Biggest Regret: Waiting too long.
Examples: I wish I learned to program sooner. I wish I started playing basketball sooner. Etc...
I still find myself doing this, although less now than before.
Ask HN: What has been your biggest mistake?
81–90 of 102 posts
Re: Ask HN: What has been your biggest mistake?
#82Re: Ask HN: What has been your biggest mistake?
#83Talking about regrets and mistakes s a funny thing. There is an implied hypothetical there -- like, "If I had made a different choice, I would be a in a better place."
Take, for example, my (admittedly foolish) decision to drop out of the University after a year and go to community college part-time for a year. It should have been a bust, but I ended up meeting my wife (who was working on her generals) there. I met another great friend on my second run at the University. Now my wife and this friend are my co-founders for my startup... both of whom I possibly would've never known if I hadn't gone to the community college.
Now, I'm not saying that there is no such thing as bad choices, or that I have no regrets about things I've done -- I think it's natural for us to regret things that we perceive as mistakes. But I'm pretty happy right now in spite of any problems that I might have, and as far as choices contribute to our happiness, mine have worked out well. It's hard for me to describe choices that have made me happy as "mistakes".
Re: Ask HN: What has been your biggest mistake?
#84Not sleeping with more women. When I was younger, women were more plentiful (and looking for relationships) but I spent most of my time in front of computers. Today, computers are more plentiful and most of the nice women I meet are already married or in long term relationships.
I just modded you up, but as I think about it more, I realize that had I been more promiscuous, I may have passed over (or slept with but not stayed with) the girl I am with now in a long-term (long-distance, unfortunately) relationship and I feel that I can spend the rest of my life with her.
Re: Ask HN: What has been your biggest mistake?
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
At that point in time, where the other 2 startup ideas less/more crazy than google/yahoo?
Google was obviously a good company at the time. I just thought being #6 at this other startup would leave me better off financially than being employee 300-something at Google. Not the case. In regards to YouTube, I was actually doing work for a YouTube competitor at the time. They sold their tech early to another YouTube competitor, but since I was a contract employee, not a founder, I didn't make any money off of…
So how do you evaluate and incorporate that magic factor when making the decision on which startup to join? The regular factors being a combination of market, people, product, personal value and financial?
Re: Ask HN: What has been your biggest mistake?
#86Not sleeping with more women. When I was younger, women were more plentiful (and looking for relationships) but I spent most of my time in front of computers. Today, computers are more plentiful and most of the nice women I meet are already married or in long term relationships.
I could understand if your regret were not dating, but is your only regret a lack of sex? The "nice women" would be averse to marrying you if your number got too high. From the perspective of a marriage-worthy woman, it's fine to be a virgin till 23-25, and the ideal number for a 30-year-old male is probably 1-6. How old are you? It seems that the odds get better for a guy until age 35. When you're 20, the age range…
It's unclear why living abroad would do much to broaden one's dating gene pool. Certainly you can avoid white, suburban Americans in Japan, but good luck meeting someone who isn't Japanese. Outside of the USA and Canada most countries are very monocultural. For example, if you are moving to Sweden for dating purposes you should be sure you are into Swedish people before you go. It is far easier to date outside your race/culture in the USA. I'm white, and haven't dated a white person since I was in high school.
In regards to your ideal number, 6 at age 30 would be a minimum. Lower than that and your potential dates will wonder what's wrong with you.
Re: Ask HN: What has been your biggest mistake?
#87Thinking other people are dumb. Even if it were true, it has yet to get me anywhere.
I could not agree more on this point. It seems like this comes up all too often in design discussions, and it is difficult to get around in a productive manner.
Re: Ask HN: What has been your biggest mistake?
#88Not focusing on ideas that interested me, but rather ones that interested others.
Re: Ask HN: What has been your biggest mistake?
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
You cannot get sued for having a site that isnt charging anything because youre not giving any legal consideration. Without legal consideration, there is no contract between you and your user base. Thus, while you technically can still be sued, having that case go anywhere is very unlikely. Of course if youre doing something legally grey like youtube or file sharing, then perhaps you should incorporate. But without a…
Applying your litmus test means that no OSS company has ever been (or will ever be) sued for patent infringement. It is difficult to have a corporate veil pierced on the basis of assets held alone, and there are specific conditions in place in every state that must be met in order to pierce the corporate veil. Which you've actually argued for yourself in your claim that a C Corp is the entity that you want to use in…
Look.
I totally agree that you should grab some sort of limited liability protection. I am not a lawyer, so most of this stuff is hear-say or just random observations from my, to be honest, limited knowledge of the legal system.
I do know however that setting up a LLC or C-corp WITHOUT any tangible assets, as most string-budget startups are, IS piercable.
http://wyomcases.courts.state.wy.us/applications/oscn/delive...
That's the specific case that's often cited for precedent in LLC piercing.
HOWEVER
-- THIS IS THE BIG HOWEVER --
If you have any sort of funding, I'd say over $20,000, you should grab some sort of limited liability coverage ONCE you get traction.
But since we're all just guessing about the actual legality of this stuff, why don't we have someone that is an actual lawyer come and put an end to this debate.
Re: Ask HN: What has been your biggest mistake?
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
You cannot get sued for having a site that isnt charging anything because youre not giving any legal consideration. Without legal consideration, there is no contract between you and your user base. Thus, while you technically can still be sued, having that case go anywhere is very unlikely. Of course if youre doing something legally grey like youtube or file sharing, then perhaps you should incorporate. But without a…
You've added a sentence to your post regarding requiring an example. What basis would there be for any legal suit if a company wasn't doing anything legally gray? Isn't that the point of a lawsuit?
Negligent tort?