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Re:The Lesson to Unlearn on Saturday December 07, 2019 @10:43AM (#21730809)
"Make people want something that is actually junk." doesn't have quite the same ring to it, nor does it sound remotely more plausible.

Presumably the 10% weekly growth that YC and PG advocate as the default growth metric isn't expected to be in the absence of sales but the contrary, sales plus anything that works that is ethical and not some ponzi scheme.

He provided examples via the link to http://paulgraham.com/ds.html where he describes stripe founders engaging in zealous activities many would call sales despite being the type of startup that could have leaned back and had ample demand.

Re:Personhood: A Game for Two or More Players on Monday September 22, 2014 @05:54AM (#8349884)
I (kind of) missed it. He mentions Alan elsewhere on his site. http://www.meltingasphalt.com/prickles-and-goo/
Re:Personhood: A Game for Two or More Players on Monday September 22, 2014 @05:50AM (#8349870)
Did I miss the attribution to Alan Watts for the prickles and goo metaphor? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXi_ldNRNtM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts
This seems wrong from an engineering AND MBA point of view. As designing and manufacturing electronics becomes more automated, the workflow for designing computer hardware will be very similar to software development (it pretty much already is).

From an MBA perspective, Apple just owns more of the value chain in software, i.e. some of the silicon via the mobile processors, and the proprietary cases. Other than that, most of the hardware follows pretty closely with the industry standard tech [intel's roadmap]. They don't seem excessively tied up at all.

Re:Poll: What's your target price for 1 BTC? on Monday November 18, 2013 @12:01AM (#6752651)
You could just as well say that your dollar lost 10% against bitcoin in a day, who would dare buy something with a dollar with it fluctuating so much so often.
Re:Microsoft just sponsored Daring Fireball on Sunday April 21, 2013 @12:24AM (#5583846)
Does everyone forget that the U.S. government brought an antitrust case against Microsoft and nearly broke them up? That experience certainly cooled them off a bit.

They've slowly aligned themselves in the background with Facebook, Yahoo, and even Apple against Google. They just inked another licensing deal with Foxconn for use of Android and Chrome OS of all things.

Re:Lessons Learned from YouTube’s $300M Hole on Saturday March 30, 2013 @03:32AM (#5464764)
It was really the exact opposite of that. The thesis was exactly that, it's all about the content, so get the best content creators in the world. It turned out to be all about the medium, and there are still only a few people who know what do in the medium of online video.
Re:Garry's Posthaven on Thursday February 28, 2013 @10:20PM (#5302671)
It would be great if they can be successful at making a company where you can be confident that your data will not die; but flexible enough for the inevitable sampling of future 'bloggish' platforms that come out.
Re:Steve Jobs came within a song of going to the Moon on Friday October 05, 2012 @07:25PM (#4619134)
Part of being a good communicator is being relatable. This worked so well with Steve because his results spoke for themselves. The is the important detail for anyone who wants to emulate his style. He was given the privilege of communicating like a visionary because of the results he achieved, not the other way around.
Re:Open webOS 1.0 is here on Saturday September 29, 2012 @02:40AM (#4588996)
Someone can probably build an app player for android apps, but architecture wise, what you just described sounds kind of like a custom UI for android.

The rationale for not doing something like this philosophically is that the underlying point of webos is that it shouldn't feel like a 'whole new platform' to a web developer, but rather the platform they are already most familiar with, even more than android, i.e the web.

Given the way Google implemented gathering street view data, I wouldn't be surprised if Google has more map data in the USA than all the other map companies combined.
Re:Twitter to Client Developers: Drop Dead on Thursday August 16, 2012 @09:34PM (#4394622)
Twitter wants to give you access to the data. Their client is their main product. Thus, every 3rd party client is competing with their main product, that seems to be a fact.

Theres no way to stop you from building one anyway, twitter knows that. If you go against their rules, you're a revolutionary, and if you win that revolution, they'll have to deal with you.

You can't expect however, that the incumbent is going to go around encouraging revolutions against themselves.

The only alternative is to encourage everyone to make clients, at which point, they're just a big cloud xmpp server to the world.

Re:Steve Yegge: Notes from the Mystery Machine Bus on Friday August 10, 2012 @04:40AM (#4365441)
Who is more of a 'liberal' programmer, RMS or Linus. Think about it.

In my estimation, if the answer here is unclear, then this metaphor breaks hard.

Re:People Who Think Programming Is Shit Are Missing The Point on Saturday August 04, 2012 @12:11AM (#4337514)
Saying that programming is 'spending all dap tapping in code' is like saying drawing is 'spending all day holding a pencil.' That isn't a perfect analogy, but programming can be equally about what is being created as it is the code itself.
Some friends and I actually pitched this idea to YC and got an interview a few years ago. We didn't get in.

Part of the issue is as soon as you describe this idea one of the thoughts people will have 'so you want to pay me for receiving spam.'

Twitter is an example of an 'alternative inbox' but the hard nut to crack is to get enough people using a system like it in lieu of email. If that is not achieved, all you end up with is two inboxes with a bunch of junk in them, or at a minimum the same amount of email you always got.

This is like 6 minute abs but in reverse for Gladwell. Outliers require 10000 hours, but if you want to outlive the pyramids, better start earlier than kindergarten.
Re:Google Street View: A wolf in sheep’s clothing on Tuesday June 05, 2012 @02:58AM (#4067675)
It isn't really linkbait. I doubt adrian is worried about getting traffic to his blog.

A sheep follows the herd, but the wolf drives itself. Pretty good analogy if you ask me.

Re:Why Facebook is killing Silicon Valley on Monday May 21, 2012 @01:27PM (#4003871)
Pre iPhone: Carriers control software ecosystem of mobile phones.

Post iPhone: Apple/Google control software ecosystem of mobile phones.

Revolution: A forcible overthrow of a government or social order for a new system.

Re:Dropping out - how does it affect you later in life? on Friday May 04, 2012 @01:24AM (#3927165)
You can take a break from college without dropping out.

The best reasons/excuses don't sound like "maybe college isnt for me" and more like "Someone offered me a very time flexible paid internship that will allow me to start my own business on the side, and if I don't, then most likely I'll go back to school."

Re:Paul Graham has lost the plot on Wednesday March 21, 2012 @02:35PM (#3735778)
I don't think PG was saying that music equals smells. He's saying piracy = smells, some of them good, some bad.

It's just silly that the industry spent a decade suing people, and probably could have made 10x their money by giving up the 'suing people for smells' and started other music/content related businesses.

Re:Create content like you create products. on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @08:04PM (#3354551)
Not sure if you read the article, but other than the semantics of the word 'content,' the point of the article was in agreement with your intention.

The point is to put the same effort and passion into your essays, or tweets, or blog posts that you put into work at large.

Re:Ask HN: What NON-programming blogs do you read daily? on Monday October 17, 2011 @10:19PM (#3123537)
The closest things to regular blogs I read daily (almost) are SVN from 37signals, and metafilter, but I'm looking to branch out.

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