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Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

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Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#211

Post by tptacek »

kahawe wrote: post #201
tptacek wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, business school is a waste. Yes, Java cash register programs are a waste. Yes, doomed Craigslist competitors are a waste. People too young to go to business school have cashed out of YC companies. Aspire to that, not to rationalizing very expensive learning experiences.

So basically you are trying to say any kind of education and learning process is a waste unless you go and aim straight at multinational multibillion dollar success or what is your point?

Yes, that must be exactly what I'm saying; the only other alternative would be that a 4-year education in computer science followed by a 2-year business school degree is the only authentically valid way to commence a career in software development. Right?

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#212

Post by petsos »

tptacek wrote: post #211
kahawe wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically you are trying to say any kind of education and learning process is a waste unless you go and aim straight at multinational multibillion dollar success or what is your point?

Yes, that must be exactly what I'm saying; the only other alternative would be that a 4-year education in computer science followed by a 2-year business school degree is the only authentically valid way to commence a career in software development. Right?

How about being both right and wrong and having other options in the middle too? (like most things in life)

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#213

Post by brc »

warren_s wrote: post #195
brc wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget about 'better' ebays. I've seen serious money wasted on people thinking they could out-do ebay 7 or 8 years ago. Usually by companies already in the auction space who thought they could bring their experience and contacts to the game and win. Nowadays nobody bothers, but the online auction space was very attractive for a lot of people. ebay still has a lot of flaws but the name is a verb for selling some…

counterpoint: trademe.co.nz - started up in 1999 and pretty much owned the NZ auction space because eBay didn't have a presence there at the time. Sold for 3/4 billion NZ$ in 2006. Being a big fish in a small pond can be profitable - these days, its Groupon clones setting up outside the US. I think this stands a higher than average chance of working - simply because the model does require direct interaction with busi…

trademe.co.nz is the poster boy of ebay killers. There is always an exception to the rule. I know of several other countries were ebay has no traction and there is a local alternative.

It is a valid strategy to get in and own a regional variation before the bigger players move in. But you have to move very fast - so fast that the 'big' player hasn't really been noticed yet, or bothered with the local market.

There's still plenty of countries with no real craigslist implementation. But for some reason nobody seems to want to do it.

So you're correct, you can early-move-copy on a big idea, but you've got to have the conviction to move early, and your idea must have ties to the locality through real life goods and businesses (or, I suppose, languages).

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#214

Post by ebiester »

cadr wrote: post #210
ebiester wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. People still haven't done #3 right. Alpha five comes closest, but apparently nobody has heard of them. It should be built on top of SQL server, or Oracle. People are using it already. It should have a subset of Crystal Reports, with an easy way to develop simple entry yet let you override the business logic if necessary. Essentially, combine ext-js with django's administration, with a marketplace of addons for va…

Have you used Alpha Five? Any comments on it? Glancing over the page it looks like it might be in the realm of what I am thinking of. As an aside, one thing that these type of tools often lack is integrated testing. Which is a shame, because it seems like it should be easier in these tools, as the tool can have a lot of context about what the fields, etc, mean.

I had an evaluation copy on my desktop, but didn't play with it. There were others when I was looking; I went the traditional development path for the project instead. http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/infoworld-review-... has some of them.

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#215

Post by kahawe »

tptacek wrote: post #211
kahawe wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically you are trying to say any kind of education and learning process is a waste unless you go and aim straight at multinational multibillion dollar success or what is your point?

Yes, that must be exactly what I'm saying; the only other alternative would be that a 4-year education in computer science followed by a 2-year business school degree is the only authentically valid way to commence a career in software development. Right?

Maybe my sarcasm detector is off but to me you are not making any sense at all in this whole thread here but you sound a lot like you are on a very special quest of altering the way people think about education and programming so good luck, I'll just forget whatever it was you were trying to get into people's minds.

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#216

Post by Egregore »

blhack wrote: post #165
tptacek wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, business school is a waste. Yes, Java cash register programs are a waste. Yes, doomed Craigslist competitors are a waste. People too young to go to business school have cashed out of YC companies. Aspire to that, not to rationalizing very expensive learning experiences.

>People too young to go to business school have cashed out of YC companies. Did these people crawl out of the womb with a keyboard in one hand and an apache server in the other? How do you suppose they learned how to program?

I have never had a class on apache server, nor on keyboard and still I know how to use both, so the desire to learn is much more important than attending classes.

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#217

Post by blhack »

sandaru1 wrote: post #208
blhack wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you just show this app off on HN the other day? (Just installed it. Was this supposed to be only for doctors...or?)

Yes, posted on HN about 5 days ago. Our main user group is doctors and medical students (or any healthcare professionals who are familiar with little bit of medicine). Take a look at iMedicalApps review for detailed analysis (good and bad) : http://www.imedicalapps.com/2010/11/prognosis-your-diagnosis...

Huh. My sister is a med student. I'll forward this on to her :)

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#218

Post by jeremypeng »

ebiester wrote: post #214
cadr wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you used Alpha Five? Any comments on it? Glancing over the page it looks like it might be in the realm of what I am thinking of. As an aside, one thing that these type of tools often lack is integrated testing. Which is a shame, because it seems like it should be easier in these tools, as the tool can have a lot of context about what the fields, etc, mean.

I had an evaluation copy on my desktop, but didn't play with it. There were others when I was looking; I went the traditional development path for the project instead. http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/infoworld-review-... has some of them.

I read the same article looking for alternatives. Did a little sleuthing and found something called ironspeed. Looks like a competitor. It builds everything in C# or VB from an existing database. I'm working with their trial now but there jury's still out...

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#219

Post by tptacek »

kahawe wrote: post #215
tptacek wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that must be exactly what I'm saying; the only other alternative would be that a 4-year education in computer science followed by a 2-year business school degree is the only authentically valid way to commence a career in software development. Right?

Maybe my sarcasm detector is off but to me you are not making any sense at all in this whole thread here but you sound a lot like you are on a very special quest of altering the way people think about education and programming so good luck, I'll just forget whatever it was you were trying to get into people's minds.

Your sarcasm detector is off. Sorry.

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#220

Post by kongqiu »

kongqiu wrote: post #28
roadnottaken wrote: post #9

I wish somebody would actually make a better Social Travel website. TripAdvisor is exceedingly unpleasant to use, despite the solid content. I keep hoping that wikitravel will thrive but it's never very good...

I'm working on a niche social travel website that's currently underserved. Launching next week; will share on HN!

Would love any feedback: parkgrades.com

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1980478

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