Ask HN: What stops you from starting today? - <AUTHOR>

Why wait? I'd like to hear what exactly delays YOU from starting your dream company TODAY? Right now I am launching my third company and that makes me very excited! So why wait? I'd like to hear your excuses! <comment><USER3> I hate you for asking me this because it is such an emotional issue for me. I've been asking myself the same question for over a year now. The answer has almost always been savings. I have a wife/house/car/loans and need at least $3000/month. The good thing is that I see the light at the end of the tunnel. July 2009, I thought I'd start in Feb 2010. Feb 2010, I thought I'd start in July 2010. Right now I'm aiming for next month. I know it's a moving target but it is getting really really close. If magic-pixie-unicorn-fairy gave me $6k no-strings-attached, I'd do it today. Otherwise I think by mid-Sep, I'll be in a good position to dive right in. Counting days at this point...

<comment><AUTHOR> Start part-time. Figure out how to reduce time you waste on your full-time job. Get some angel money - you will need some prototype for that though. Reduce your monthly spending and pay off loans first. Join early stage startup that is willing to pay some salary since the beginning. Just some obvious advices on top of my head.

OR

Maybe startup isnt for you? Thats just fine, its not for everyone and millions enjoy happy lives and families being employed. Once you admit this it may become less emotional for you and you might actually feel much better mentally!

I think its kind of problem for many readers here: HN pushes that mantra that every hacker have to start something himself.

<comment><USER4> You count part-time as having started one's dream company?

<comment><USER5> You don't? If that's the only way to get off the ground, then yeah, that might just be the start of your dream company. Better part-time than never.

<comment><USER4> I've started part-time and wanted to know if this Ask HN was directed toward people like me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I guess I have a few issues -

1\. Immigration - I am an immigrant which makes launching your own company hard. I have a few years before my permanent residency comes through

2\. Point #1 can be very demotivating. I have some ideas, and I keep playing with projects [Nothing worth releasing, or even having much potential, mind you] but not knowing if and when I can actually do something about it proves very unsettling, and ambiguous

3\. My work permit requires a full-time job. This can be very consuming as many other HN'ers know. Does not help with the motivational aspect of it

Despite all this, I have hopes. HN provides valuable insights, and stories like yours provide encouragement. Perhaps it will remain a dream, for I am already 32 and I don't know where I will be a few years from now.

Here's to hope! :)

[Congrats on your 3rd launch]

<comment><USER7> Its still possible man. I was in your place. I focussed on the problems instead of finding solutions for them. It is possible. If you email me then I can find the articles about people in your position who started companies.

Its difficult but its better than sitting gloomily that you cant do anything (like I did for a while).

Also theres so much to learn before you start your own venture - networks to be a part of, understanding VC/Angels, knowing as much as you can technically. Understanding business ,talking to customers, getting feedback.

Theres so much you could be doing. Stop focussing on what you cant do!

<comment><USER6> I just sent you an email (using hackernewsers email facility). My email is in my HN profile, and I am also on hackernewsers. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I suffer depression. Mostly it's not that bad but it does mean that I never sustain the passion/effort required for a startup (or even modest personal projects).

hmmmm, I think everything else is either fall out from the depression or an excuse to avoid facing fear. Fear of personal failure, fear that I'm not elite, fear that I don't "have what it takes", etc.

I'm also "old", 40yr, and I hate to say it but I feel less energized, less excited about the world than I remember feeling when I was younger. Change the world? Make "it big"/millions? Be famous? Meh, it's time for my nap.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok let me say this again. Its 100% fine not to be a founder and work for somebody. It is NOT a shame! You can leave full and happy life without it! Many do that!

It might be that you read way too much HN - This resource pushes towards starting company. Its not the only way to go for hacker! Relax and enjoy your life!

PS I was super surprised to see that so many replied about being stressed about not starting a company today. I am sorry about that, did mean to push anyone when asked this question. I think that you can only start company being in a good and optimistic mood! Stress/scare is a first warning sign!

<comment><USER9> Sorry, but you will probably never have true security, or become truly wealthy, working for someone else.

If some deep part of you wants to try starting a company, it's not healthy to suppress that, and if you do, my guess is you'll eventually regret it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not true.

You MUCH more likely loose all you money when start a company in such situation.

Programmers(especially good) are well payed($100k-$300k) (not dentists, but still:) ) and secure jobs. You can enjoy happy life with you family and be 9-6 employee. Besides you can join the RIGHT startup at the right time and get something like 10% less salary and options that might make you quite rich. The trick is in picking the right company at right time.

<comment><USER9> Nope, sorry. The US tech IPO market has been dead for 6+ years.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I have my finger in at least three project pies at once, and can't choose which would be right to follow.

Then, school starts in 3 weeks. I have no money, and many expenses. There's so much that I feel I need to learn before I can do anything useful - I've never made anything big from scratch, and am only now reading about good program design. I should 'work on open source' first, or put in appreciable time at a large company first. I should pay off my growing student debt first. It feels like I only become motivated to do real work when I'm about to be pulled away from my computer.

Excuses spring to mind so quickly. I don't think I should be starting a company right now; I think I should finish this last year of school and then work until I pay off my debt while learning practically, then move to a startup hotbed and join a small group, and then I should be involved in starting a company.

Unless, of course, the 'right idea' strikes at the 'right time', and I find myself working with a tireless passion all of a sudden.

<comment><AUTHOR> It sounds that now is really not the time to start a company for you. Which is REALLY cool for you! Enjoy your life, school, your best years. Starting a company is hard and exhausting, and its never to late to do it.

I guess if you read HN you somehow feel guilty for now starting your startup :) Really shouldnt be the case in you situation. Enjoy school, get gob in big company (like Google, Apple), pay off debt quickly, then get job in startup, keep working within open source community, get some real world experiences. Maybe try yourself in sales or something not related to coding(was great experience for me). You will feel the moment once you have something that you really want to start for yourself. Good luck!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> For those of you who know me, this is an issue close to my heart. I'll be brief.

By far, the single thing most budding "entrepreneurs" lack is encouragement. It is unfortunately that simple.

Most people will tell you it's networking, or having capital, or a business plan, or even luck. All of those things are Step 2. Step 1 is starting, it is the point most people don't get past.

Novels 3/4 done; "great idea for a movie" that never makes it to script; business idea that never makes it past the cocktail napkin.

And all of that, in my experience, is not fear of failure but fear of the unknown. It is identical to the "cold approach" in dating. You're not afraid she'll mace you, you're afraid she'll ask you to sit with her and then you won't have anything to sustain the conversation.

"Will the world discover I'm a fraud?"

There is so much self-doubt and a lack of self-confidence. There are a myriad of reasons, summarized under the umbrella "we were taught to pursue security, not happiness."

No amount of startup capital can fix this problem. You will make poor decisions, you will stop short, you will be tentative, you will be nervous with the money. The problem is you, not the system.

As time and generations pass, we don't learn to deal with failure, we are taught to avoid failure. Instead of sending the kids outside to play and teaching them how to be safe around sticks/bullies/heights, it's easier to leave them in the playroom.

The solution, therefore, is to fail. A lot. And as fast as possible, as young as possible. If you're <25 go hit on ten women a night, cold, and get shot down. Feel what it's like. It's not _so_ bad, is it? Better than wondering.

Forget about finishing your novel. Put up the first five chapters on a blog. Force yourself to read the comments.

Think you're a filmmaker? Put up ten photos-- still pics-- on Flickr. And invite the hate. See if you really have an eye for this. If you don't, now you are free to try something else.

Etc.

At best, they may love you and there's your encouragement. Or maybe someone sees your work and a collaboration is born.

At worst, they hate you, and you realize you're still ok, you didn't run uptown for heroin.

Either way, the failure will hold your hand and walk you to success.

</comment><comment><USER12> If by "start" you mean "quit your job and start full-time" then I won't because I have an unemployed spouse and 2 young children (and my current salary doesn't facilitate any savings).

Of course, nothing stops me from working it once the kids go to bed but it's frustrating, tiring and is taking a very very long time... and then lack of motivation and/or distractions are big problem.

<comment><AUTHOR> It might be that startup is not for you. I'd suggest to stop reading HN(as it can be very dangerous for you mental happines-constant glory tales to founders) and find a way to increase your salary on f-t position. I dont know what are you doing but i think you can set goal of making 2-3x of you current salary. There are better resources to read to archive that goal

DISC: Above is just my imho, listen with caution, i dont know your story well enough to advice.

<comment><USER12> Well, I've been reading HN since before it was called Hacker News and I don't think I'll stop any time soon. It's not HN news which it making me want to start my own business but a desire to work on meaningful projects which fulfil my need to turn my imagination into reality... and ultimately provide a stable financial circumstances for my family.

<comment><AUTHOR> My imho(i am not such a long time HN reader): HN is all about startups and its pushing you to start your company. Period. Its not really a core recourse for programmers/hackers and there is a very small %% of tech material here. Why? Just remove news. and /* from this page URL to find out )))

In other words: NH will not help you to become better programmer/hacker. Just look at <http://news.ycombinator.com/> at this moment and see that there are only few tech links there - rest is about "why facebook is better than google" bs.

My point is: If you ultimate goal stable financial situation for your family you can less risky archive it by becoming better programmer.

On meaningful projects: is working on google/apple/any company you like meaningful enough for you?

All above is just my imho of course..

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I live in a kind of dead area, and haven't met people that I respect enough to want to do something with, who wants to do something, and who feel able to committing to do something.. I also don't care much for doing something completely alone, because I don't feel that I learn nearly as much when I'm solo as when I can have people questioning my work.

I'm working on trying to get a hold of work in the US so that I can start the journey back to permanent residency (moved away and am 'back to square zero,') hopefully that can net me some fun people to work with.. But you know, years off, even if I manage to get a hold of a job. I've had a fair amount of smaller companies who have been interested, but not capable of bringing me over, and my (rather few) attempts at getting into larger companies have been stopped thus far by my lousy résumé writing skills.. Have a couple in the works that I still have hope for, but we'll see.

So now I got that off my chest, congratulations on your launch btw! :)

</comment><comment><USER14> An immense amount of destractions are stopping me from really breaking down the doors. I've been doing independent game development for the past couple of years, but I haven't really been able to focus as much as I need to despite releasing two products.

I moved out to the bay with $1k just a 1.5yr ago to find a job after college. I thought it was going to be awesome. Found a job at a great company, got to meet some really great people, learned a lot, but come to find out my wife is not coping well with the new location which is really consuming time and energy. I spent the early part of this year trying to figure this puzzle out, but ultimately it is what it is.

So at this moment, I need to break away from the destractions. Moving back home in late December to the midwest where I can live on a fraction of what it costs out here. I'll have a happy wife that will have the ability to buy a house for 80k and will be with her family/friends. I plan to do consulting (which I'm already starting to build relationships for) to earn money to live / bootstrap with, and I'll start working on a business away from the gamedev train.

If building something in the midwest that ultimately brings me back to silicon valley, oo-rah. But, in the end, a location isn't going to define me.

</comment><comment><USER15> I am waiting because I need a critical mass of content before I start up. I have one digitisation station, but work it myself. I can produce from 4-10 items per hour if I work hard, and estimate I need about 10,000 items done before I launch. There is also the issue of supply. I need items to process, and right now only have about 300. These items cost between $1 and $20 each.

I see how much I have left to do, think about how long it will take, and then start thinking about how to speed up the process... automate it.

I start to think about whether or not I am actually getting what I need so I don't get through 3,000 units and need to change something and have wasted the work. I think about how to scale the system to use multiple workstations, and multiple central servers because I can't store 10,000 units on the one server I have.

I'm working on a shoestring budget, and have creditors calling me every day. I borrowed $40,000 a few years ago hoping that that would help me get going in anticipation of another $100,000 I was going to get, but that fell through and I was able to use less than half of what I borrowed before the rest was needed to save my mother's business.

So, that's what's delay'n me.

</comment><comment><USER16> I have a hard time thinking about taking the plunge without any marginal success doing things part-time. I pretty much hate my job now, but I need to pay the rent which is kind of expensive since I live alone and the lease doesn't expire for 7 more months. Right now I'm trying to work on building alternative sources of income that could help sustain me partially when I quit my job. This includes Ad revenues, flipping simple websites, and iPhone apps. Meanwhile I am trying to build on some ideas I have for SAAS businesses. I'm going to pick the best one and implement it quickly and cheaply then see how much traction it gets. If I saw at least some interest from consumers/clients in a product/service that I built part-time I would quit my job pretty quick.

</comment><comment><USER17> Turns out? Nothing. I halfway participated in a hackathon recently, and since then, I've found myself... motivated.

Usually when the urge strikes, my day job starts taking up too much time, or life happens, or I realize my idea is stupid. This time, however, I'm just going to go for it. I don't care that the product I'm building is in a VERY crowded space. I don't care that there's no 'killer feature' to draw the crowds in. I don't care that it really isn't that marketable. It's a product, and I'm building it -- and while I don't expect it to set the world on fire, I've stutter-started enough times in my life that I feel like just finishing something and releasing it will be a huge step in the right direction, so that's what I'm doing.

You won't read about this product on TechCrunch, and you won't see it lauded as the next great thing, but you will be able to register for it and use it, and ideally, within a month and a half to two months. And you can bad-mouth it all you like, I'll have done... something.

<comment><USER18> This is fantastic. The reality is you have no idea how good the idea really is until you have finished anyway. So what the hell, may as well give it a shot. My only advice is make the produce a slightly better version of everything else out there. Good luck.

<comment><USER17> It's debatable as to whether or not I'll be able to honestly, there are some good (and a LOT of bad) products in the space. Effectively, it's issue tracking, and while I have some ideas that scratch my own itch which HOPEFULLY will appeal to others, my goal is to make something that services the small- to-medium sized business moreso than the enterprise apps currently do, and with more refinement than the open source apps do.

That said, I don't honestly know how much better mine will be than something like osTicket, except to say that the workflow will be dramatically different.

Thanks for the well-wishing. I'm sure I'll make an equally tentative post when I release.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I actually did start and was able to quit my job about a month ago.. and a week later I was in a drowning accident and ended up in the hospital with heat stroke, dehydration and acute kidney failure.

Now I'm in limbo trying to recover as quickly as possible. I still have lower back pain near my kidneys which makes it hard to sit in a chair.

It's not that bad actually, I'm just finding it really hard to get the motivation to work consistently.

<comment><USER20> Maybe try setting up a standing desk?

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I am starting today. Last 4 months creating, manipulating, and validating an idea until we get enough people to say they would buy it. Another month getting partnerships we need with other companies. The last two weeks up until 2am every morning putting together an MVP for beta users.

And the first user with a problem 3 hours ago.

</comment><comment><USER22> I have to graduate college--I've committed myself fully to school. In the meantime, I try to learn as much as I can from personal projects, internships and interactions with those in the startup community.

I'll feel ready to do something big (and have enough knowledge to possibly succeed) in a couple of years.

</comment><comment><USER23> I've been coding this one project since 2006, on and off that is. Since then, I've switched jobs 3 times and finally landed with a company that's stable and the hours are great. My only excuse now? I need motivation. As someone mentioned earlier, my product competes with a handful of other much larger and popular sites. You know what though? I can't let that stop me. If I can make my version better, then who's to say I can't grab some of their market share?

Bottom line, my motivation right now is I have to do something, NOW. I'm 30 and I would like to start a family soon, going to get marry next year. I don't want to be in a position where I kick myself in the butt 5 yrs from now - "Why didn't I do this 5 yrs ago when I had time?" Even if I were to fail, at least I can say "I tried."

</comment><comment><USER24> TODAY I'm meeting a friend I haven't seen for a quite a while at the pub after work, and it would rude to cancel on such short notice. After that I probably should be getting to bed since I have to work tomorrow.

<comment><AUTHOR> Is that a funny way of saying that you dont want to start a startup or that counts a real excuse for you?

<comment><USER25> I believe he's implying that his priorities are close at hand.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdVHjDA-Nhk#t=4m15>

Good energy, but you'll want to work on control, mister.

<comment><USER27> his comments, too. manic much?

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Simple. Not come up with the right idea yet. Whenever I do come up with something, I either find that someone has done something too similar, or I talk myself out of it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Umm, So if someone has done something similar before - there is no reason to start?? Then I think pg can safely shut ALL YC companies and call it a day :) And call google and and ask them to shut down the company as yahoo was founded earlier. )))))

<comment><USER28> Very true.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Every time I've entertained the idea of joining a startup, it's always an "all we need is a developer" situation, or its cousin, the "we had a great developer (who invariably stunk) who'll get you up to speed."

So it seems I'd have to go it alone, and my ideas are too big for my time. If I had some simpler ideas I'd definitely see if they held water, however. I definitely have the application, server, and DB skills to make it happen.

</comment><comment><USER29> I did a startup in my 20's that was an intense experience. Now I have a sweet job at an amazingly run video game company where I don't care about making payroll, hitting sales goals, the joy of having employees, managing cash flow and inventory.

I have a few hobbies that might turn into something someday, but I think I need a bit more recovery time, and I think I'd rather share the hobbies with the world than sell them.

</comment><comment><USER30> Dependants and student debt.

<comment><USER31> Was going to say the same thing. Gotta keep a steady income to manage student debt. My wife is also working on a masters.

I'm still working on it at night, got a new idea this past month and working making it happen at home after work. Also got the company setup but other than that, I can't quit working the day job.

<comment><USER30> I am in almost the same situation, but I'm partially supporting parents instead of a wife. Good luck to us both. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> My biggest excuse right now is a well paying contract that sucks away my energy. Every day I struggle with staying on the project or just leaving and doing my own things.

I've been working on a small iphone app side project. If it gets a little traction in the app store I will feel much better about doing my own stuff!

<comment><AUTHOR> If you really want that, why not start part-time? Can you for example negotiate workin on contract 4 days/week and keep one day for you thing?

The greatest thing about this schedule is that even when you are not working on it you keep thinking about what to do next. It turns out that when you actually start coding you are supper productive as all you next steps already thought through and prioritized, you just new to type/debug them! :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Nothing is stopping me. Just working on it every minute in my spare time while still working full time.

</comment><comment><USER34> Well since I'm the only person( so I'm doing all the coding myself). I'm learning Objective-C, going trough tutorials etc. Not really an excuse, I think I have passed the excuse stage in my startup life.

So basically, I'm one step away from building the app.

</comment><comment><USER35> I don't know enough. In particular, I don't know where to start, even for a simple project. A lot of what Paul Halmos called _pencil sharpening_.

I'd love to see an hours-long screencast of how you guys kick off a project.

<comment><USER7> If no one will give you a project then give yourself one. Help someone - <USER2> mom, dad, brother, friend. Anyone. Make something that makes their lives easier. Thats really what all businesses do in the end. Make life a little easier for as many people as their product will allow.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Technical issues. I've been struggling with OpenSSL problems for weeks, but I haven't been working on it very much. I've finally decided to buckle down and use Python instead of Ruby due to its better OpenSSL libraries.

</comment><comment><USER37> Just need a good corporation and domain name. Been spinning my wheels for weeks on this.

<comment><USER17> Having over-focussed on so many details in the past, let me offer some simple advice -- move past it.

Start working on the product. The product that I'm building right now was named "something maybe" for weeks until the right name struck (that had an available domain name).

Historically, I've moved forward in leaps and bounds until either a problem presented itself or I'd get bogged down in something so trivial as a product name. Really, it doesn't matter.

In retrospect (and I have no idea whether or not this applies to you), I was stalling because I didn't know what to do after that. If you're stuck on a company name, simply substitute "working title" until you get moving, and the name will come.

<comment><USER37> Yeah, I'm not worried too much about the product name, but I do need to do the company named and incorporated (this is actually holding up funding at this point.)

My last company had (IMO) a great name, so I'm struggling to measure up.

<comment><USER38> Is the company name as important as the product or domain name? The company name mostly appears on legal documents, and you can add a DBA once you find a domain name. Unless investors are waiting for a flashy name, you could file for a random company name right away.

Domain names are becoming a serious problem. I spent a couple of months coming up with names before finding something remotely passable. Even now I am not happy with what I have, but the dismal return on effort prevents me from wasting anymore time on it, at least until I have a growing customer base.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Salford in Greater Manchester (UK) is the antithesis of startup hub :(

<comment><USER40> You're kidding right? Manchester's heaving with activity. Just look at CWJobs (ok, I know that's different to startups, but it shows dev activity in the area). Also, I live 40 miles north of you in Preston, and there's very little here. Doesn't stop me dreaming of my own startup one day.

That said, my excuse is: Before I got into software dev I tried to get into the music business. Unfortunately, that's much more about salesmanship than it is about music - you have to convince bar owners and club owners to put you on, you have to advertise your gig, you have to try and make a profit and pay your band, rent a van, etc. etc. It put me off being a musician (that and arrogant singers/drummers :) ). I don't want to be put off being a software dev too. I need some way of working past my disdain for that side of things. Then I'll be fit to start my own business.

<comment><USER39> I know there's a lot of software/web development firms in and around Manchester but I've never actually found or heard of anything like the atmosphere that they have in Silicon Valley.

Although, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I'm hoping I'll find some friends at Manchester Uni when I get round to going.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Just haven't found that killer idea yet.

<comment><AUTHOR> Why not join somebody who found it already recently? Steal someone's killer idea? Start with good-enough idea?

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> I'm doing it. I wrote an ultra rough spec one month ago, tried selling before building, found that only 1 person out of 20 or so that I thought it would be relevant was interested, am refining again. It's been about a month, we should launch in a week or so. This probably won't be a huge company, just looking to make around $75/active hour for 20 hours per week for the next year or so whilst longer range projects grow slowly.

<comment><AUTHOR> Congtrats! Way to go! You never know if its going to be huge or not btw ;) Good luck with that!

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Nothing.

</comment><comment><USER44> I'm in the middle of an examination period. I do have a product that still needs a few weeks of work until it's launchable but the project is on hold atm.

</comment><comment><USER45> Nationality, lack of respectable degree, being from one-parent family, a lot of stupid mistakes in the past, age. ^_^</comment>


Python was the most popular programming language this year - <AUTHOR> http://techau.com.au/python-was-the-most-popular-programming-language-this-year/

<comment><USER2> Python is great but this is completely off base in terms of what is used in industry

</comment><comment><USER3> A Link-bait.

[my-favourite-language] at [very-small]% - oh, I am so angry. I am so going to post angry comments all around and share the link to the article... Not!

</comment><comment><USER4> Where did they get those numbers?

Even if I'm not a fan of JS, I bet that a lot more than 4% of this year's code was written in it.

</comment><comment><USER5> This is little more than an advertisement with a baseless graph to lure you in.</comment>


Fed Ups Its Wall Street Bailout to $690B a Week as Media Snoozes - <AUTHOR> https://wallstreetonparade.com/2019/10/fed-ups-its-wall-street-bailout-to-690-billion-a-week-as-media-snoozes/ <comment><USER2> $120B in overnight loans is _not_ $690B a week. It's the same $120B, lent at night, repaid in the morning, and lent again the next night. A site that doesn't understand even that much about what they're talking about is not a site that I'm going to read in order to find insight about Wall Street.

[Edit: spelling]

<comment><USER3> Lend me $120B every single night, then. I'll pay it back each time, and pocket $30M each time. Why are they getting any?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This was a story when it started because it did remind people of the last big financial crisis. But after investigating the underlying reasons, it's just not that interesting. That's why the media "snoozes". This time it's not a crisis.

<comment><USER3> This is trying to paper over a crisis.</comment></comment>


An Online Tool That Revolutionizes Simulation - <AUTHOR> http://www.electronicdesign.com/test-measurement/online-tool-revolutionizes-simulation <comment><USER2> They should look into online tools to optimize their website. After waiting 30 seconds for the site to load, I gave up.</comment>


William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" Speech - <AUTHOR> http://socratic-form-microscopy.com/2018/06/17/a-cross-of-gold-the-best-speech-youve-never-heard/ <comment><USER2> _> Bryan decided that he wanted America to have a bimetallic currency. Unfortunately, there was a political class united in its opposition to this policy. That meant he needed a president that favoured it._

This gets the causality backwards. What Bryan decided was that _he wanted to be President_ , and that in order to become President he would need to associate himself with an issue hot and controversial enough to attract voters to him for having taken their side on it. Bimetallism was a live-wire issue among the rural constituency he wanted to set himself up as the champion of, and it had few other champions due to the oppressive orthodoxy the gold standard held over the thinking of the time, so he chose that as the issue to wrap his arms around.

It worked -- Bryan stood out to rural voters as the one politician who really understood their needs, and his career as "The Great Commoner" was born. But Bryan's adoption of bimetallism came because he recognized its political potency, not because he held strong opinions about the economics of the matter. He cared so little about those that, when questioned about the details by an Omaha newspaper, he replied that "I don't know anything about free silver. The people of Nebraska are for free silver and I am for free silver. I will look up the arguments later."

<comment><USER3> He also ran for President for three out of four elections between 1896 and 1908 without winning. That's unheard of these days. The last major party losing candidate to run again was Richard Nixon in 1968. Ross Perot also ran, and lost, in 92 and 96.

It's very strange that losing a Presidential general election is seen as the end of a political career when in years past, candidates like Bryan, Stevenson, or Dewey were still seen as viable.

Also, your explanation of Dewey choosing a political stance that was widely held among voters but somewhat taboo among the political class and riding that stance to prominence shows that there's really nothing new or innovative in the wave of populism sweeping Western democracies in recent years.

<comment><USER4> This is likely because the number of viable candidates today is much larger due to population growth and access to media. In 1904, getting famous was much harder than now, so someone already known to the voters, even as a loser, could have a better chance than a yet-unknown.

<comment><USER3> I wonder if negative campaigning also plays a role. Candidates like Hillary Clinton and Al Gore have faltered due to the cumulative effect of years of attacks, while candidates like Obama who appeared out of nowhere were more successful.

<comment><USER5> Check out 19th century negative campaigns. Modern politicians look like kittens. Pamphlets were published comparing Lincoln to an ape.

Candidates like Clinton falter because they suck. Kicking off your campaign Roosevelt Island and driving to Pennsylvania or wherever in a hotel shuttle van was the kickoff to a weak campaign.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _The dispute over bimetallic currency is now more than a hundred years old and has been made entirely moot by the floating US dollar and the post-Bretton Woods international monetary order._

Setting aside the technical detail (gold vs. silver), the debate was really over hard vs. soft money. The issue is as relevant today as it was in the 1800s.

Hard (scarce, gold) money policies favor lenders, who care very much about getting the full real value of their loans back. Inflation eats into their returns by decreasing the future value of money.

Soft money policies favor borrowers, who pay back loans in ever cheaper currency through inflation. Buy a farm today with a 10-year loan, and every year the real value of the money you pay back (factoring inflation) decreases.

What we see with a lot of the interest in Bitcoin is a direct reaction to decades of soft-money policies by the world's governments.

Here's the money quote:

 _... There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them. ..._

This is what the Cross of Gold speech was about, in a nutshell.

<comment><USER7> Moderate inflation is easily factored into repayment terms. What inflation penalizes is keeping your money under your mattress. This creates demand to use money now which creates economic activity.

> a lot of the interest in Bitcoin is a direct reaction to decades of soft- > money policies by the world's governments

Bitcoin came from and was nurtured by monetary cranks but they are a small fraction of why people are interested in it lately. Today it's an investment asset or a means to do something illicit like dodge currency controls or launder money.

<comment><USER6> _Moderate inflation is easily factored into repayment terms._

 _Constant_ inflation is easily factored in. But inflation varies greatly depending on prevailing conditions. The ruling party has an incentive to push for inflationary policies to stimulate short-term economic activity, leading to bouts of inflation that can wreck lenders over the long term.

 _What inflation penalizes is keeping your money under your mattress._

Inflation also punishes prudent investors - the kind who save for retirement.

Rising inflation leads to asset bubbles as pre-retirees seek to avoid being destroyed by inflation. Stocks without earnings and real estate, for example. They all get pushed up to ridiculous levels in the name of chasing return to avoid getting clobbered by inflation.

Not to mention the harmful ecological consequences of inflationary policies that encourage consumption over saving.

<comment><USER8> You have it backwards. Rising inflation does not create asset bubbles. In fact, rising inflation has the ability to _deflate_ asset bubbles.

For example, we are arguably approaching an asset bubble right now because of a decade of _low inflation_ and _low interest rates._ In a zero inflation, zero interest rate environment nobody is incentivized to hold cash(since it returns zero) or CDs thus risk assets (ie. stocks) become inflated.

<comment><USER6> _Rising inflation does not create asset bubbles._

I can think of three recent examples where inflation/soft money policies triggered asset bubbles:

\- gold from late 1970s to early 1980s (CPI inflation)

\- US real estate late 1990s to 2008 (excessive loan origination)

\- US stocks from mid 1990s to 2001 (lax margin requirement)

 _For example, we are arguably approaching an asset bubble right now because of a decade of low inflation and low interest rates. In a zero inflation, zero interest rate environment nobody is incentivized to hold cash(since it returns zero) or CDs thus risk assets (ie. stocks) become inflated._

An inflation rate of zero would incentivize many people and groups to increase cash holdings. With no inflation to keep at bay, cash becomes a real no-risk bet.

Those doing so would no doubt the interested in _real_ rates of return. For years, investors in CDs endured a negative real rate of return due to inflation. This forced people out of cash and into ever-risker assets.

Throw in mild deflation, and the average Joe could make a real return of a percent or two just by holding cash. It could trigger a stampede of sorts into cash and out of stocks, which explains why central banks are so keen to avoid even mild deflation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech was made when audio recording technology was being born, so in a little miracle of technology, we can actually hear the man himself give it today: [http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/](http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/)

(The recording is from a later 1925 performance of the speech by Bryan, not from his original performance that famously turned the tide of the 1896 Democratic National Convention. But it's still a fairly unique opportunity to hear a speech from that era in the voice of the man who gave it.)

</comment><comment><USER9> I find the "Free Silver" movement fascinating because it sheds a light on how much we take our current economy for granted. Before I started to read about economics on my own I heard many times about the evils of easy credit and inflation but never had I heard about the problems of deflation and scarce money.

<comment><USER10> Yup and thankfully now we have so many different money systems that one can decide where to keep their value. People need not keep cash under the mattress if they dont want to. You can hold scarce assets that appreciate over time and only hold inflationary fiat when you need to purchase something. Thus you will never be pressured to spend all your money because most of your "money" isnt being held in inflationary assets.

We are told that inflation is good because it encourages spending but i would argue that such an effect is being dimished because many deflationary assets are traded on liquid markets.

<comment><USER3> That's kind of the point, right? Inflation encourages spending, but it _also_ encourages investment, and your saved money can be invested in stocks and bonds, which also stimulate economic growth more than being stuffed in a mattress.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> According to Wikipedia and it's citations, William J. Bryan was satirized as the Cowardly Lion by L. Frank Baum in "The Wizard of Oz".

<comment><USER12> No.

The Wizard of Oz as an extended allegory for bimetallism was a theory proposed by Littlefield in the 60s, and it's been pretty much thoroughly debunked by literary scholars who point out that the characters are essentially common character tropes from 1890s literature, and biographers who pointed out that it's completely contrary to the views that Baum himself held.

<comment><USER11> Well then I suggest you take a trip to Wikipedia and start editing. For that current bit of trivia there are no less than 4 citations, three of which are from this century.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> If you haven't done coursework in economics reading at least the Wikipedia page on inflation is a really good way to understand more about the issue.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation)

</comment><comment><USER14> Very interesting piece, and a fascinating blog in general. Seeing someone document their ongoing struggle to understand the world reminds me how little I've done about that myself.

</comment><comment><USER15> His reasons for opposing evolution in the 1925 Scopes trial are interesting [https://wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jennings_Bryan](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jennings_Bryan)</comment>


Intense laser experiments provide evidence that light can stop electrons - <AUTHOR> http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_5-2-2018-12-35-5 <comment><USER2> This is a potentially impactful experimental result in my niche field, the physics of relativistic laser phenomena. People have been running simulations and imaging what RR would look like for years, and this looks like the first experimental result that shows it

The money shot, fig. 9 is a bit underwhelming to me though, because it is supposed to show where the "classical model" diverges from the quantum model, and I feel queesy making a trend out of three points (one point in the blue even looks like it could touch the classical model). I'd have to read into it more (will do, just not tonight). This is, however, an extremely difficult experiment to perform, hence why they only have four data points. They definitely have demonstrated that RR does occur (no duh, which is more of why it's a good paper) but I'd hold off on the claim they've really distinguished the two.

Cheers to ICL on this first.

<comment><USER3> I'd say that the main conclusion is the observation of a statistically significant (> 3 sigma) radiation reaction effect which is pretty consistent with both the classical model and the quantum model. The data "hints" that the quantum one fits the data better, but not at a very significant level (1 sigma). Moving to higher electron energies and/or laser intensities will help make that difference clearer. The paper is not called "first observation of quantum radiation reaction" for a reason.

<comment><USER2> Exactly. 10^21 W/cm^2 is actually a little below the threshold of where we expected RR (which is what the second Gemini beam shot at), and hitting 0.5 GeV electrons head-on helped alleviate that restriction. With a host of planned laser systems exceeding 10^22 W/cm^2, we can imagine more statistically significant divergences between QRR and Landau-Lifshitz (the "classical" RR model).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The HN title is incorrect -- perhaps the first direct evidence is Compton's original work, showing that electrons scatter photons. If electrons scatter photons, then photons scatter electrons.

Every time a photon scatters off an electron, there exists a reference frame in which the electron is brought to rest.

I'm certain that one could find an earlier argument than Compton scattering, too. Maxwell surely would have agreed that light could exert force upon charges.

The experiment to which the HN title links, however, is awesome, and is perhaps the first time one has demonstrated stopping 0.5 GeV electrons in a wall of light.

<comment><USER5> > If electrons scatter photons, then photons scatter electrons.

Does it mean that photons are able to scatter photons?

<comment><USER6> Photon photon scattering is a thing [1] but I am not sure whether that is implied by the interaction of light and electrical charged particles acting both ways. I slightly tend to think that is not implied but I am not a physicist.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two- photon_physics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-photon_physics)

<comment><USER5> Interesting! Thanks

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Study: Experimental Evidence of Radiation Reaction in the Collision of a High- Intensity Laser Pulse with a Laser-Wakefield Accelerated Electron Beam

Citation: J. M. Cole, K. T. Behm, E. Gerstmayr, T. G. Blackburn, J. C. Wood, C. D. Baird, M. J. Duff, C. Harvey, A. Ilderton, A. S. Joglekar, K. Krushelnick, S. Kuschel, M. Marklund, P. McKenna, C. D. Murphy, K. Poder, C. P. Ridgers, G. M. Samarin, G. Sarri, D. R. Symes, A. G. R. Thomas, J. Warwick, M. Zepf, Z. Najmudin, and S. P. D. Mangles. Phys. Rev. X 8, 011020 – 2018-02-07

Link: [https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.8.011020](https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.8.011020)

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.8.011020

Abstract: The dynamics of energetic particles in strong electromagnetic fields can be heavily influenced by the energy loss arising from the emission of radiation during acceleration, known as radiation reaction. When interacting with a high-energy electron beam, today's lasers are sufficiently intense to explore the transition between the classical and quantum radiation reaction regimes. We present evidence of radiation reaction in the collision of an ultrarelativistic electron beam generated by laser-wakefield acceleration (ε > 500 MeV) with an intense laser pulse (a0 > 10). We measure an energy loss in the postcollision electron spectrum that is correlated with the detected signal of hard photons (γ rays), consistent with a quantum description of radiation reaction. The generated γ rays have the highest energies yet reported from an all-optical inverse Compton scattering scheme, with critical energy εcrit > 30 MeV.

</comment><comment><USER8> Here's a great Royal Institution Lecture by Kate Lancaster talking about Ultra Intense Lasers from 2017 :) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcGgaa2mFc4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcGgaa2mFc4)

</comment><comment><USER9> How is this different from Compton scattering? Unfortunately the article does not state this.

<comment><USER10> As near as I can tell: Compton scattering treats the photon and electron as two colliding balls, assigning momentum to the photon based on its wavelength. However, because the electron changed momentum during the collision, it must have experienced acceleration. Maxwell's eqns tells you that an accelerating charge radiates, but this radiation is not accounted for in the elementary Compton calculation. Compton got away with the elementary calculation because the effect is apparent at high energies only.

[This is the first I've heard of the effect, and I'm thinking it out in real time, so apply grain of salt.]

<comment><USER3> Radiation reaction is related to Compton scattering. In Compton scattering, the interaction is between one electron and one photon producing one photon at a new energy, with the electron changing energy. Non-linear Compton is one electron interacting with many photons to produce an electron and a high energy photon. Radiation reaction is essentially one electron scattering off many photons many times, producing many high energy photons. The paper itself is about the first observation of radiation reaction, there is work showing electrons losing energy in non-linear Compton scattering from the 1990s.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Can this phenomenon be used as a shield for spacecraft? If a laser travels inside a fiber cable, then the laser beam can wrap around the spacecraft. If the beam can stop electrons, it can potentially stop the larger particles traveling in space.

<comment><USER12> > the laser beam can wrap around the spacecraft.

If you want the laser beam carry enough impulse to stop a rock flying towards you at a few thousands km/h, good luck keeping the fiber in place! Every time the fibre tries to make the light change direction, the light tries to straighten the fibre, just like water running through a pipe.

<comment><USER13> I think GP was talking about shielding against radiation of various forms, not rocks.

<comment><USER3> I think a better way would be to make a mini magnetosphere around the space craft - most of the radiation that's dangerous in space is high speed protons in the solar wind. By surrounding the space craft with a magnetised plasma you can make these deflect around it, just like Earth's magnetic field protects us from the solar wind.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Was this predicted by theory (when?) or is this a unexpected result discovered from experimentation?

<comment><USER3> Classical radiation reaction was predicted in the early 20th century. I think that quantum theories for radiation reaction in with non-relativistic particles in weak fields has been around since the 1960s. The "hard" bit, that is currently an active research area, is the interaction of relativistic particles with very strong fields.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Where would this occur naturally?

<comment><USER16> Reading the article I saw this quote "This radiation reaction is thought to occur around objects such as black holes and quasars "

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> If you combine this with interference do you get another door into quantum computing?

</comment><comment><USER18> Ah, yes. The "Deer-in-headlights" effect.

</comment><comment><USER19> What on earth, light by definition is the quantifiable (quanta) of energy levels between electron orbital states. This is such a nonsensical title, as the electron would be changing electron states based off the energy level of the laser - of course! Any suggestions on what the title should be changed to?

<comment><USER20> Ok, not even even about electrons in orbit. First couple paragraphs mention an electron beam.</comment></comment>


Shazam's Search for Songs Creates New Music Jobs - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/technology/14shazam.html?_r=1&hp

<comment><USER2> as a (currently 'idle') tastemaker/music blogger, this seems like a sweet job opportunity to me. shazam, holla!

that aside this is a real interesting article, i always wondered how they are getting ahold of all the music and was really stunned when shazam recognized rather unknown tracks from random mixtapes.</comment>


A Dynamic Programming Language Defined by URLs - <AUTHOR> http://www.victusspiritus.com/2010/04/08/a-dynamic-programming-language-defined-by-urls/ <comment><AUTHOR> Curious if this has already been done (I like Coffeescript but want more)</comment>


Using Google Auto Suggestions to Predict M&A Activity - <AUTHOR>

Has anyone noticed if you can get insights into secret events (like M&A deals) by searching for a company name + "buys" or "sells" and checking what comes up in Google's auto suggest? <comment><AUTHOR> I suspect this wouldn't work for well-covered companies, but for less well- covered companies (e.g. investment funds), it seems possible.

<comment><USER2> I think that in this case the event will be not "secret".

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> No you can't, the search volume wouldn't be sufficient for Google to use it in their auto-suggest algorithm</comment>


UK government must protect people from malware - <AUTHOR> http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/public-sector/3334650/government-must-do-more-protect-people-from-malware-say-mps/

<comment><USER2> Politicians talking about technology are beyond parody.

This is a thoroughly depressing article.

<comment><USER3> Really? The botnet testing site idea does not seem clueless --- it would require ISP co-operation and they urge ISP co-operation. There are privacy implications of such a service, true, but this is the stuff of politics.

<comment><USER2> ISPs surely already have information about some of their infected customers.

If it's acceptable for an ISP to mess with DNS and provide an ad-laden search page (Virgin Media) or to redirect to a "Fair Use limit reached on your unlimited account" page (T Mobile) it must be okay to redirect people spewing spam or malware to a list of clean-up instructions and anti-malware sites.

The other problem I have is that removing malware from a machine isn't usually easy. While people on HN may enjoy tinkering around seeing where the hooks are the best (quickest, surest, cheapest) method is to wipe and re-install. People visiting a "are you infected" site are probably not keen to wipe and re- install, and are possibly just going to end up with worse infections as they search for anti-virus solutions.

<comment><USER3> I expect most people don't know how to wipe and reinstall. They may not even know it's possible. Information on what to do if your PC is infected would be useful to have on this website, no?

Some ISPs (e.g. BT I think) already redirect you if they think your system is infected. But _permitting_ ISPs to redirect your web browsing is different from _requiring_ ISPs to do so. We need a solution for customers of ISPs who take network neutrality seriously as well.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


IT Poll: Which NoSQL Company Will Be Acquired by a Major Player First? - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2011/04/it-poll-which-nosql-company-wi.php?sms_ss=hackernews&at_xt=4da5862b87836401%2C0 <comment><AUTHOR> i admit that i learned about citrusleaf from this poll. shame on me.</comment>


NativeScript with Universal Windows Platform Support - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/NativeScript/windows-runtime <comment><USER2> Small recommendation for folks looking to use JS for Windows development (I understand this is just a runtime, but people may be inclined to combine these two things): do not use WinJS for any reason. It's undoubtably the worst UI "framework" I've ever used. Completely inflexible (HTML and styles defined in private and inaccessible methods, swallows events, monolithic functions) and riddled with bugs and incomplete features. Really surprised it's an official Microsoft project. I don't mean to disparage the developers of it, but it's really bad. Don't use it if you value your time or peace of mind and plan on customizing it in any meaningful way.

<comment><USER3> So, have you had a positive experience with any alternatives in the same use case?

<comment><USER2> I'd recommend copying any particular CSS transitions they use, and looking at the computed properties of components in order to recreate any particular WinJS components you need. I'd also recommend you evaluate WinJS yourself and see if it fits your needs - but if you suspect you'll be doing anything more that the default then you may not have a fun time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Do yourself a favor and use C# or even C++\Cx instead. They're both a much better fit for XAML.

Full disclosure: I work at Microsoft on XAML UI in C++. It's nice. Opinions are my own.

<comment><USER5> I agree. I think it's cool that somebody is trying to create a JS API runtime for Win32, but the same criticism for using RubyMotion to build iOS apps applies. It ends up feeling too unnatural and stressful to use, with an extra dependency you have to rely on for support.

I believe that using Win32 API in C/++/# (maybe one day with Go if all the OS functions are mapped) is much more natural than forcing yourself to do it in JS. A lot of the Windows APIs still require you to manage some memory (I'm not sure how much is abstracted in C#, but if you are doing it through DllImport, Win32 will still expect you to free memory if you are using OS API functions as it was designed for C).

On top of that, you will spend a lot of effort trying to box/re-package documentation intended for the C/++ (ATL/MFC/WTL/etc) or C# (WPF) audience. This is probably the greatest cost. In the end, I suspect NativeScript code looking a lot like the C equivalents. Consuming third party libraries written in unmanaged code is likely to produce very ugly code.

I tried using RubyMotion a long time ago for iOS development. All of the sample code I found was in Objective-C, and I pretty much spent most of my time rewriting the code in Ruby, or parsing docs in ObjC and figuring out the Ruby way to do things. In the end, it was simpler to just do it in ObjC.

Writing the app in a SDK with a lot more support is just much better. Your sanity will thank you. And if you are writing cross-platform code, C has endured the test of time.

<comment><USER4> NativeScript is targeting UWP, not Win32/WPF. The UWP API's are way better and C#, C++, and JavaScript are supported out-of-the-box. But if you go the JavaScript route, only HTML is officially supported for UI. You can get native-looking widgets using WinJS, but the XAML framework is the real deal. XAML sits directly on top of DirectComposition, so no DOM\Webview.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I have started to develop mobile applications with NativeScript and I am absolute in love with it. It has an Angular feel to it (I despise all things React). Before, I had only been doing backend work and I still have only taken care of the Web API portion of our NS app, but I hope to do some GUI soon. I am extremely impressed by NS.</comment>