Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fuckthis.app – Software products for exasperated people

justin.searls.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 30 posts

Re: Fuckthis.app – Software products for exasperated people

#21

Post by idle_zealot »

quaintdev wrote: post #8

I created an issue tracker for home use. It just displays list of issues with due date. You can filter by this week, month or all. You can edit the issues. That's all it does. No auth. No fancy frameworks. I have been more productive with this than any other todo or issue tracker app I've tried to use. Seriously people just build something up for yourself. With AI to help we can come up with fully working prototype i…

The last point of this blog post (not the one you linked) seems to apply here: why build software rather than just use Reminders or whatever todo app?

Re: Fuckthis.app – Software products for exasperated people

#23

Post by kulahan »

throwaway19972 wrote: post #20
kulahan wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think this means? Companies shouldn't be able to reinvest money into themselves because every extra dollar needs to go to employees? Have you invented some way of determining the correct amount to grow each year as a business? I can't even begin to imagine how this would work in the real world. This makes no sense. The comments on HN are turning into reddit comments with the massive drop in quality lately…

> Companies shouldn't be able to reinvest money into themselves because every extra dollar needs to go to employees This wouldn't be called "profit", now would it? Regardless, letting the market dictate as much as it does also doesn't make sense. Neither does trusting investors/shareholders to determine what's best for society. It's all just kind of broken.

Okay... so you're not asking for any changes at all, then. You just made a comment that vaguely tended towards the idea that employees need more money? Why?

If I can just take any money I "should" be giving to employees and absolve myself of that goal simply by spending the money on the company instead, which every publicly-owned company currently does, then nothing has changed.

You DO realize things like stock buybacks are done to grow the company, right? Like yes, there is a profit motive there for shareholders, but paying off shareholders could also be classified as growing the company.

So again - what are you actually asking for? Please clarify whatever point you're trying to make, because so far, all you've said is "nothing should change".

Re: Fuckthis.app – Software products for exasperated people

#24

Post by stavros »

searls wrote: post #6
stavros wrote: post #2

This is great! What this page doesn't explain, though, is why the author will resist the urge to make more money when one of the products becomes popular. The other products he talks about didn't turn shitty because the founders just hate babies, but because they like money. The author doesn't go into enough detail on why he doesn't like money.

As the author, I can answer this: because I believe there is such a thing as "enough money." And I'm personally at a point where the decision in my mind is not between "build a great product that makes less money" vs "release a compromised product that makes more money". Instead, the decision is "build this app for my own private use" vs "release it and put up with dealing with users so that others can use too". And…

Excellent, that's a good answer. You should put that on the site.

Re: Fuckthis.app – Software products for exasperated people

#25

Post by throwaway19972 »

kulahan wrote: post #23
throwaway19972 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Companies shouldn't be able to reinvest money into themselves because every extra dollar needs to go to employees This wouldn't be called "profit", now would it? Regardless, letting the market dictate as much as it does also doesn't make sense. Neither does trusting investors/shareholders to determine what's best for society. It's all just kind of broken.

Okay... so you're not asking for any changes at all, then. You just made a comment that vaguely tended towards the idea that employees need more money? Why? If I can just take any money I "should" be giving to employees and absolve myself of that goal simply by spending the money on the company instead, which every publicly-owned company currently does , then nothing has changed. You DO realize things like stock buyb…

> every publicly-owned company currently does

Let me introduce you to a concept called “dividends”

Frankly, I’d love it if we made private enterprise illegal.

Re: Fuckthis.app – Software products for exasperated people

#27

Post by thayne »

morpheuskafka wrote: post #4

> My favorite example is expense-tracking software. > some angel investor . . . said, "what if we issued our own credit cards and then kept all the swipe fees for ourselves?" [in lieu of a monthly fee] > employees were strong-armed into . . . those corporate cards . . . even if it meant losing out on literal thousands of dollars in cash back and rewards from their personal cards So the employee should be able to bene…

Think about it this way: the company previously allowed employees to get credit card points for re-inbursable expenses. They didn't have to, they could have required all purchases be made with a company card or something. That is basically a perk/benefit. Then the company took that perk away, which is effectively a decrease in compensation.

I don't think an employee is entitled to credit card rewards as a basic right. But taking it away after employees have an expectation of having it is akin to taking away free lunches.

Re: Fuckthis.app – Software products for exasperated people

#28

Post by jkmcf »

rsync wrote: post #22

I think it would be a better use of your time to create, and maintain, an index of non-fucked apps and services. If I may, I would nominate both mcmaster.com and "Mountain Duck"[1]. [1] https://mountainduck.io/

I thought it was actually this when I saw it on mastodon.

OTOH, he’s mostly being snarky. I think.

Re: Fuckthis.app – Software products for exasperated people

#29

Post by CamJN »

parpfish wrote: post #13

i thought about doing something similar when i tried to find a simple solitaire game in the apple app store. i want a simple game that i can use to kill 15 minutes while i'm waiting in line, but all the version in the app store have been gamified to the point that the game barely exists. so many notifications about daily quests, several different in game currencies, unlockable skins and trophies, accumulating XP to l…

https://apps.apple.com/app/id463565130

No bullshit solitaire.

Re: Fuckthis.app – Software products for exasperated people

#30

Post by kulahan »

throwaway19972 wrote: post #25
kulahan wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay... so you're not asking for any changes at all, then. You just made a comment that vaguely tended towards the idea that employees need more money? Why? If I can just take any money I "should" be giving to employees and absolve myself of that goal simply by spending the money on the company instead, which every publicly-owned company currently does , then nothing has changed. You DO realize things like stock buyb…

> every publicly-owned company currently does Let me introduce you to a concept called “dividends” Frankly, I’d love it if we made private enterprise illegal.

Dividends are a way to attract investors by showing that you are a stable company that can make them money a little faster than normal. It brings more money into the company in the long run and helps investors feel safe with you during times of economic downturn.

Companies aren't giving away money for fun - I promise you there's a strategy.

Post reply on HN