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Products I Wish Existed

blog.eladgil.com

251–260 of 434 posts

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#251
post #32

> NoCode/LowCode (letting anyone build an app with a spreadsheet as a database representation) AirTable has made huge inroads here. I'm also building something in this area ( https://lightsheets.app/ ), turning slightly back towards spreadsheets instead of databases but then building enhancements and modern integrations on top. I think there's still lots of potential in this area, despite spreadsheets being 50 years…

Airtable did some great work on the UX. Introducing people to table schemas with typed columns is pretty awesome, and the creative way they've leveraged that with the little tab that comes out of the side for either a nice view over the data (e.g. a map for an address column) or for showing Pivot Tables/Aggregations. They deserve some design awards for those ideas.

But it's not a great alternative to a DB. It's really expensive per seat (twice the cost of Google Apps and you only get one app). The row limits on tables are too low. And I'd really like native webhook support to ingest row updates.

I'd be very interested an Airtable clone that I can run locally on-top of Postgres or Mongo or something like that. My main use-case would be to replace expensive-to-build internal CRUD apps that really should just be spreadsheets but require bespoke integrations with other internal systems.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#252
post #2

+100 "I would love to see the following analysis: A map of repetitious tasks, spreadsheets, and manual data extraction by function in the Fortune 500. Budget breakdown of current software spend, by function, by line, in the Fortune 500. A view of what Accenture, CapGemini, and Deloitte keep building over and over for large enterprises. Undoubtedly a subset of these custom consulting projects can be turned into SaaS s…

This goes back to my old quip of the easiest way to increase GDP to 5% would be to force everyone to learn how to actually use Excel. HT "You Suck at Excel" - JS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nbkaYsR94c

I can imagine though, that there's a real chance that the "fear" of people having their jobs automated would cause them to cut back on spending, perhaps causing an immediate recession!

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#253

#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 activit…

One which limits your 'feed' to 25 friends and that is it.

An ex-Googler (that never played defense![1]) tried that with the social network Path. I think the limit was 50 friends though. It failed.

Edit: [1] Quote attribution: "I don’t use a ring of any kind on my phone. This is so that I am always on offense and never defense." - Dave Morin

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do security cameras remove the "vibrancy of your young urban block" or "the sense of trust and community in your suburb"? Do the locks on your door accomplish the same incredible feat?

No, because my lock does not monitor? You can seriously not see how the the entanglement of psychological effects of being watched, mob justice, alienation, gossip, public shaming and threatening and first and foremost real or imagined social scoring breeds dull monoculture?

Security cameras generally don't actively monitor either - they merely record and let someone go back and look at the footage if they feel there is a reason to

So you list every possible bad thing that possibly could happen, and that is reason enough to not even bother with something? Have these horror scenarios played out in any place that actually is heavily surveiled?

Are there no young vibrant urban blocks in London? No sense of trust in Islington?

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#255

> 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.

Cool! I've had the same need since 2016 https://sytse.com/2016/12/28/adyen-for-payrolling.html

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#256
>2. New social network

This already exists, in the form of private group chats. I am part of a few GroupMe and Snapchat group chats that function similarly to how social networks "should".

I have an idea in this space- I'd like to implement a new webview or theme for Twitter that shows the most recent posts last, similar to how a DM functions. Once you scroll to the bottom of the list, you are done. No new content. Could alleviate some of the addictive features of the current methods.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#257

#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 activit…

One which limits your 'feed' to 25 friends and that is it. An ex-Googler (that never played defense![1]) tried that with the social network Path. I think the limit was 50 friends though. It failed. Edit: [1] Quote attribution: "I don’t use a ring of any kind on my phone. This is so that I am always on offense and never defense." - Dave Morin

To be fair, almost every non-Facebook social network has failed. I wouldn’t consider that to be proof that a limited social network can’t succeed but rather that social networking sites are difficult to produce.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One which limits your 'feed' to 25 friends and that is it. An ex-Googler (that never played defense![1]) tried that with the social network Path. I think the limit was 50 friends though. It failed. Edit: [1] Quote attribution: "I don’t use a ring of any kind on my phone. This is so that I am always on offense and never defense." - Dave Morin

To be fair, almost every non-Facebook social network has failed. I wouldn’t consider that to be proof that a limited social network can’t succeed but rather that social networking sites are difficult to produce.

That's why this has remained an idea for me rather than anything I would consider attempting. Social networks have an enormous bar to entry. This is why I think this would most feasibly be applied as a restriction to Facebook/Instagram and it's probably something they will never implement unless forced.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#259
#1. Trinet for full-time remote/distributed workers. I've spent countless hours researching Global PEOs and reviewing their often poorly written contracts. If a reputable service existed that allowed us to hire in any country without having to form our own corporate entity in that country, we'd be ready to sign yesterday. Unfortunately, all existing services are either:

* Too new (There are promising upstarts, but they usually don't operate their own entities and it seems risky to route all our IP ownership assignments through a tiny company)

* Too expensive (massive markups on what should be a standardized service)

* Too incompetent (One PEO sent us a contract for a Canadian employee that assigned their IP in accordance with US law. It's facepalm-bad sometimes).

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#260

> 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.

Any jobs page? Couldn't find it on the site linked above.

I am frontend developer looking for a remote position

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