Ask HN: Have you ever worked hard on something that did not pay off?

#1

Post by arduinomancer » Tue, Jun 29, 2021, 6:32 PM UTC

Inspired by the recent PG essay on hard work.

I feel like there are lots of anecdotes of people working hard and it paying off (e.g. Bill Gates).

Have you ever worked hard and put a lot of time into something that ended up being a waste of time/effort?

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever worked hard on something that did not pay off?

#2

Post by giantg2 » Tue, Jun 29, 2021, 11:55 PM UTC

My masters degree was a waste of time.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever worked hard on something that did not pay off?

#3

Post by westcort » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 12:00 AM UTC

My search engine and aggregator locserendipity.com has not gotten much traction despite many hours of work. Even so, I have learned a lot from working on it, including a working familiarity with multiple languages. I have also learned that others are not as interested in history, puns, classic radio, and other resources.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever worked hard on something that did not pay off?

#4

Post by the_only_law » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 12:43 AM UTC

I probably poured a little more effort into programming than I should have

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever worked hard on something that did not pay off?

#5

Post by mikewarot » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 3:10 AM UTC

As the lone IT guy, I built a new database to upgrade/replace the production system, it would have saved hundreds of hours of labor, but couldn't get buy in from management.

I had conversion scripts that worked, a reasonable plan for recovery if it didn't work.

I tried a few other projects, but eventually settled in to just showing up and waiting for things to break. It broke my spirit.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever worked hard on something that did not pay off?

#6

Post by elliekelly » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:31 AM UTC

westcort wrote: post #3

My search engine and aggregator locserendipity.com has not gotten much traction despite many hours of work. Even so, I have learned a lot from working on it, including a working familiarity with multiple languages. I have also learned that others are not as interested in history, puns, classic radio, and other resources.

This is super cool! It reminds me of the early days of the internet when search engines were high quality and had more of a personal/curated feel instead of the SEO we have today. Somewhere along the way search engines started sacrificing quality for quantity and the internet hasn’t been the same since.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever worked hard on something that did not pay off?

#7

Post by yellow_lead » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:32 AM UTC

mikewarot wrote: post #5

As the lone IT guy, I built a new database to upgrade/replace the production system, it would have saved hundreds of hours of labor, but couldn't get buy in from management. I had conversion scripts that worked, a reasonable plan for recovery if it didn't work. I tried a few other projects, but eventually settled in to just showing up and waiting for things to break. It broke my spirit.

That's pretty depressing

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever worked hard on something that did not pay off?

#8

Post by jasonkester » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:32 AM UTC

Sure. Ten of the Twelve SaaS products that I have built over the years didn’t get any traction and died away. That’s only counting ones I spent at least a month or so head down building and marketing.

And that’s fine. Because the other two pay the bills.

That’s the cool thing about software businesses. You only need to get it all right once. People like to call this “survivorship bias” and other silly things in order to convince themselves that it’s pointless to try. But all it really means is that you get to keep trying until it works.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever worked hard on something that did not pay off?

#9

Post by AznHisoka » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 8:39 AM UTC

I worked on a diet/fitness gamification startup for 2 years. Built an iPhone app and a website with a fleshed out back-end. Spent around $50k of my own money for design, and coding help. Even built a list of 5000 users before launching, but it still didn’t work out at the end.

Prior to that, I hacked on a site that helped you outsource your shopping. Toiled for a few years, spent close to $25k of my own money, and made maybe $1 in total income.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever worked hard on something that did not pay off?

#10

Post by high_byte » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 9:35 AM UTC

I lived off my savings for 3 years and put 120% of my income in the company, nailed $7m deal (and other big ones were to come) when my partner scammed and screwed everything and everyone. needles to say he got sued for not nearly enough. the deal dropped and "luckily" we didn't get the money yet, otherwise I'd be in bigger trouble.