Interface Design with a Homeless person • Hacker News Board

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#31

Post by potatolicious » Mon, Jul 02, 2012, 8:03 AM UTC

Comrade wrote: post #18

MIT_Hacker wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been biking through the Tenderloin for the last couple of weeks since I started at Square. I've always been really scared as I bike through and have had a decent number of people yell at me. This was quite the opposite of that :)

I gathered it's mostly OK during the day. We were (stupidly) walking around at 2am after a night out. Tourists. ;)

The TL is terrifying when there's no one else around except some ne'er-do-wells. Anything goes in that situation. Where it's busy it's usually just unpleasant, running the Tenderloin gauntlet of a million aromas (the more belligerent cousin of the Mission gauntlet of a thousand aromas).

During the day time I'd be more concerned about stepping in human excrement or rivers of piss. In fact, walking to the BART tonight from the Tenderloin I dodged 3 piles of human shit and near-missed another.

The Tenderloin and Twitterloin are blights on this fair city, and its toxic presence is oppressively pervasive if you spend any amount of time downtown (or even further out, like Hayes Valley and the Castro). It's a startling example of complete public policy failure at all levels of government.

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#32

Post by kdsudac » Mon, Jul 02, 2012, 8:04 AM UTC

The most unbelievable part of your story: you didn't know how to use your own bike pump! From your description it sounds like a pretty common design.

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#33

Post by jawr » Mon, Jul 02, 2012, 8:14 AM UTC

MIT_Hacker wrote: post #21

weego wrote: post #20

This rather confused me. Even more so because some of the details seem to being live edited. A cycle courier for legal documents that gets to read the documents. He crewed on a sub (initially im sure it said commanded) yet doesn't get on with computers yet even though he is homeless he knows about the square product, and also having never worked in design knows about Dieter Rams, someone with almost no designers I've…

About the wording, I actually had a friend in the Navy who reached out and told me to change the verb. I wouldn't have posted it if I didn't think it was a strange experience to have!

It is a very strange story. I'm also quite surprised you didn't know about the two bike valves on a pump! At least it led you meet this cool person.

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#34

Post by MIT_Hacker » Mon, Jul 02, 2012, 8:15 AM UTC

kdsudac wrote: post #32

The most unbelievable part of your story: you didn't know how to use your own bike pump! From your description it sounds like a pretty common design.

It was the valve on the pump. Made for mountain bikes rather than my street bike and it was the first time I had to use it.

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#35

Post by Confusion » Mon, Jul 02, 2012, 8:15 AM UTC

  and found that my hand-pump was made for a different valve
  than on my tire.

With all handpumps I know, you can unscrew that top part and reverse it, so it fits the two most common kinds of valve (of which I don't know how you call them in English).

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#36

Post by guynamedloren » Mon, Jul 02, 2012, 8:16 AM UTC

I like this story.

But this part baffles me: he 'wants to be his own man', so he won't work for somebody else. Instead, he doesn't work at all and accepts money from strangers... and somehow that is better and more prideful than working for somebody else?

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#37

Post by chmike » Mon, Jul 02, 2012, 8:16 AM UTC

MIT_Hacker wrote: post #14

wilfra wrote: post #12

I'm sure he was a really smart guy with an interesting story but you sound a bit naive in believing everything he said i.e. about the Bonds papers and his tours and all of that. Likely a lot of exaggeration, some straight bullshit and a little bit of truth. Great story though. And kudos to dropping a c-note on him. Giving a lot to them rarely is far better than $2 here and there, which will likely just go to beer or…

You know, I thought about this throughout the entire encounter. I wasn't sure if I could believe any of his stories. He seemed so genuine and so excited throughout the conversation that I gave him the benefit of the doubt. In terms of how much money I gave him, I decided that $100 was probably the minimum amount that could actually help him pursue the idea and as a college intern, I'm not sure I could have spared muc…

What are the odds that such guy would be given a chance to share a piece of himself like he did ? I really don't think the OP was naive. I think there should be more people like him.

Y Combinator gave a chance to people who would never have a chance at seed investors or Angle investors. It appeared that YC found few very valuable gems though. Surprised ? You shouldn't because seed investors and Angel investors have strong bias to what a high potential candidate or project would look like.

I assume we have a similar strong bias regarding homeless, close to consider them as hopeless. Though I believe that there are gems in this group of people as well, that need only to be given a little push and help to shine out.

And as for Y Combinator, people would consider it all normal and obvious afterward if someone does it for them too.

My impression is that it was a kind of surprise for the OP to discover that he had a bias regarding such kind of homeless guy.

BTW a bike shop looks like a good long term investment considering the energy crisis. In Greece, a business that is very flourishing in this strong crisis period is selling wool ! In Italy they raised gasoline tax so that a litter cost 2€ (because of debt)! We'll all reach that point soon or later. Beside, real lean startup founders ride bikes !

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#38

Post by MIT_Hacker » Mon, Jul 02, 2012, 8:18 AM UTC

Confusion wrote: post #35

and found that my hand-pump was made for a different valve than on my tire. With all handpumps I know, you can unscrew that top part and reverse it, so it fits the two most common kinds of valve (of which I don't know how you call them in English).

I didn't know about this! This is was my first-ever hand-pump

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#39

Post by MIT_Hacker » Mon, Jul 02, 2012, 8:19 AM UTC

jawr wrote: post #33

MIT_Hacker wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About the wording, I actually had a friend in the Navy who reached out and told me to change the verb. I wouldn't have posted it if I didn't think it was a strange experience to have!

It is a very strange story. I'm also quite surprised you didn't know about the two bike valves on a pump! At least it led you meet this cool person.

Yeah, it sounds like I was out of the loop with these reversible hand pumps. Things you learn from homeless people!

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#40

Post by MIT_Hacker » Mon, Jul 02, 2012, 8:23 AM UTC

guynamedloren wrote: post #36

I like this story. But this part baffles me: he 'wants to be his own man', so he won't work for somebody else. Instead, he doesn't work at all and accepts money from strangers... and somehow that is better and more prideful than working for somebody else?

Well he never really asked for money and I didn't give him a chance to refuse it :)