ProductHunt has over 300k products [0], why only look at 76k (25%) of them? [0] Source https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41708837
>from 2014 to 2021
Analysis of Product Hunt products from 2014 to 2021
51–60 of 70 posts
Re: Analysis of Product Hunt products from 2014 to 2021
#52Re: Analysis of Product Hunt products from 2014 to 2021
#53In my opinion, the dominance of post-USSR countries (Ukraine, Russia, Belarus) among makers/hunters is not surprising at all, and can be explained by a somewhat inflated, romanticized, almost evangelistic view on computer technologies in these countries.
The computer technologies and associated market could freely develop in those countries after the USSR collapse in 1992. This tendency was fueled by the abundance of high quality STEM education traditionally available in the region. (Historically, STEM education was subsidized by the USSR government and its military ambitions.)
I believe that the digital evangelism arose due to exceptional freedom of IT companies in those countries. While other, more traditional industries have been raided and decimated by their own corrupt governments, the IT sector remained out of reach of dirty hands.
Those circumstances gave the IT industry in the post-Soviet countries a significant advantage. It was a melting pot of new ideas, makers, universities, companies and startups.
Since then, however, the dynamics changed due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. A lot of companies already committed an exodus to other jurisdictions, while remaining companies will be forced to make it in the future.
Re: Analysis of Product Hunt products from 2014 to 2021
#54maybe off topic, but I never got the gist of Product Hunt. Isn't it solutionism? Who goes in search of products to try out? I only see the appeal from builders that want inspiration or people who want to network, usually neither makes for a good user. Are there people who go to product hunt when they have a problem and want a solution? Or people who have excess budget and look around to see where they can spend their…
I used to visit it occasionally, mostly just to catch up on what people were building and maybe find something interesting every now and then. It was kind of like what StumbleUpon was back in the day, just random exploration of things people made. I almost never signed up for any product, though.
Re: Analysis of Product Hunt products from 2014 to 2021
#55The reason people keep switching productivity tools is because they're trying to find one that doesn't suck.
Re: Analysis of Product Hunt products from 2014 to 2021
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Belarus people are fine, the Belarus government has been horrible for a long time, it's not that surprising that people have a bad opinion of the country. I would say the same could be argued for "Russia people" as well. They didn't select their dictator either, and have no way to remove him.
I mean, they do, but it involves risking your livelihood and/or life.
There's no "or" there, serious challenge to the state is a life threatening endeavour in Russia.
Re: Analysis of Product Hunt products from 2014 to 2021
#57> Those who have paid even passing attention to modern productivity software will recognize the language and aim of Agenda, a project from more than 30 years ago, and therefore the broad endeavor of saving time, breaking silos, and endlessly iterating on what essentially amounts to the same few products, over and over, decade after decade. Despite the posted title, this article is really about productivity apps and t…
Fun article but not really about product hunt after the first few paragraphs. Mind fuck - product hunt is not about product hunting either. It’s spec work. It’s not super clear that’s what it is, but the specs given to you on product hunt are the current zeitgeist. Whether you like it or not, you will build your apps for this hivemind and not for any real problem space.
I was skeptical too - friends encouraged me to post my latest project there, a panoramic camera app I made entirely for my own satisfaction (I certainly used none of the “growth hacking” best practices like ads/tracking/upsell popup on first launch/excessive subscription that counts on people forgetting to turn off auto renew).
I posted it on Product Hunt and got a good response, made it to the front page even (link if anyone’s curious: https://www.producthunt.com/products/65x24#65x24)
I don’t doubt that there’s a broader metagame that can be hacked, but in my limited experience legitimate passion projects still have a shot there.
Re: Analysis of Product Hunt products from 2014 to 2021
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Slovakia and Estonia too get lumped in with Ukraine and Russia. I assume they meant "Ukraine and Russia" as a synonym for "eastern Europe" as a whole, but it is a bit dismissive.
As an Estonian, I especially don't like being called eastern europe(ean). We're not, we're northern, according to UN geoscheme classification, according to EuroVoc, and I mean you can also just read the wikipedia page of a place to know where it is at. Furthermore, socially, culturally, and tech advancements wise, we're as far as you could possibly be from Russia association at this point.
Keep it up, if you wave your EuroVoc "NT1 Baltic States" designation harder maybe Pohjoismaiden neuvosto will give up and let you in. Or maybe not: https://satwcomic.com/party-crasher
Re: Analysis of Product Hunt products from 2014 to 2021
#59> Those who have paid even passing attention to modern productivity software will recognize the language and aim of Agenda, a project from more than 30 years ago, and therefore the broad endeavor of saving time, breaking silos, and endlessly iterating on what essentially amounts to the same few products, over and over, decade after decade. Despite the posted title, this article is really about productivity apps and t…
I wrote a blog article (now defunct) years ago about this, which I called "The cyclical nature of shiny new hammers". This was the basic premise. If the workforce is a bunch of carpenters and productivity apps are hammers, there will always be a subset of carpenters who chase after shiny new hammers. I do think there are productivity gains by these new hammers but they are marginal at best.
I like the analogy directionally, but I think it understates the problem significantly. A hammer is a tool used by an actual builder, the analogy for software engineers would be an IDE or perhaps certain programming languages or infra components. We've all known some practitioners who pay a little too much attention to the tools and not enough to the final output.
Productivity tools in general are for larger scale endeavors with lots of ICs. At some point you start to have stakeholders whose only job is coordination. That's where the real risk of these systems lie—when their usage is so far removed from the actual work that needs doing that feeding the system becomes its own justification.
Re: Analysis of Product Hunt products from 2014 to 2021
#60> Those who have paid even passing attention to modern productivity software will recognize the language and aim of Agenda, a project from more than 30 years ago, and therefore the broad endeavor of saving time, breaking silos, and endlessly iterating on what essentially amounts to the same few products, over and over, decade after decade. Despite the posted title, this article is really about productivity apps and t…
I wrote a blog article (now defunct) years ago about this, which I called "The cyclical nature of shiny new hammers". This was the basic premise. If the workforce is a bunch of carpenters and productivity apps are hammers, there will always be a subset of carpenters who chase after shiny new hammers. I do think there are productivity gains by these new hammers but they are marginal at best.
Could you share a link?
Edit: missed "now defunct". But if it's somewhere on archive.org would love to read.