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Ask HN: Idea Sunday

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Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#131

Post by Throwaway90283 »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #114

We need to take a step back, and stop building all these silly websites and applications. Seriously, this madness must stop. The application paradigm simply cannot scale. How many apps can you install? How many profiles can you maintain? How many inbox can you empty? How many activity feeds can you go through? How many shopping apps do you use until you buy that one thing? How many times have you seen the exact same…

What's the issue? People use these silly websites and applications, and they provide a service. Why do we need 100 different to-do list applications? Well, because everyone has unique needs. Some people want a simple list, some people want categories, some people want to organize it by priority levels, some people want it to look like a piece of virtual paper while others prefer a modern design, some want to self host it, and others want it stored in the cloud.

And what's wrong with niche social networks? You're on HN, this is a fairly niche place. Did you want it merged with Reddit, Facebook, Tumblr, etc?

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#132

Post by fidz »

tuscarok wrote: post #7

How about someone besides Apple makes trackpads for laptops which are actually usable?

What is "usable"? I have Acer 4745G notebook. It has pretty big trackpad. Pinch-to-zoom and two-finger scrolling is working smoothly. Most of the time, i don't use my mouse, only trackpad.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#133

Post by miguelrochefort »

Throwaway90283 wrote: post #131
miguelrochefort wrote: post #114

We need to take a step back, and stop building all these silly websites and applications. Seriously, this madness must stop. The application paradigm simply cannot scale. How many apps can you install? How many profiles can you maintain? How many inbox can you empty? How many activity feeds can you go through? How many shopping apps do you use until you buy that one thing? How many times have you seen the exact same…

What's the issue? People use these silly websites and applications, and they provide a service. Why do we need 100 different to-do list applications? Well, because everyone has unique needs. Some people want a simple list, some people want categories, some people want to organize it by priority levels, some people want it to look like a piece of virtual paper while others prefer a modern design, some want to self hos…

> What's the issue?

There are many things to consider.

1. I don't believe in giving people what they ask for. People don't know what they want. If you give people what they need, they will eventually want it.

2. It is not possible for software that's designed with a user in mind to cover the needs of everyone. Even with 1000 different to-do list applications, nobody will truly feel it's perfect for them. We need generic and dynamic software that can adapt to users needs and context.

Don't you think it's sad that we have to endure HN's horrible UI/UX to access its community and content? Shouldn't we be able to have this discussion through a client that's made for us and respect our individual needs?

The current paradigm is full of unecessary trade-offs. If we stopped assuming and accepting that every user interaction should be manually designed by some UI person, and embraced a framework that automates that process, we would be a lot more advanced as a society.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#134

Post by miguelrochefort »

fidz wrote: post #129
miguelrochefort wrote: post #114

We need to take a step back, and stop building all these silly websites and applications. Seriously, this madness must stop. The application paradigm simply cannot scale. How many apps can you install? How many profiles can you maintain? How many inbox can you empty? How many activity feeds can you go through? How many shopping apps do you use until you buy that one thing? How many times have you seen the exact same…

So what is your proposal? We are all in this direction. Yes, we don't need another Facebook. I agree. But people still love this old-new thing.

I don't expect my local pizzeria to design, implement and maintain a new natural language, to then ask customers to learn it before they can proceed to ordering pizza using that language. We all share English (or French in my case), so that's what we use to communicate.

The natural interface to order pizza from Pizza Hut or Domino's is mostly the same. The interface to order a cab is intuitively similar. Why is it that once try to do these things digitally, things get a lot more complicated? Shouldn't it make things easier?

Even though I'm not a big fan of natural languages as an interface, Magic [1] is a great example of what we should aim for in term of unification and flow. No need to install every pizzeria apps (if they have one) to start ordering pizza. You just need to ask.

> But people still love this old-new thing.

Can you tell me more about that? I can't seem to relate even though I'm a person.

[1] http://getmagicnow.com/

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#135

Post by NotARobit »

downandout wrote: post #40

FDAPI: Food Delivery API. Grubhub is winning the food delivery battle because the industry is so fragmented. Have a simple, central API for restaurants to export and store in the cloud their menus, hours, availability, percent they are willing to give to affiliates (if any) etc. Any app can tie into the system and submit orders in exchange for affiliate revenue. Restaurants can receive orders, with order info, paymen…

I like this idea. I actually like it across many industries. Is anyone doing a great job of this in any industry? Hotels and Flights maybe?

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#136

Post by mrcold »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #114

We need to take a step back, and stop building all these silly websites and applications. Seriously, this madness must stop. The application paradigm simply cannot scale. How many apps can you install? How many profiles can you maintain? How many inbox can you empty? How many activity feeds can you go through? How many shopping apps do you use until you buy that one thing? How many times have you seen the exact same…

The main problem is that these silly websites and applications are making money. I know it's hard to believe, but people don't want value. They want trendy. What's popular now.

Build the perfect social network and nobody will use it. Build a shitty one with a gimmick and people will come in droves. Unless you hit their sweet spot, people will not support you. They pay for value out of need, not because they want to.

Most people want toys, not tools. The market is just delivering.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#137

Post by mathgeek »

downandout wrote: post #11

An Uber-like app where people pay for their rides with banked miles earned by giving others rides. This would serve a large market of people that a) travel alot and can give rides in their home city (free rides when they travel) and b) people that only have part-time access to a car but may need rides when they don't have it. It may also be legal in areas where Uber can't legally operate because they charge money for…

You've essentially described bitcoin in its early days. No matter what quasi-currency you use in such a system, once it becomes large enough it will be taxed and regulated.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#138

Post by miguelrochefort »

mrcold wrote: post #136
miguelrochefort wrote: post #114

We need to take a step back, and stop building all these silly websites and applications. Seriously, this madness must stop. The application paradigm simply cannot scale. How many apps can you install? How many profiles can you maintain? How many inbox can you empty? How many activity feeds can you go through? How many shopping apps do you use until you buy that one thing? How many times have you seen the exact same…

The main problem is that these silly websites and applications are making money. I know it's hard to believe, but people don't want value. They want trendy. What's popular now. Build the perfect social network and nobody will use it. Build a shitty one with a gimmick and people will come in droves. Unless you hit their sweet spot, people will not support you. They pay for value out of need, not because they want to.…

I don't believe people actually want "new and trendy". It just happens that nobody is giving them what they need, so they have no choice but to find the new "hot" thing. Because social networks are so disconnected and fragmented at the moment, it only makes sense for people to use social networks that others use, and that's why we see trends.

Most consumers are satisfied with "the Internet", and as far as I know, not many are looking for alternatives. Most people use Google, they don't change their search engine every few months. People in the US speak English, and I don't see many people learn other languages based on trends.

In a world of apps, where people can't think in any other way, sure the gimmicky app is going to win. They know that they will never find what they need, why not having fun doing so? With a slightly different mindsets, one in which you realize that there's no point in having so many apps, you think differently and your values change. People will find diversity in content, not containers.

Are all businesses writing their own crappy internal management systems because it's trendy? Are banks spending millions to build a crappy banking system that's more or less a clone of any other bank's for fun? Are the millions of different "User" classes programmed by people who thought theirs was better/cooler?

Society has taught people to think wrong. Instead of thinking about what they need, they go straight to thinking about how they need it. Then, once they're offered a solution that does exactly what they need, they reject it because it doesn't match the solution they imagined. And we're talking about people that can't think of a solution themselves, and can only pick examples from their past. We're in a world where people ask "I want to buy an iPad from Amazon.com" instead of asking "I want an iPad", or better "I want to browse the web and watch movies in my bed".

That said, I would still like to understand why you believe that people want toys and trendy. Is it a symptom of something else, or are these features intrinsically valuable to them?

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#139

Post by mrcold »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #138
mrcold wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main problem is that these silly websites and applications are making money. I know it's hard to believe, but people don't want value. They want trendy. What's popular now. Build the perfect social network and nobody will use it. Build a shitty one with a gimmick and people will come in droves. Unless you hit their sweet spot, people will not support you. They pay for value out of need, not because they want to.…

I don't believe people actually want "new and trendy". It just happens that nobody is giving them what they need, so they have no choice but to find the new "hot" thing. Because social networks are so disconnected and fragmented at the moment, it only makes sense for people to use social networks that others use, and that's why we see trends. Most consumers are satisfied with "the Internet", and as far as I know, not…

They are intrinsically valuable to them. People get bored with things. We always want a new toy, a new experience or a new adventure. Even if you do create the perfect tablet, people will not buy it unless you appeal to their playfulness. Show them a pretty dream to which they can aspire. And after a while, they will start demanding the next iteration. Something even better. Because the old one lost its shine.

Regarding the way things get built now, it's just pure greed. Business people promise bullshit to each other. And then they hire engineers to build something to fulfill the contract. The engineers are pressed by time and lack resources. So the product ends up shitty. Quality is never considered because it costs too much.

Don't get me wrong. I agree with you. I'm currently in my third year of building an awesome product. And where everybody else decided to cut corners, I'm polishing like crazy. And guess what. It takes huge amounts of time and energy. And everybody is saying how great it is, but very few actually get their wallets out.

People say they want perfection. But they aren't willing to pay for it. Instead, they are more than willing to shell out money for a pipe dream. This is why a shitty product with great marketing will bankrupt an amazing product with shitty marketing. It's all about what people dream about. Not what they hold in their hands.

How we could change this? Probably by having a technocratic society. Where execution is valued and promises are ignored.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#140

Post by Fourkeys »

damian2000 wrote: post #38
bring1 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we have that already, the layer is called "money" you can give people rides and be compensated in the "money points (usually US dollar). Later you can use this points to recieve rides yourself by others. great thing is that you can use those points for many goods and services and not only for rides.

Uber is popular even though there's taxis because people want to use an awesome looking app with ratings and GPS tracking.

In London it is popular because it is the cheapest form of taxi and in many cases quite significantly without sacrificing any convenience and in many cases adding much more convenience.
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