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Launch HN: Simple Habit (YC W17) – Spotify for Meditation

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: Simple Habit (YC W17) – Spotify for Meditation

#61

Post by uewuhbj »

The only reason she is getting top post because 'muh diversity', 'muh womyn', 'muh stanford'. App is shit. Period. There are hundreds of apps for doing meditation. Why are you americans always idiots? Well, burgerbro, use you head.

You know why 5 min / 10 min or whatever fuck meditation does not work? because building habit requires getting rid of smartphone.

This girl is bringing in smartphone as a medium. Sooner or later it will fail.

I don't have anything against her. I am speaking truth. I wish this fucking politically correct culture dies and YC gets true open door policy like open borders for the country they aspire for.

Re: Launch HN: Simple Habit (YC W17) – Spotify for Meditation

#63

Post by pkghost »

imglorp wrote: post #46
yunhakim wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for these great questions! 1. Before Simple Habit, I was actually a power user of some of other meditation apps so the benefit of a multi-teacher platform is something I stumbled upon personally. Being able to explore different voices, styles, and techniques helps users experiment with what really resonates with them. We’ve found that our users like the diversity and will often (if not always) engage with cont…

Thanks for coming by to answer questions. Here's a followup. You addressed situation specific above, but in general, is there any evidence that the type of meditation affects the outcome, as long as directed focus is achieved? I realize it's hard to quantify results, but what is known?

They absolutely have differing effects, just like different sports can produce generally fit athletes with different specializations in musculature and skill sets.

Furthermore, directed focus is not strictly necessary, depending on what you mean. There are techniques that do not entail keeping the attention fixed on one object, though in my experience attentional control is super important.

Shinzen Young has a talk on YouTube where he discusses the flavors of enlightenment as they differ from lineage to lineage. I'm not aware of research, however, that compares the effects on tradition/technique to another, though there may be some out there.

Re: Launch HN: Simple Habit (YC W17) – Spotify for Meditation

#64

Post by edawerd »

brunoqc wrote: post #43
richard___ wrote: post #37

Charging people as a subscription service for meditation help feels a little queasy. Also I think it's a Silicon Valley neurosis that you need an app or technology to address problems like depression and low self-esteem (which meditation in the traditional sense addresses).

> Charging people as a subscription service for meditation help feels a little queasy. Yes and it's sad that they all do it. I would prefer a one time buy.

I believe they have a one-time "lifetime" subscription buy

Re: Launch HN: Simple Habit (YC W17) – Spotify for Meditation

#65

Post by yunhakim »

ploggingdev wrote: post #56

This post should be titled as a "Show HN", not "Launch HN". The rules are here https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html A demo page on your website would be helpful for people to get a feel for what the service is about. Currently there is a lot of friction to even understand the service : download the app, signup. My guess is that a lot of people (atleast here on HN) were turned away by the friction involved to unde…

Thanks for the feedback! The new, updated web landing page coming soon :)

Re: Launch HN: Simple Habit (YC W17) – Spotify for Meditation

#66

Post by yunhakim »

autocorr wrote: post #40

Neat! If you find this interesting, Thanissaro Bhikku of Metta Forest Monetary has absolutely superb resources with guided meditations, talks, and e-books, all for free under creative commons[1]. This is in the Thai Forest lineage, so not purely secular, but I feel like there's so much being offered to learn from in a full teaching tradition that it would be a loss to just focus on a Jon Kabat-Zinn style mindfulness…

Thanks! Will check it out :)

Re: Launch HN: Simple Habit (YC W17) – Spotify for Meditation

#67

Post by yunhakim »

wrd wrote: post #27

Cool app! Thanks for sharing. I think this is great for an introduction to meditation and to help build a habit. One difficulty I have with apps like this is that they're not necessarily incentivized to produce good meditation habits. If a user builds a real meditation practice then they're likely not going to want to use an app like this -- they'll probably want to meditate in silence and for much longer than 5 minu…

This is a great question! It’s true that hardcore meditators often prefer to meditate for longer than five minutes, so we do have meditations up to 30 minutes in length to cater to that. What’s interesting, though, is that even experienced meditators can see the value of a quick meditation in the middle of their day, like during their lunch break or right before an important phone call. We like to think of meditation as a more integrated practice that’s accessible anytime and anywhere, which is why we believe that 5 minutes of mindfulness can be helpful to anyone.

Re: Launch HN: Simple Habit (YC W17) – Spotify for Meditation

#68

Post by yunhakim »

philip1209 wrote: post #9

How did you settle on the five minute length for meditations?

One of the biggest obstacles for busy people is that they feel like they don’t have time to meditate. As a startup founder and ex-i banker, 5 minute tracks make daily meditation accessible and doable, and significantly lowers the barrier to entry. Studies show that brief meditation, even if it is just a few minutes, if practiced consistently, can have powerful benefits within a few weeks.

Re: Launch HN: Simple Habit (YC W17) – Spotify for Meditation

#69

Post by yunhakim »

sebleon wrote: post #30

Interesting, your app store description mentions previous launches from before June 2016. Seems like you got some solid attention on previous launch(es), what kind of traction are you looking for on your definitive launch? Big fan of the Airbnb approach of launching until someone notices! http://www.businessinsider.com/top-17-startups-launched-in-2...

Thanks for checking us out — we’ve been growing quickly since our launch in June on iOS. Now, we're available on Android and web as well. We’re excited to announce Y Combinator’s investment in Simple Habit!

Re: Launch HN: Simple Habit (YC W17) – Spotify for Meditation

#70

Post by yunhakim »

greenspot wrote: post #25

How do you see the competition, not just Headspace but also other upcoming players? Do you expect many more in this space and how defensible is this model?

The meditation industry is growing fast, and it’s exciting to see what other companies are doing. Simple Habit is one of the only meditation platforms bringing top teachers from around the world to one place and helping teachers monetize their content. We’re continuing to scale our platform, and speaking from personal experience, it isn’t the easiest model to replicate because it requires bringing the best meditation teachers onto one platform ;) We’re aiming to become the go-to resource for meditation and mindfulness content.
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