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I think this is all super useful feedback for the founders. i hope they see this thread
Re:Female Founders on Friday January 10, 2014 @08:17PM (#7040955)
The biggest problem is from the age of 2-13. The world's culture is still "coding isn't cool for girls". Look at the difference between the ways boys play in a room vs girls. Girls are encouraged to play princess and house...yes...still!! Boys on the other hand are more likely to invent games, or build things. My sister is 13 and laughs at the idea of learning programming as a girl. She's a super smart girl, but the social pressures are too much to overcome. By this age most of you successful programmers already had some sort of "builders" mindset.

I say we need to address the problem at it's roots. Mentorship, and shining the spotlight of success on women like Adora could potentially be the most important part of our battle here. GO ADORA!!

Re:Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2013? on Saturday December 28, 2013 @06:59PM (#6977279)
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Game changing. Humans are creatures of habit, and we need to be able to recognize these habits to successfully control them
Re:Will online classes make professors extinct? on Tuesday November 26, 2013 @12:56AM (#6799399)
Schools aren't just going to disappear. It's natural for technology to take over a sizable chunk of the teaching process, handling inefficiencies as technology has always done best. It's probable that most of the world's population won't need to interact with professors, but a select few will always have the privilege of face to face learning. I believe there are too many niche studies for professors to be entirely replaceable. Not to mention the indirect benefits of attending a school campus.
Definitely give it some breathing room. Goodluck trying to different levels of equity right now, could be very sticky. - Put people's feet to the fire with a money, and time commitment. (60, 80, 100hrs/week) - Then just work on it for a few months and see who's keeping up the commitment

It's easy to float on your recent win, and pretend like everyone is equally committed. People will start dropping off in levels soon enough. Or maybe not, and you have 8 amazing founders :)

Re:Show HN: We started accepting Bitcoin for our new App on Sunday November 17, 2013 @09:10PM (#6752115)
What are your greatest concerns by offering this option?
Re:Ask HN: Where can I find a software job that helps society? on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @04:42PM (#6721399)
How about bringing teachers better tools for their classroom? I'm working on this project because I feel like education is the solution to most things in the world. Over 1.2M student dropout of high school yearly in the US alone...we're working on taking the load of teachers, so they can focus more on the art of teaching and engaging their students. http://studysoup.com/careers

Ask HN: To show or not to show

We have a few beautiful designs for the future of our product. The development won't be completed for at least 3-6 months to get this new look and feel fully functional.Question: Should I show one of our potential customers this sweet design that meets 90% of their needs now? I'm worried that if they love it, they'll be measuring the success of today's product with what we show them "could be"....

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Re:How much Kno sold for and why it failed on Monday November 11, 2013 @07:29PM (#6715083)
I disagree. Kno was not focused on making education better. They were focused on making a bad business model a bit lighter, and more attractive on an iPad. This could be a nice business, but does not represent the type of mindset that would offer VCs the payoff that they need.

Textbooks as we know them are a bad business model in today's education system. Useful, but wasteful. Teachers assign an expensive book. Then students are only required to read 40% of it. Right there, you can see a serious disconnect and waste of resources.

Re:Programming classes for a 13yr old on Monday November 11, 2013 @01:25AM (#6710262)
Did you try it out? I'm sure it is, but do you know how it is different from Code Academy?
Re:Programming classes for a 13yr old on Monday November 11, 2013 @01:23AM (#6710253)
Thanks! Yes, she's a huge reader so this could be a good route. I've heard that project based learning is the way to go - I just have to think of a project that might catch her attention. She's been a bit turned off by the idea when I brought it up in the past.

Programming classes for a 13yr old

My sister's middle school doesn't offer any code classes (frustrating). I think in this day and age students should have some sort of in-school option to learn the fundamentals of coding. Most people don't need to be a real coder, but even today I feel a bit naked with no real engineering know-how.Can you suggest classes/courses or games that might be interesting for a middle school girl? As...

( Read More... | 5 comments | on HN )
Re:Startup CEOs: you are overestimating your tech talent on Friday November 08, 2013 @06:37PM (#6699849)
That's quality feedback! I really appreciate you taking the time to write that out.

We figured since we're so small and unknown at this point, it would make sense to wear the partner badge high on our chest...but your msg makes complete sense.

In case the website didn't make it clear, we provide course creation tools so any educator can create or curate a textbook replacement.

Re:Startup CEOs: you are overestimating your tech talent on Friday November 08, 2013 @03:07PM (#6698768)
We're looking for an awesome web developer (oh the irony). Let me know if you're interested :) StudySoup.com

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