creations and directing all creative effort to what you deem to be "important problems". I don't buy the idea that you wouldn't be focused on a "better" use of your time if HN didn't exist; of course you would. This kind of talent is ambitious and gets things done. The idea that these are the types of comments that rise to the top is just a monumental lapse of discussion quality on HN. Scratching your own itch is an amazing thing, and we can do so much with it. I really think it's just an attitude issue -- people are used to dismissing new technology as frivolous, and mobile apps, in particular, seem totally pointless. How do we become less dismissive and more encouraging to makers?

how self-referential

[1]: http://www.getjustlanded.com/about

I think it's pretty clear what he means and there's plenty of room to argue against that, no need for this kind of post.

And moreover, it's boring: the complaint could be registered on most of the posts on Hacker News. Not everyone's going to save the world with their work, and that's okay. Tearing down other people's work over some perceived social injustice is not.

I am advertising directly to the people who have downtime between flights, and developing a community around the developers to create apps that are geared and focused on this high-value target market.

We have location based coupons that know, by GPS, when you arrive at any airport in 36 countries. When you land - you are greeted by offers from any retailer in the market, and are given the option to book travel (uber/taxi/shuttle/limo) from the airport to a nearby hotel - we sell the hotel booking as well and make a cut on the room.

We also offer social games for those stuck in airports waiting. Play with people at your gate, on your flight, from your hometown airport or any other place! Again the ads are all from retailers directly around you!

Finally, we even offer a travellers hookup service, so if you want to look for lay-over travelers to hook up with, you can sign-up and hook up. (this product is called 'Laid-Overs' and is our most popular app!

We have an API that people can connect to also!

Run with it!

(it was a joke in response to the GP's being upset that great minds were being wasted on improving the Airport pickup experience.)

I think that's a really interesting question, but the way the rest of the post is/was written is going to work against it being considered.

I expect you'd have been better off writing something up on the idea in its own context and submitting it on its own.

Off the top of my head, I think we're already seeing hardware being "opened up" through things like Arduino, 3D printing and the ease of making global connections on sites like Alibaba. I can't really speak to life science, but I'm generally inclined to think that more (any?) exposure in primary education would help.

I think the link to the site might still be in my profile. If not, it is at healthgazelle.com. There is substantial info in the archive... Edit: linky:

oops sorry that's screwed up and won't be fixed, but this page will get you to the archive -- just don't click on "home":

http://www.healthgazelle.com/oldsite/cfandmoney.shtml

I think the domain name expires in July. So satisfy your curiosity if you wish.

people in the 2nd world and developing world also need to pick people up from airports. they also ALL have phones that are capable of receiving text messages and many of them have smartphones.

and not everyone drives, but everyone sure as hell can call a cab. in case you didn't notice there are LOTS of cabs in the developing world.

quick top of the head guesses for market population size:

entire US: 300M entire EU: 700M+ middle class chinese: 300M middle class africans: 100M (??) middle class south americans: 300M (??)

what percentage of these people have smartphones? what percentage WILL have smart phones in 5 years?

Now think of the fuel and productivity costs of airport pickups. Usually if I'm early I end up driving around the airport, or worse, spending lots of money on parking. In India people typically wait at the side of the road with their AC on. If this app works perfectly, there is a lot of real gain to be had, and not just in the US.

Aside from being an overstatement, this is correct. And if anyone would think about it, that's something working in their favor. Unless you're one of those "profit is evil" people, when you're building a business with the intention of making money, you'll probably want to target a market that actually has disposable income.

Yep, it's very much a first world problem, but the negativity on that point is unwarranted. I doubt they started it with the intention of fixing society.

But we don't know these guys, they may feel the same and this is a means to an end. Luckily the entire generation isn't working in Silicon Valley and there are similarly motivated people in climate change research, biotech etc.

Posting a comment just to say that someone shouldn't have built it in the first place is profoundly unhelpful. Actually, its worse than that. Its un-useful.