... a "Jump to Conclusions" mat. You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor... and would have different conclusions written on it that you could jump to .
haha Thats from Remington Steele - I loved that episode.
Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
151–160 of 187 posts
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my experience socializing with a bunch of random people - even in the form of short, useless conversations - leads to cuties. I have a no-iPod rule these days - I never listen to music on the go. Headphones-on is a great way to miss out on interesting people in life. [edit] Also, this is in no way a comment on what you ought to be doing - but for myself I find that when I feel absolutely beat and just feel like cr…
>>Instead of withdrawing into my own space I try to engage as many people as possible - and as a result end up more refreshed (Sniff, sniff... what is that weird smell? Ah! There is an extrovert on HN! Anyone got tar and feathers?) I personally like people and get unhappy if I spend too much time alone. And yes, I might be in the wrong profession. But despite having quite a social personality, I get tired from being…
I don't actually consider myself an extrovert. I was an extreme introvert in high school (hence why I'm a hacker now, I suppose), and even now I have default reactions to be introverted.
Hence why I suggested what I did :) When I'm tired from a long day of work, my brain tells me to go home and watch TV/surf the interwebs. I override this instinct and go and meet people - and generally do not ever regret it. I'm a closet extrovert? I don't know, I'm no psychologist.
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#153I have always wanted to create a widget that would go into a dishwasher and change color after the cycle was completed. This way, you would always know if the dishes were clean :-) It might work based on heat (drying cycle) or via a reaction with soap.
And this would be better than checking the dishes themselves?
(Us) Nerds don't like to move their body.
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#154A social network for people who fly on airplanes regularly that helps people book seats next to each other so that they can enjoy a nice conversation rather than sitting in silence for the duration of the flight.
Along those lines I know there is a very lucrative black (maybe more gray) market in which people will pay big money to find out flight plans of important decision makers. People paid that money so they could try to buy a ticket in the seat next to said decision maker. You've then got X hours to work a pitch. I know this happens to execs in pro sports a lot (people trying to get sponsorship, get the leagues using the…
Eugene O'Kelly told an example of this story in "Chasing Daylight": flying from NY to Australia, to fly next to the head of a bank whose account he was trying to win but was unable to schedule a call to talk to.
But that was mostly possible because he had built up a relationship with the banker's assistant.
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>Instead of withdrawing into my own space I try to engage as many people as possible - and as a result end up more refreshed (Sniff, sniff... what is that weird smell? Ah! There is an extrovert on HN! Anyone got tar and feathers?) I personally like people and get unhappy if I spend too much time alone. And yes, I might be in the wrong profession. But despite having quite a social personality, I get tired from being…
I don't actually consider myself an extrovert. I was an extreme introvert in high school (hence why I'm a hacker now, I suppose), and even now I have default reactions to be introverted. Hence why I suggested what I did :) When I'm tired from a long day of work, my brain tells me to go home and watch TV/surf the interwebs. I override this instinct and go and meet people - and generally do not ever regret it. I'm a cl…
It is OK, relax. Breathe slowly. You don't need to come out of the closet if you don't want to... :-)
(Hrm, the min is -4 these days, right? Right?)
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#156How about an website that collects/harvests good startup ideas? Like what we're doing on this HN page?
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
You guys know that in Europe this is common? It's called a "bank transfer" and it is trivial to do, just need people's bank account and routing number and yes, people do hand it out. Many (most? all?) bank websites support it. We have newly-arrived Europeans working at our US office that cannot believe people still write cheques here. [Edit since there has been some curiosity: here is who underwrites the scheme in th…
We have these things called "credit cards" where you are protected from fraud, typically get a certain percentage award through a marketing tie-in, and get to earn interest on the monthly float.
They have credit cards over there too you know :-)
Many people object to being in debt in principle. Yes, yes, I know you can pay off the balance every month, but clearly most people don't, otherwise credit cards would not be in business.
Also, for small-time ebay sellers and the like, the overhead in accepting credit cards is non-trivial.
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Although I've often wished such a thing existed, you run into a significant set of problems with accuracy. For example, the Mormons are big on genealogy; many of them are extremely reliable sources, but many are not--e.g., their genealogy files contain "Noah" and similar figures. On the other hand, if the information is accurate, it raises major privacy concerns. Most reliable sources will not display the backgrounds…
Using your mother's maiden name as a secret should have died out a long time ago. Public geneaology is an argument against it , not the other way 'round.
Unfortunately, some places still either require this information, or treat it as some sort of reasonable evidence for your identity.
My solution is to give my provider's my mother's maiden name when required, but to deliberately misspell it. This solves the first problem but not the second.
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#159Yelp for products. I use Amazon in this way now.
This reminds me of http://www.gdgt.com
Although Gdgt's focus is more on gadgets and crowd sourcing all information instead of just reviews.
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#160Most people think they're good drivers, even bad ones (thanks, Dunning-Kruger!) I'd like to see a rating and ranking system for drivers. A console in your car with a big red button-- when someone around you is driving recklessly, you target them and punch the red button... they rack up demerits (or frowny faces or whatever) and they can go to a site to see how they rank up, and how people think they drive. Not that i…
I thought of something like this based on license plates a while back. Drivers would send messages (kudos or kurses?) to a license plate's inbox. Anyone could check the inbox, but you'd have to know the plate.
I think it'd have to do speech recognition though, because texting-while-driving would probably be irresponsible to encourage.
I couldn't figure out how to make it practical or monetizable, but it'd be fun to have something to scream at while driving now and then :)