Products I Wish Existed • Hacker News Board

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#241

Post by hinkley » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 8:48 PM UTC

blackbrokkoli wrote: post #100

> 4. ADT 2.0: Digital neighborhood watch. That this is not only a market, but a "wish" which seems to get traction even here on HN confirms to me that the old joke "1984 is not a manual" is more relevant than ever, and scarily not only in regards to the usual suspects, corporate and nation states, but people themselves. Can anyone explain to me why anyone would advocate a profit-driven, systematic eradication of soul…

If you buy or rent an old enough house you might still have the vestiges of a coal chute somewhere on the side of the house. Unfortunately, I don't think today you could leave that much external access for a 'package chute'.

Amazon tried to solve this by making your front door the package chute. And we laughed and laughed. Maybe there's something in between, but it's not as simple a solution as replacing the doorknob and lock.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#242

Post by asdff » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 8:50 PM UTC

Lucadg wrote: post #115

> What would be a network which allowed for more thoughtful discourse We used to have this and it was called forum (phpbb and such). They have been oblitared and we moved to Facebook apparently leaving our brains behind. In reality we are victims of armies of psychologists optimizing for engagement. I have the feeling forums will come back though.

We didn't leave our brains behind, this is just the internet without heavy handed moderators keeping subforums organized, discussions on topic, and putting the brakes on flame wars. Of course things crash and burn in an environment of total anarchy like what is seen on social media websites, image boards have taught us that decades ago.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#243

Post by PhilippGille » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 8:50 PM UTC

soneca wrote: post #55

About new social networks, I am building one that I am calling "a quiet social network" . Copy/pasting from my landing what it means: A personal journal and a social network that will provide a quiet space to reflect about yourself and also to nurture your long term relationships with the people that you care about. Why “quiet”? Because this social network won't have the frenetic rhythm of news and updates of all oth…

"The tab has crashed" after clicking on the "new entry" button.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#244

Post by jonshariat » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 8:51 PM UTC

Zhyl wrote: post #43

>What would be a network which allowed for more thoughtful discourse? Or at least the ability to more actively mute topics, threads, and groups of users while surfacing better content algorithmically? I would be interested in a parliament-like protocol for discussion, structured debate and reaching consensus. We currently have tools for proposing changes to text documents (such as pull requests) which could be applie…

To add to this concept, it would be great if the elements of a quality argument[1] (i.g. Claims, Counterclaims, Reasons, Evidence, etc.) were built in. Also people could flag a comment (or parts of it) with a specific logical fallacy[2].

It would help guide people into arguing more fruitfully and better digesting what they read.

1. https://study.com/academy/lesson/parts-of-an-argument-claims... 2. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#245

Post by JohnFen » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #225

JohnFen wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once lived on a street that was incredibly badly maintained. The city informed the residents that they would be repaving the street and the residents campaigned hard for the city not to do that, for precisely the reasons you're talking about here. Their campaign was successful, in no small measure because a poll of the residents showed 95% of them opposed the repaving, and that the local paper wrote a big story abo…

I hate how pervasive this degenerate thinking is in local politics. "we don't want a nice thing because then people would use it."

That's not the thinking at all, though. The thinking is that the road being in rough shape means that everyone is forced to drive at a sane speed through a residential street where children are frequently playing.

In other words, the "nice thing" isn't actually so nice in terms of the things that the people on that street really care about.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#246

Post by AznHisoka » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 9:00 PM UTC

SamuelAdams wrote: post #201

AznHisoka wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you knew the technologies/software that Fortune 2000 companies are spending the most on, you should build complementary products, or similar things that solve the same problems those products are solving?

I think there's value in both. Consider Duo. They took a common problem - authenticating servers and services with 2FA - and made it easy to add to existing infrastructure. There's not really a consumer use for this product, aside from maybe a VPN, but there's absolutely a huge demand for it in business. I worked on many CRUD apps that had say 4 different groups of users. We made a library / system for determining wh…

There's no way to determine the total spend for specific software/technologies for Fortune 2000 companies (unless you can somehow survey them, or have an insider).

So what proxy method would you use to determine that Fortune 2000 companies are spending twice as much on Splunk as they do on New Relic (for instance)?

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#247

Post by EamonLeonard » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 9:02 PM UTC

hailpixel wrote: post #19

> 1. Trinet for full-time remote/distributed workers. [Boundless]( https://boundlesshq.com/ ) is a startup that is tackling this exact problem through automating the entire "employe(e/r) of record" process.

Co-founder of Boundless here, thanks @hailpixel for the shout out.

AMA! Here's a link to my soundcloud, we're hiring, thanks for coming to my TEDx talk.

We are hiring though.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#248

Post by ckosidows » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 9:03 PM UTC

#2. I've had an idea I've mulled around for a couple of years now about a new social network. One which limits your 'feed' to 25 friends and that is it.

25 might even be too high (or potentially too low; the number is arbitrary), but the general idea is that in your life there are only a handful of people who you should really care to keep tabs on. You can "friend" more than 25 people but you can only see the activity of 25 of your friends and the others are relegated to essentially being contacts.

I remember about two years ago Facebook was getting into a lot of trouble due to the amount of negative mental impact it had/has on its users and they did a study which found social media can have a negative impact on its users unless the user only follows a small circle of real-life friends and interacts with those people online. I don't have a source to this; I'm willing to accept there isn't real _evidence_ behind this claim.

Anyway, I'm surprised social media has been around this long, has been the subject of such controversy and there haven't been any or many real, impactful changes to the nature of it. Facebook and Instagram are, in my opinion, trying to be too much. They want to combine personal and public spaces. This, of course, works from a business perspective. But what are the long-term consequences of these products on our mental health and society?

We need a new social media focused on personal, tight-knit groups of people and interests. One that makes this the focus and doesn't stray for the purposes of profits. And, if that's not feasible in an economy that demands growth, we need better legislation demanding certain consumer protections are created for this sphere of products.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#249

Post by soneca » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 9:03 PM UTC

PhilippGille wrote: post #243

soneca wrote: post #55

About new social networks, I am building one that I am calling "a quiet social network" . Copy/pasting from my landing what it means: A personal journal and a social network that will provide a quiet space to reflect about yourself and also to nurture your long term relationships with the people that you care about. Why “quiet”? Because this social network won't have the frenetic rhythm of news and updates of all oth…

"The tab has crashed" after clicking on the "new entry" button.

Apparently it is not ready for primetime yet :( Thanks for letting me know!

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#250

Post by Falling3 » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 9:05 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #227

dunkelan wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the key term is "consumer-centric". Ring and other home cams are necessary peace of mind for a lot of people.

Eventually it's going to come to a head that these cams do little at all for security. I have a wyze cam that I use to watch my pet, but I'm well aware that even if it caught a burglar in the act that the LAPD isn't going to do anything with that video or the case.

I agree with you, but I think that particular example says more about our police than it does about the cameras.