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How would I get started?

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Re: How would I get started?

#61

Post by macspoofing »

slewis wrote: post #45
nhebb wrote: post #13

I didn't take part in the previous thread, but I kind of took umbrage with the question. It's really hard to take a question like that seriously when it appears that the OP has put zero effort into researching the subject. How can you not be pessimistic about that? If you're not the kind of person that can do even the most basic research of how cable companies operate, then I don't have one iota of confidence that yo…

The question is interesting in and of itself regardless of who the OP is or what research they did.

That's what I'm thinking. For all I know (or care) the OP may have just posed the question as a hypothetical. I'll never start a cable company but I'm interested in the answer.

Re: How would I get started?

#62

Post by crazygringo »

I love this idea. Not as something to realistically help you get started, but purely educational. There's so much knowledge tied up exclusively among people "in the industry", that would be great to get out into the public.

I would love to know all the things involved in starting an airline. How are planes actually bought? How are mechanics actually procured? What kind of safety regulations are followed? etc.

I once read the book "Starting & Running a Restaurant for Dummies" just to find out how it's done. It's fascinating!

But turning it into a Wiki, for anything, would be so much better. You can have summary sections, that link to fuller articles, you can cross-reference how to hire a chef (both for the restaurant, and for the airline catering), and so on.

Re: How would I get started?

#63

Post by spitx »

There is nothing "rude" about asking HN to chime in on your exploratory-stage ideas, especially when they are uncommonly ambitious and not your average badgeville startup ideas. Face it, Foursquare is not going to fetch you a mercenary if you ever needed one.

Why can group-mulling of ideas, be a terrific endeavor?

1) It can stress-test your idea and expose the glaringly gaping holes you might have overlooked, in the very fashioning of the prospect itself.

2)Some ideas may not lend to "socialization" because of their inherent nature. Helps to have them flagged -- if not decimated -- before you even begin. Eg: A startup seeking to disrupt the litigation law market isn't very readily socialize-able as one targeting the fitness trainer market.

3) The group-mulling process need not be just one-way beneficial. The "mullers" stand to benefit from having their horizons broadened too. They might for once realize, that there are entire industries -- non-glamorous but nonetheless high gravity, real-impact ones -- waiting to be disrupted beyond the Mayorvilles and Filtergrams of the valley.

This kind of mulling happens on Quora all the time.

HN should encourage it.

Again you are just being asked to mull.

Not leak insights from the equity-research desk at Goldman Sachs.

Chill with the dressing-downs.

Re: How would I get started?

#64

Post by joonix »

crazygringo wrote: post #62

I love this idea. Not as something to realistically help you get started, but purely educational. There's so much knowledge tied up exclusively among people "in the industry", that would be great to get out into the public. I would love to know all the things involved in starting an airline. How are planes actually bought? How are mechanics actually procured? What kind of safety regulations are followed? etc. I once…

Yes! I hate how the really valuable knowledge is just tied up inside the walls of big industry. People making money are too busy to teach others how to do their jobs.

I'm always in search of these types of answers, and rarely get them on the internet. I've looked up those questions about starting an airline in the past.

Maybe we can't start an airline, I understand the barriers to entry, but if we got a look at the mechanics of the whole thing maybe someone could disrupt just a small segment of it. That person sells some software to the airlines and makes lots of money. That person then works as CTO for an airline. That person moves up to CEO. That person later leaves and creates an upstart airline that disrupts the industry as we know it. This is the way these things happen all the time, there's no reason for pessimism.

Re: How would I get started?

#65

Post by miles_matthias »

crazygringo wrote: post #62

I love this idea. Not as something to realistically help you get started, but purely educational. There's so much knowledge tied up exclusively among people "in the industry", that would be great to get out into the public. I would love to know all the things involved in starting an airline. How are planes actually bought? How are mechanics actually procured? What kind of safety regulations are followed? etc. I once…

I'm a developer that would be interested in helping this come to fruition. Maybe starting a github repo with the site's code would be a good start for others to pitch in.

As for the domain, howdoistart.com returns:

"This domain is for sale. Please contact Curtis Stock at curtis.stock@yahoo.com for more information."

Re: How would I get started?

#66

Post by berkay »

smoyer wrote: post #53

I missed that question and would be happy to help with the technical aspects of starting a cable company (though I'd like to see content delivery decoupled from the infrastructure). I have 25 years of experience in the industry if he gets that far. The hard part of the process (and I believe the limiting factor in a new company's success), is arranging the contracts with the content syndicators. Find my e-mail in my…

Actually even this tidbit (contracts) helps. Identifying the challenges/obstacles is very valuable as it opens it to creative solutions to those problems that may not occur to insiders.

Re: How would I get started?

#67

Post by fearless »

Mz wrote: post #10
robbiea wrote: post #4

I definitely agree with this article. We shouldn't be pessimistic about someone's grand vision. However, if you really wanted to start a cable company you probably wouldn't be asking hacker news on how to start a cable company. You would already have other resources that you can tap into and get started on it.

Wow, what elegant hypocrisy. I want to change healthcare. I have spent twelve years getting myself well when the entire world says it cannot be done. I have a website. I have a mental model for how to proceed forward. I don't have the programming skills I need. I am deeply in debt from the process of accomplishing "the impossible". The specifics of my personal situation are unconducive to applying to Y-Combinator. I…

Aren't you homeless? Your first priority should be a getting a job so you can get out of debt and put a roof over your head. Then worry about big ideas like changing healthcare.

To be perfectly candid, the reason people dismiss you is that someone who seems incapable of providing for themselves to take care of their basic needs is certainly incapable of starting a hugely disruptive business.

Sorry if this is harsh. Just trying to help.

Re: How would I get started?

#68

Post by huggah »

The problem with this is that for questions like "how could I build a cable company?", answers don't help".

If you want to build a cable company, a payments system, a new government, or colonize mars there is no high level answer. There are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of sub-questions that need to be answered. Eventually so many that you need to hire people to ask and answer them, and you won't even know what the question was.

The truth is that if you really want to go to space, no one will help you. Not because we don't want to help you, but because we can't. We can speculate, and dig up research or law or economics---but at the end of the day, all you're doing is inviting us to help design your bikeshed. If you can break down the problem, figure out which questions to ask, what information you don't have, and who does, that person might be able to help you. By the time you've gotten that far, you're already on the verge of sinking your life into this---and if you want to build a cable company, that's what it's going to take.

Re: How would I get started?

#69

Post by polyfractal »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #39

And of course this thread fills up with more of the same negativism trying to justify itself. PG nailed it with the term "middlebrow dismissal". Which is a politer term than what I think when I come across it. I never think to myself "Wow, what a realistic, practical, well-informed comment that generic negative feedback was. My respect for that commenter has certainly increased!" Particularly when it's the 500th exam…

There is a big difference between negativism and cold reality. For example, these three posts in the original Ask HN thread:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4893858

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4893826

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4894378

Are all actionable, informative and realistic. They aren't negative comments. Sure, there were some "This is dumb and you are stupid" posts in the thread, but most of the replies were sincerely realistic.

It really wasn't middlebrow dismissal...it was "this is going to be hard, and here is why". In all honesty, that is exactly the sort of feedback I would want as someone doing basic research in an area. I would want to know why it is going to be hard, why certain interests/business ideas are entrenched, etc.

Re: How would I get started?

#70

Post by [deleted] »

miles_matthias wrote: post #65
crazygringo wrote: post #62

I love this idea. Not as something to realistically help you get started, but purely educational. There's so much knowledge tied up exclusively among people "in the industry", that would be great to get out into the public. I would love to know all the things involved in starting an airline. How are planes actually bought? How are mechanics actually procured? What kind of safety regulations are followed? etc. I once…

I'm a developer that would be interested in helping this come to fruition. Maybe starting a github repo with the site's code would be a good start for others to pitch in. As for the domain, howdoistart.com returns: "This domain is for sale. Please contact Curtis Stock at curtis.stock@yahoo.com for more information."

[deleted]
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