Ask HN: I can't do this anymore, I need help - <AUTHOR> Hello.
I've had enough.
Hear me out. I've spent the last 5 years of my life slaving away on startups and new business ideas and I'm failing, bad. So tonight I've come to the conclusion that I clearly have no fucking idea what I'm doing. I've lost pretty much all my friends because of the time I've spent trying to make my ideas work. I have spent money I can't afford on ideas that have never came to light. And now it's 2:31am on a Sunday evening and my girlfriend is in bed wondering why I won't come give her a cuddle, but I can't. Because I know I have to wake up tomorrow morning and hit the repeat button on my life again. I have to work all day just to put a roof over our heads. She wants to travel and damn I want to take her so bad, but I can't. I hate what my life has become.
But I have a solution, because I know complaining won't change this. Truth is, I have no idea about business. That's why I can't do it. I come from a working class family, I have working class friends, no one I know has any idea about business or even any interest in the topic. I've read a lot though: on business, development, management & self help. I can do it, I know I can, I just need some guidance. So here I am; asking for guidance. I have about $5000 and I'm willing to put that into an idea, and I have some of those too. So who's ready to play ball with me? I can guarantee the technical skills, could you guarantee the business skills? Maybe together we won't need to press the repeat button on our alarm clocks next Monday.
Let me know, hnineedhelp [at] gmail.com <comment><USER2> Here's the better idea. Get a 9 to 5 six figure job. It will be boring, I know. Life sucks like that sometimes. Most of us have one.

Next, live like a pauper, saving 60-70+% of that income. Spend your free time doing exactly 3 things 1. working on a side project 2. spending time with your girlfriend. 3. exercise (never count this out, no matter what your life circumstances otherwise)

Then just wait 5 more years. You will either have something going from your side project or you will have enough money saved to legitimately work full time on something without worrying about bills

As far as the idea, go for something as boring as possible. Preferably something that someone else is already paying money for but that the incumbent product is shitty or lacking in some major way. Fix it or make it signficantly cheaper. Business is just a wrapper around value.

Create value, get paid. That's how capitalism works.

<comment><USER3> > As far as the idea, go for something as boring as possible. Preferably > something that someone else is already paying money for but that the > incumbent product is shitty or lacking in some major way. Fix it or make it > signficantly cheaper. Business is just a wrapper around value.

I made something boring: [https://invoicerunner.com](https://invoicerunner.com)

Nobody wants to use it because most people make boring things. The market of boring things is saturated in most cases.

I feel like I'm back at square 1 personally.

Building a successful business is _hard_. You don't just "build it and they will come". There is no one-line answer to success.

<comment><USER4> Nobody's buying it because you're not marketing it.

This "Start managing your invoices today. Take the stress out of tracking what's due, when, and to who" should be at the top of the page. The photo of a woman at a computer does absolutely nothing to explain what you're selling. It was pure curiosity that made me page down enough to figure out what you were selling. Most people who come across the page after googling "invoice management" or the like will just hit the back button.

Typing fast, gotta leave, don't mean to be rude, but that's my feedback.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the feedback! It's appreciated. I'm going to remove the woman with the iPad.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> You're trying to force it. That's not going to work.

Stop. Get a job. A job that you like.

Then just be good at it. Better yet, be the best at it, and make sure it is something you are passionate about and talented in.

It really is that simple.

Nobody wants to invest in somebody with a bunch of failed entrepreneurial ventures. But if you sit back, take a check, work on cool shit and build an impressive body of work, well then perhaps people will be more willing to invest in you.

And for god's sake, go bang your girlfriend and give her a massage.

<comment><USER6> You sir, deserve my upvote for making me laugh on HN.

<comment><USER7> This is a bad comment for Hacker News. We want to optimize for signal/noise ratio. It's good to laugh, and to upvote; reporting that one laughed, and upvoted, not so much.

<comment><USER8> Not to derail this anymore but:

I've often wondered about that, I know that in reddit and even slashdot these type of comments are lauded even though they add nothing to the dialog people like them, because well, they do do give us another comment to upvote, because you can add one point to the original comment. Still they deal with all that extra chaff by physically minimizing comments that don't get enough likes thus they don't interrupt the flow of conversation as much. HN doesn't have such a feature so I understand why, you're against it, I personally only downvote these type of comments if the user has a history and the comment is >2 words.

<comment><USER7> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7494756](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7494756)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm super concerned for your well being and I don't even know you. What screams to me is that the last thing you should do is to try to do anything like start a business. It does not matter if you follow the best advice, and even do everything that you had done wrong right going forward. When you say things like "I hate what my life has become," then just stop what you're doing for a while.

Really. . . just stop.

Now, I know this will be hard to do. You've probably defined yourself as something different than your peers, and your peers (although not doing start- ups/tech etc) probably admire you. Hell, even your girlfriend lying in bed alone is probably saying that you're a mad genius and that's why your on your computer. Anyways, still even with the social pressure to go on, I suggest you just stop.

Spend the rest of the year focusing of feeling better not doing better. Grab some books, take that trip, and just give yourself a break. I'm not one to suggest self-help books but Stephen Covey has this excellent metaphor in 7 Habits about keeping the saw sharp. The saw is you. Right now it seems like the blade is pretty dull from excessive work. So stop and reread what you posted hear and see how you have described what you have lost.

Grab beers with your friends. Spend time with your gf. Save that 5K because 5k is far better than 0k. And on a side note, any person who e-mails you saying that they want to work with you, given how you have expressed your current state, should stop too.

</comment><comment><USER10> * I've lost pretty much all my friends because of the time I've spent trying to make my ideas work.

I suspect that work has nothing to do with this, more likely the negativity and _the real reason_ why you're so obsessed with work. I think work is your crutch, not your problem.

* And now it's 2:31am on a Sunday evening and my girlfriend is in bed wondering why I won't come give her a cuddle, but I can't.

Most people are asleep then, that, by no stretch of the imagination is "evening".

You need to stop whining and get a job. Learn how to be a person, relate to your girlfriend, balance your interests, sort your shit out. Whining to the hn crowd is not the way to sort your life out, you need to stop looking to others to sort things out for you.

No business person with any chops is going to read this and want to go into business with you. You can't sleep, you can't keep your end up in a relationship with your girlfriend, you've been working five years and have only $5k to show for it, you've admitted to failing at everything!

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello.

You make a lot of assumptions about me.

I'm not trying to whine, I saw a problem and I'm asking for help fixing that problem in return for my time and money. Also, I have a job.

Me and my girlfriend have a great relationship and I do everything I can to make sure she's happy.

I have a lot more than $5000 to show for it. That's is just what I have for a side project.

I don't fail at everything. I'm only 23, and I think I've achieved quite a lot for my age. I wouldn't say all of my ideas have failed, but I aim high and I feel like I'm failing overall.

<comment><USER11> "I do everything I can to make sure she's happy."

That's the wrong way around. Do everything to make sure _you_ are happy, with or without her. It's up to her if she wants to be happy with you.

<comment><USER12> Wow, maybe if you're in it for the short term, but if you want a long term relationship or marriage, that "make, sure I'm happy" mantra sure ain't going to work.

Imagine if we had that attitude with our children? Or mother?

<comment><USER11> If you're not happy, whatever you do, your unhappiness will be contagious, and people close to you will catch it too. Have you ever talked to someone unhappy pretending everything is fine, and how comfortable were you in talking about happy topics about you to said person, and were you tempted to ask the other person what's bothering them?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_contagion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_contagion)

Therefore, for others to be happy, you must be happy first. You cannot rely on other's happiness to lift you up and IMHO you should not let your own unhappiness fester and drag everyone around you down.

Imagine a child, whose parents come home in a bad mood everyday, though they do everything to make the child happy except changing their own mood, will the child grow up as a well-rounded individual?

<comment><USER13> Eh, your above comment was still pretty misguided:

> That's the wrong way around. Do everything to make sure you are happy, with > or without her. It's up to her if she wants to be happy with you.

...though you're pulling in the right direction here.

It's not either/or; you & your partner have to take care of yourselves, in the context of taking care of your entire family unit. I've been married for 14 years and have 2 kids. If I ignore the balance and either forget to suss out (and attend to) the needs of my partner & kids, or if I try to "do what they want" with no attention to my own needs, it goes poorly for us all. My wife has to do the same thing.

There's work and short-term sacrifice involved; sometimes I do things I wouldn't do, on my own, because I have longer-term goals in mind that rely on my relationships w/ wife & daughters.

But the same applies to us all, and this is something we discuss with our kids all the time -- e.g., "sure, I _could_ clean up all this stuff myself, but I'm probably going to be cranky about it, and we'll have less time to read together this afternoon...".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It would help to know why you're failing.

\- Do your project ideas never get finished?

\- If not, is it because of technical issues that make it difficult to get your product working?

\- If not, is it because you lose interest or the people you work with lose interest?

\- If not, is it because there are non-technical factors outside your control that you cannot successfully deal with (e.g. licensing agreements)?

\- Do your startups not get traction in the marketplace?

\- If so, is it because you're trying to unsuccessfully compete with a larger player in the field?

\- If so, is it because you're not waiting long enough, or your expectations are too high?

\- If so, is it because you've tried the standard promotional channels and nobody is paying attention?

\- If so, is it because the market has shifted in the period between inception and release in such a way your product is now redundant or obsolete?

\- Are your projects torpedoed by issues related to the people you are working with, if any?

\- Are your projects torpedoed by the fact that you run out of living expense money before they have a chance to catch on?

Although all startups face some similar base set of failure modes, the challenges facing (e.g.) a robotics startup can be very different from those facing a consumer web-services startup trying to build the next Instagram.

<comment><USER15> I like this post -- it's like an _anatomy of a failed run_.

If I may, to split your into groups:

Things you don't finish: > \- Do your project ideas never get finished? > \- If not, is it because of technical issues that make it difficult to get your product working? > \- If not, is it because you lose interest or the people you work with lose interest? > \- If not, is it because there are non- technical factors outside your control that you cannot successfully deal with (e.g. licensing agreements)?

Ideas that fail because no one else is interested: > \- If so, is it because you've tried the standard promotional channels and nobody is paying attention? > \- If so, is it because the market has shifted in the period between inception and release in such a way your product is now redundant or obsolete?

Ideas that launch, but fail because of money/scaling issues: > \- Do your startups not get traction in the marketplace? > \- If so, is it because you're trying to unsuccessfully compete with a larger player in the field? > \- If so, is it because you're not waiting long enough, or your expectations are too high? > \- Are your projects torpedoed by the fact that you run out of living expense money before they have a chance to catch on?

Reasons that fail primarily due to interpersonal/stress reasons: > \- Are your projects torpedoed by issues related to the people you are working with, if any?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I have a bunch of feedback to this.

1\. You have to support yourself before you can do other things. If that means getting standard employment, that is what you have to do.

2\. Being from a working class family is no obstacle. You _can_ do some work on the side (make sure you check your employment contracts, make sure no conflict of interest, and if necessary discuss with your employer). But avoid living in the machine. Get out, spend time with friends. Maintain social relationships. Those are important, and nevermoreso when you are in business for yourself.

3\. Go to garage sales. Pick up used accounting textbooks. Learn enough accounting that you can keep your own books. Accounting is the language of business, and it is one thing you have to have at least a basic grasp of if you are to get back into business for yourself.

4\. If you still have time, get involved in Toastmasters, to develop public speaking ability.

5\. Surround yourself with people who will support you when you start something but challenge you before you do. This is vitally important because you want a clear view of the problems before you begin but you also want people who will help you overcome problems rather than drag you down to them.

6\. You don't have to know everything yourself. You need to know people who can help with things.

</comment><comment><USER17> Below are some stats regarding starting your own business in perspective. [1]

Starting a business is hard and takes a long time. It also takes a fair amount of luck.

May I suggest, next time you have a business idea, you pitch it to as many successful business people you can find. They don't have to be VC's or Angel investors. Pick any successful business owner in your community.

Ask them for their honest opinion. If they say they like it, see if they would "put their money with their mouth is" and would invest in your idea.

In the mean time, do as others have suggested: get a good paying job and start saving as much as you can. You are going to need much more than $5,000 to pay for living and business expenses when you go all in on your next venture.

[1] [http://www.statisticbrain.com/startup-failure-by- industry/](http://www.statisticbrain.com/startup-failure-by-industry/)

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2013/06/29/the- ris...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2013/06/29/the-rise-of-the- million-dollar-one-person-business/)

</comment><comment><USER18> I'm a bit confused. You've spent the last 5 years on your own start-ups? Or working on other people's ideas?

If you've got the technical skills, why is the $5000 so important. I'm sure you've read about being 'lean', why do your start-up ideas require such a cost input, if you already have the technical skills.

Where in the world are you? Technical skills seem more in demand than business skills, but you also say that the people you know, know nothing about business, so I suspect you aren't in one of the technology hubs.

I'll bet that if you look around in your community, you will find business leaders. They may not be running multi-million dollar ventures, or start-ups, but they know the basics of business. See if one of these people can help you flush out your ideas. You'll probably find somebody willing to do it for free. Maybe they'll even want to invest in you (later) if they see you getting the job done and believe in your business.

Don't go blowing your $5k, but make sure you are doing what will make both you and your GF happy. A vacation doesn't have to cost a ton, you can get creative and have an amazing experience.

</comment><comment><USER19> I have been where you are. If you have $5K then you are doing well. It may sound insane but here is what you should do:

1: what's something that your girlfriend wants/needs? A bike, a computer, how about a silver necklace. Go buy it for her and give it to here. It should cost you about $1,000

2: When you give it to her, tell her you are taking her on a holiday. You are paying. Spend the $4K on the holiday.

3: Do steps one and two NOW. Get up from your chair and do it now.

After this, you will have a very happy partner who will love you more because you put your relationship ahead of stupid business.

Alternatively you could spend your last $5,000 on one of your ideas or you could spend your $5K on someone elses idea. In either case the idea probably won't work, and even if it is a good idea it does not need your $5K. Your money will be gone. You will never have invested any substantial money into yourself/your girlfriend/your relationship which will fall apart because it's no fun and there's always money pressure and you are always stressed because you never have a holiday and are always working. You'll be in exactly the same position you would have been if you'd spent the $5K on her.

In the meantime, pursue your personal business ambitions as a hobby and stop gambling everything you have on it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi.

Thanks for the advise and you're right, but this isn't my usual nightly routine. I took her out this weekend, like I do most weekends and I'm taking her away to Germany this summer - she wanted to go ever since I've known her. I'm not the perfect boyfriend, but I really do love my girlfriend and I do everything I can for her. Mine and her happiness comes first, period. The only reason I'm up tonight is because I wish I could give her more.

<comment><USER20> It sounds like her expectations are way too high, and it's taking a toll on you. Is she your girlfriend, or your wife? It might be a good idea to think long and hard about that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Better idea. Give up on some fake dream, put in the hours now at your job. Give your girlfriend the attention she deserves or do her a favor and get away from her. Find your own mental stability, and go from there. You'll feel a hell of a lot better.

</comment><comment><USER22> At 23 I was still at Uni, a nerd failing at all non-nerdy subjects, no girlfriend, no money, no car. I had hardly any ambitions and failure was the norm I set for myself. But I was pretty happy nonetheless.

Don't let all the hype get to you. Life is not about building Instagrams or WhatsApps, you might as well play the lottery.

So say you can't do it and then you can... sounds like you just have a pre- life crisis.

Set yourself up for a tiny win, like, try and run 10km, or get a first-aid diploma. Fist pump, you're not a failure. Then set your next target. Enrol for uni, flip some burgers. Life is the same for everybody, by the way.

The problem is, you are pretty smart; the nice thing for dumb people is that it's easier for them to be happy but you'll get there, too.

</comment><comment><USER23> Alas, and contrary to what others are saying, being from a working class background _is_ an obstacle. If you would have had a legacy admission to Harvard (which you could have then most hip-ly dropped out of) and had a bunch of frat brothers with VC dads, it would have been a different story and everybody here knows it.

Escaping from the working class is a matter of luck, not hard work, and that's a brute fact of reality. So don't beat yourself up about it, its not your fault.

Whether you want to keep rolling the dice is up to you. Eventually, you would figure it out if you keep trying. And eventually you would flip 4 heads in a row if you keep trying. But it might take decades, literally decades.

<comment><USER24> _Escaping from the working class is a matter of luck, not hard work, and that 's a brute fact of reality._

Bullshit.

It may be harder, but it's certainly not about luck. I went to a shitty state school (not even the flagship) in Arkansas. While I was a "frat boy" unless I'm interested in managing a cracker barrel they are of little help.

Instead I worked my ass off to develop meaningful skills. Then I intentionally found work with incredibly smart people who could help me. It may have taken me _longer_ to reach my goals than someone with a Ivy League pedigree I was absolutely able to do it. No luck involved.

I absolutely believe that anyone else can do the same. I see it every single day.

<comment><USER25> How were your parents in encouraging you?

Were you surrounded by an environment where the prevailing attitude was "I never needed that skill, I do not see why you do"?

Luck determines whether your parents want you to drop out of school at 16 and join them in the factory, or have you reading by the age of 3.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Get some treez and stay blazed for a few daze to decompress, then get back to your grind. Build a product. It doesn't have to be software.

 __I 'll give you the keys to the kingdom.. __

start selling webinars... paint yourself as someone who is qualified to teach WHATEVER and get people to join a free 1 hour webinar where you 're going to teach them whatever.. give them a taste and then upsell them on a package of additional 2 hour long webinars. $200 package.

Start advertising your free webinars via social paid distribution channels. Once you tweak it perfectly and build up some experience you'll be able to spend a certain amount on advertising to acquire enough customers to fully book your webinars each week.

20 people per webinar shelling out $200/each.. doing it again every week with a new batch of people.. every time you do it you build up a video archive that you can to build a non-webinar based video product down the road...

People feel good about spending $$ on webinars because they can get personalized education not just a pre-packaged info-product.. all you need is a niche people care about and some life experience that you can market as being valuable.

This one 35 year old lady is selling webinars for $400 to teach people how to "leverage instagram to better market your business". That's just one example.. she didn't even have any material written down when she started selling her first webinar she just kind of learned as she went along. She's doing well because her product is about teaching small business owners how to make more money. You want your info-product to appeal to people who already have money to spend.

good luck

</comment><comment><USER27> Here's my 2 Cents...

First of all, DO NOT quit your job unless your new business is making money. You know what's worse than working a job you hate? Not having any money at all.

Secondly, stop trying to start the process with an idea. The best way to come up with a solid business idea is to pick a market (preferably one you know something about) and learn as much as you can about it. Observe what people are saying. Write down what people are complaining about. Get to know them inside and out. Once you've done the market research, THEN brainstorm ideas based on that research. Start small. Build a landing page with an email submit and shop the link around to your market. If they bite (which they should if you did your research properly), then work on building out the product.

All that work should cost you nothing more than time and hosting/design. Save that $5000 for when you'll really need it—after your product has been validated and you have interest/pre-orders.

Good luck!!

</comment><comment><USER28> Sorry to hear about your situation. For what it's worth, my advice:

Stop trying to build a startup. Build a business instead. A bootstrapped, makes cash today business. Maybe it's a consultancy specializing in bank software or maybe it's something else that you have expertise in, but stop trying to build an all or nothing startup.

</comment><comment><USER29> Here is some short and sharp advice for you:

Quit this startup crap

Get a job at a large consulting firm e.g. Accenture (you will get to work with smart and highly motivated people)

Spend time working on big enterprise projects getting paid well.

You will soon see all the complex problems that enterprises have to deal with on a daily basis. This will fuel your next startup idea.

Fix a pain point for one of your big consultancy clients and base your startup around that, you'll have a network of smart people and a market that's in need of your solution.

I've spent a few years working for a large consultancy, I've worked with mega ambitious and smart people on massive projects that I would have never seen otherwise. I've learnt so much about tech and business that I'm now ready to break out on my own and I have a massive network and a huge amount of savings to do it.

Also, don't think your life has to revolve around startups. Great careers are just as exciting.

</comment><comment><USER30> I don't know whether this is going to be useful to you or not, but I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and your situation is weirdly a situation I desire to be in and a situation I'm trying to avoid.

I want to avoid your situation, because of the large variance and unhealthy unsustainability that accompanies the startup lifestyle.

I desire your situation, because working on new products and ideas is my (currently) most ideal working arrangement, I value being in charge and be flexible.

So for me the solution I have thought about and try to implement in the next couple months is to do a split:

X% involves "mercenary labor", freelancing/remote work Y% involves working on my on side projects Z% do other awesome things

Minimize X with the restraint of providing enough sustainable income and maximize Z% with continious estimation of whether Y can actually make some money realistically.

Would love any feedback

</comment><comment><USER31> 2 thoughts:

1) Try being more specific - [http://lesswrong.com/lw/bc3/sotw_be_specific/](http://lesswrong.com/lw/bc3/sotw_be_specific/). Perhaps you've been failing because you've been building things people don't really want? If so, being more specific will help.

2) Perhaps it isn't worth "slaving away" on startups. I believe that the 80/20 rule is very powerful, and is applicable to startups: a small amount of the work leads to a majority of the success. Maybe you could live a less stressful life, and still work on startups.

If you ever want to brainstorm any startup ideas before pursuing them, HMU - email@example.com.

</comment><comment><USER32> Your girlfriend should care much more about your mental health than travel. Have you tried talking to her about what you're feeling?

</comment><comment><USER33> I often hear people say: Get a 9 to 5 job... But a job probably will not teach you much about business.

I have a different advice that will give you two important lessons at the same time:

"Sell something, as soon as possible."

If you have a product that you can build quickly. Build it and sell it, ASAP.

If you don't have a product... Good. Use the money you have and buy some product that you can sell for more... Repeat it.

Sales is the quickest way to make money and consequently will teach you about business.

PS: At this point it is preferable to find cheap products, so you can buy <-> sell quickly, until you have a good sum of money... then, you'll be able to elaborate the perfect product/business you have in mind.

<comment><USER34> 2 counterpoints: 1) Lack of liquidity in "selling products". 2) Personal cash flow issues.

<comment><USER35> Selling software doesn't have either of these issues.

<comment><USER34> 1) Who are you selling it to? Can you find a buyer instantly? 2) Buying a product or whatever with the aim of selling/flipping it means your money is tied up in your product.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Hi kriptonic,

I've got about 5 years on you age-wise. I currently run the Dallas Ruby user group. The biggest two pieces of advice I can give you are:

1) Stop stressing out over finding the next big startup idea. You're young and have plenty of time to find the problems that you can solve in exchange for money. Keep training your eye to find them and explore them. Read the bits about finding out if the market is viable, testing quick-and-dirty prototypes, etc etc. You have plenty of time. If you have a group of people you can ping ideas off of, do so. If not, my email is in my profile and I'm happy to be a confidential idea discusser. If it takes two years to find the next good idea, it should be more motivating and exciting than spending two years writing products nobody wants.

2) Get promoted. It sounds like you have a lot of skills but aren't making enough in your day job. Figure out what it takes, like moving or improving an essential skill or two. Maybe find a different language that pays better and then work on that for 6 months or a year and then switch your day job to that. This will expose you to more industries, which will gain you knowledge of other people's problems in their industries, as well as gain you vacation monies. If you save, you should be able take a year off when you're feeling super confident about your next startup.

I'm also emailing this to you, but I wanted to post here for others too. (Others: feel free to email me... it's in my profile.)

</comment><comment><USER37> I guess it's not about Business class or working class. Sometime people get overwhelmed by an idea, and this idea has its inception from what other people are doing. This makes you look what you are doing is not good. Business, Job, Status, Money etc. it's all work and just a small part of life (Life has many more aspect). If something does not work for you, then let it go. Start new, which bring backs balance to your life. By starting new I mean not only work, if your work does not bring money then switch (there is no shame); if your current job gives you a lot money but now time to spend with your loved you are still doing a stupid thing; if your individualist character don't let you pursue grouping (family/relation), bring a change in you (how much you devote to life that relation)... It's all about balance. When you are standing at such a point in life, people can just give you advice; it's just YOU who can help YOURSELF. No work is big or small, real status is being a good person…..etc.…

So my friend, let it go, start with something which will --> work for you <\-- and which will get you what ever really matter for you (your Girlfriend, time, family). It's your time which is getting consumed and time is the most precious thing.

It's my recent realization after I feel in love (with my family, a girl, and me :D )!!!

Balance is the keyword!!I guess :)

</comment><comment><USER38> Sorry dude for being brutal, but your life attitude just... sucks :( What about skipping the startup fever alltogether or getting a real job with constant income and not the "you get this _generous_ equity package" (it's never generous, it's never worth it to be honest, it's always better to have a hard cash on your salary account). Like pyrrhotech proposed, get a job, save some cash and spend 1-2 hours a day max on a side project. That's the only sane way.

</comment><comment><USER39> You've got the right idea, sooner than I did. As developers we have the capability to create amazing products. Unfortunately an amazing product isn't even remotely close to all you need. Ideally good products would bubble to the surface and people would just use them because they're better products but this is not what happens.

You need the business side of the startup handled for you. It's a huge task, maybe as big as developing the product you are working on. They need to be seducing clients, making phone calls, betting on marketing strategies, setting up events to showcase what you have, and on and on and on.

It's the same reason a big budget movie gets millions of dollars spent just on marketing. Because people don't go to see good movies. They go to see what they've seen before, what they know, or what is marketed to their face all day every day for weeks.

Especially in tech. Facebook is still going strong because it is what people know how to use. Lots of people don't browse for new software unless what they have either stops working or disappears. If you've been doing this for a long time maybe getting a secured salary for a little while is the boost you need. Before you jump back onto startups, but when you do, definitely get this business minded person that you are looking for.

</comment><comment><USER40> Hello,

Please forgive me if the content of my message is already in others.

Maybe I could have written your message, a couple year ago. I am not succeeding now to our hacker/entrepreneur/whatever startuper's standards, I am just cooler about it.

First point, you may have talent, you may work hard, and you may just miss the point. Don't ruin your days, enjoy what you are doing. The point of life is not money or fame, or other form of success ; it's happiness. You may work hard on a smart idea and fail, luck is in the game too, admit it. Work, skills and being smart are playing, but luck still be here.

I have read that Rovio's last try was called Angry Birds, I don't think they radically changed something.

One of the biggest benefits I have in my life wasn't a book, it was two weeks break from any internet access, and phone. I had my computer though. You are in the middle of a battle in everyday life, the Braveheart like. Have a break, see the big picture. Do not hit the repeat button by habit, habits are bad when they are here for intellectual comfort. Use your brain, question what you do and how you do it. Have breaks, breaks are important for those things.

Take care of your family, friends and girlfriend. They are invaluable, they may be the source of that little luck you need, they are a good point of reference. Don't become that jerk that place eveything behind his work!

Don't be ashamed to come for a working class environment, you may know more about life and business than those spoiled children we see everywhere.

</comment><comment><USER41> Please, give your life a higher priority! This means spend time with your girlfriend, with other people and enjoy life in general: outdoor activities, creative activities, entertainment, readings and so on. I think nobody can be successfull in work (9-5 job, startups and other forms of jobs) if he is not happy with his life.

And it seems to me that you are not so satisfied.

So first of all change priority: satisfying life first then business.

Obviously work is an important part of our life because it takes lot of our time and because it is very important in self realization. But it is not the most important part of life so you cannot allow it to overcome everything.

So if you want to balance high motivations job and good revenue, start freelancing (even if you live in a so strange country like italy!): it is not standard 9-5 job (but please don't let it become 7-11 job!) so it is more motivating (at least for me it is because you are always facing new challenges) and it pays good and have your side projects grow in a susteinable way.

I think i know what you are feeling...years ago i felt something similar...it is not easy to accept for people with "fire in the veins", but you must put serenity and order in your life priorities! Enjoy! Then start-it-up!

Wish you best luck!

</comment><comment><USER42> Just get a damn job that pays well. Relax, work 9-5 and earn pretty darn good money.

Accept that you will not be the next Mark Zuckerberg because 99.99999% of everyone will not.

</comment><comment><USER43> I just read through it all and realized you're just 23! I don't think you should be so hard on yourself. I thought you were like 40 and lost with no hope. But at 23? Come on.... Just get yourself a simple job for a bit. Take a break. What do you have to lose? Once you sound a little less burned out, you can give startups a shot again. Have some patience, and please enjoy your journey; you only get to do it once.

<comment><USER44> I had the same reaction as you and I did a search for 23 in this thread and nobody else is talking about this. Has Zuckerberg really skewed a generation. The odds of you making it big at the age is insanely low.

Taking 7 years to get good at something is actually a smart thing to do. The best thing to do is always look for a room where you are not the smartest so you can learn and when you can't find anymore rooms, you'll know it's your time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> First, make a calendar invite for yourself and your girlfriend. Call it "kriptonic career and family budget meeting." Make the event for an hour, next weekend. Send her an invite too.

Then go to bed and cuddle. Immediately.

In the morning, on the way to work, start to think about how you could reframe your plans on a twenty year scale, optimizing for happiness at home.

</comment><comment><USER46> You don't need more ideas, you've had plenty of those. You need to learn how to get a customer and solve their problems.

Money is abundant if you are solving people's problems so you need to start doing that. Read lean startup as well but most importantly start talking to potential customers every single day and STOP generating ideas, lets customers do that.

Watch this video to see why an idea is worthless [http://thefoundation.com/](http://thefoundation.com/)

If you want to take your GF travelling then do it. Sounds like you need the break as well. Read [http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/](http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/) and leave next month, get a job overseas, do freelancing etc. Stop worrying about money and live.

The job route is also good but only if it will be directly teaching you skills that will further your goals, if your not learning then don't waste time on it.

</comment><comment><USER47> I've been in the same boat also. After my first start-up tanked, I was kind of lost and didn't know what to do. I ended up working for a consulting firm doing software. Unexpectedly, I picked up a lot of soft skill sets in selling and communication along the way. I eventually quit that consulting firm where now I am doing my second start-up which is doing much better than the first.

I think when a start-up fails, there is the pressure to immediately continue and try to force a situation for something to work. But what I'd suggest is to go with the flow, and perhaps first restore your capital cushions with a full time job.

Try to pick a full time job that can hone your software skill sets, but also allow you to learn some soft skills. As you get back into the groove of not worrying so much, that start-up itch will come back. But at that time you will be in a much better place hopefully~

</comment><comment><USER48> > I can guarantee the technical skills

What are your technical qualifications?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for asking.

I work as a web developer. I have been building eCommerce sites since I was 15~, I'm 23 now! I can do frond-end and back-end development, although I think I'm better at back-end development. I have good experience with HTML/CSS/Javascript, PHP/MySql, Java & Node.js. I also have some experience in building AI systems using ANNs, GAs, etc.

<comment><USER49> Congratulations, you figured it out.

You don't know anything.

Come on man—you're 23! how many real problems have you even encountered in your life? Let me rephrase that in a way that sounds less dismissive of any _personal_ problems you may have in your life (which are important but not the basis of a startup)—how many problems have you encountered in your life that could be solved by technology or automation that are also shared by people with money who are willing to pay for them?

Get a job that pays well. If you can get a job that pays you well enough to save a little something AND lets you work part-time, that's even better. Take the extra time to work on your ideas, work on learning a new language, read up on things you know nothing about. Because THAT'S where successful startups play. Until you get out and see the world around you, you're not going to see problems you can solve. Its the biggest mistake I made in my 20's, and the biggest mistake I see most people your age making. Work at a crappy job for awhile, learn an industry that has a lot of sucky parts to it, and figure out how to make them better.

Also, FWIW (and something I wish I'd figured out a lot sooner)—most of your friends probably don't share your values, so find some that do, and things like paying your rent and going on vacation to Germany with your girlfriend is as much her responsibility as it is yours. Don't be that guy.

Email's in my profile, feel free to contact me for lots of cranky-old-guy advice.

<comment><USER50> Your advice really resonated with me aswell, thanks for sharing your wisdom.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> _I have to work all day just to put a roof over our heads. She wants to travel and damn I want to take her so bad, but I can 't. I hate what my life has become._

Why don't you try freelancing? You can make money, travel with your girlfriend, and work on your own projects in between gigs.

</comment><comment><USER52> I think you need to slow down. Don't be in a hurry to have some breakthrough moment where you suddenly get success. I've been through this phase, where I constantly feel "if only I had X", maybe things will change. In your case, the X is a "business partner".

This kind of sudden change mostly only happens in movies.

Like others have suggested, the number 1 thing I'd do is make some money. Get a job, do consulting, whatever's easy with your existing skills. Just fill up that bank account. It will do wonders for your sanity and self-esteem. And restore some stability and happiness in your relationship.

When you feel a bit chilled out, then try getting a business going again. Right now, you're too stressed and burnt out to think straight.

</comment><comment><USER53> I agree with most of the other replies here, but also:

consider (1) seeing a therapist and (2) reading the _Tao Te Ching_.

If you're so stressed out about your work that you can't lead a joyful life, and you can't even give your girlfriend the attention she deserves for believing in you – this is the most important thing in the world – then this could be a _personal_ issue and in that case I would recommend seeking a professional outside perspective to help you sort it out.

</comment><comment><USER54> I recommend working at other startups to get a sense on how people can properly execute ideas. You will also broaden your friend network and make friends with more startup minded people. This will assist you in your own endeavors.l Your problem is you have no one to talk to about business and no real connections. The most successful startups were people working in that culture, branching off, taking a few people with them and starting something great.

</comment><comment><USER55> Man, you seriously need a break. 5years is long term. I have been part of startup from past 2 years and i am like totally burn out due to excessive amount of work.

For you is better to find a job that you love to do, earn some money and get your life back, go get your girl friend to some trip.

After 2-3 years you may again thought of startup, at that point of time you have more knowledge and experience.

</comment><comment><USER56> Do a small business management course, they teach good stuff like market researching an idea before you overcommit to it, and doing cashflow forecasts.

I had some brilliant ideas, (and they still are), but after doing a business forecast on them, they're not good for business. I'm guessing you may be in the same boat.

To make your brilliant idea work, you need a business head and luck.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER57> Be mindful, be grateful, and fail forward.

By that, I mean to take a step back and give yourself a 'big picture' view of the world around you to gain some perspective. Some call it meditation; some call it getting some fresh air. You're 23; you need to learn that being an entrepreneur is a marathon (not a sprint) before it kills you—and it will.

Learn to create the time for yourself—to switch off. Your logical mind needs down time to compartmentalize your ideas and arrive at that 'aha!' moment; you can't always be "on." Your body needs to strengthen (work out) and rest (proper sleep). Your social mind needs time to take in the world and discover joy. I can't emphasize the idea of "creating" time enough. It won't fall into your lap. You have to make it.

Then look at how far you've brought yourself to this point and appreciate it. Don't compare yourself to anyone else, just to the person you were yesterday. Appreciate and get inspiration from the little things. Show people you are grateful; hug them, buy them coffee, do them a favor. These acts will make you happier than money or material wealth.

Consider taking a job where your talents help make a team stronger. It's important to be challenged in your area of expertise, but it's more important to take a notepad and to observe your colleagues and learn what makes them good at what they do, because they have the skills that can help your future business(es). Learn what to do and what not to do. It's not about the money, it's about the process.

When you screw up and get yelled at or feel embarrassed, that's a good thing. It's another experience under your belt; another data point to reference. When you don't get yelled at or feel embarrassed, that's very bad; it means no one cares to push you forward—including yourself. Always find something to improve and when you fail, fail forward.

As for your business, it takes $0 to validate an idea. Find three customers to pay for your product or service before building it (just a rule of thumb). You can do this while holding a full-time job. Don't build something you think people want; build something you know they want. As PG says, do things that don't scale. That's how you learn what your customers want. When you run out of time in the day to keep up with the unscalable work, considering what "big wins" will help free your time up to do more unscalable work.

</comment><comment><USER58> the only thing i want to say is, why rush? why do you sound stressed?

the majority of successful people start doing big things after 35 years old when you have the experience and network, you still have 12 years to get there. Take baby steps, and you will succeed.

I'm 23 years old as well, working at a dev house as software engineer. Just keep going and take it easy bro.

</comment><comment><USER59> You have the technical skills, don't push to startup. I had say things work better when you get a 9-5 job and learn the field you are in, and once you know enough about the domain you are working in, you can startup in the same. We rarely here of vague startup ideas without domain knowledge succeeding.

</comment><comment><USER60> Just wanted to say that this thread has made me want to read and participate in HN more often. Best of luck, OP.

</comment><comment><USER61> I am curious exactly where the sentiment that passion for an idea, and the success thereafter, has to come from the sacrifice of everything else in your life. Is this simply propagated through the romantic biographies of the few people who managed to turn these unfortunate circumstances into success?

</comment><comment><USER62> Get a 9-5 job, take a breather, save some money, then try again after two years.

</comment><comment><USER63> kriptonic, just sent you an email with a partnership proposal for a SaaS. Take a look...

My advice would be: try to do something small and with value. Don't try to start out the next big thing from the start. Try to start out the next useful thing, no matter how small.

Also, keep this $5,000 for yourself. If you can't create something of value without the money (more true as you can code), it is not $5,000 that will make it work.

</comment><comment><USER64> Keep going. Keep going. Go to bed too when your gf looks at you and says "I am going to sleep." Next morning, Keep going.

</comment><comment><USER65> you said that you have the skills, my advise to you create game like flappy bird you wil be rich like the founder of flappy bird.

</comment><comment><USER66> I'm in a similar situation but without the girlfriend except I'm not trying to do a large startup, I'm trying to get a positive cash flow going through a SaaS and it's hard as hell to even get started! I mean I tried for the past 5 years, on and off, but I've been doing the same god damn problem everytime and it's recently that I realized that I don't know shit about business and marketing. I focused some time on that by researching and doing brainstorming.

I'm not ready to give up but it's just staggering how long it has taken me and each year, it has been a mediocre, mostly due to me burning out when it came time to do the business stuff because I spent all my energy on building the damn product and than kept on adding new features so that it would entice customers from the sheer list of features.

Take the $5000, save it. Do not spend it on a new startup idea. I've spent about $50 in total for my 12th attempt. I spent about $3000 on my 5th attempt in 2010. Didn't do jack shit. It's not really about the money you throw at it, it's about being not burnt out when it comes to do the important things I'm learning.

</comment><comment><USER67> It took me many years to find an idea that worked.

I took jobs that didn't require many more hours beyond 9-5 (IE: boring programming jobs) and used my free time to work on business ideas.

Weekends were for friends and family. You need to learn how to balance your life, or it will be very difficult to succeed.</comment>


A Letter To The Board Members Of RadiumOne - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/26/a-letter-to-the-board-members-of-radiumone/

<comment><USER2> TechCrunch dropped RadiumOne as NY Disrupt sponsor techcrunch.com/2014/04/26/we-are-dropping-radiumone-as-a-ny-disrupt-sponsor/

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't really like this kind of mob revenge, either you have a justice system, or you don't.

"As the mother of a daughter, I have to ask what if it was your daughter?" this is the Fox News question, it's a moron question. It leads as the gender identification, men would be sympathetic to other men and women to other women. The real question is "as a citizen how do I want to punish this crime without passion or hatred?". It's not a revenge, it's penal justice, a society protecting itself as a whole.

Moreover, it looks like the police fucked up the investigation and shat over the defendant's rights, where is the call to fix that? We don't use mob justice because the police didn't do its job. A courageous and just judge is also someone who is heartbroken to have to release a defendant because his rights were violated. It's someone who places justice and due process over everything else. Tomorrow _you_ might be the victim of a mob or get your rights violated, how will you react if you are part of the mob today?

</comment><comment> k-mcgrady As it's not mentioned in the post it should be pointed out that it appears TC only took any action after they were called out on Twitter [1].

[1] [https://twitter.com/jason](https://twitter.com/jason) (read that last 10 tweets or so)

NB: I could be incorrect and they did this without prompting but that's certainly not the way it seems.</comment>


A Product Designer Who Made Mid-Century America Look Clean and Stylish - <AUTHOR> https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/meet-product-designer-who-made-mid-century-america-look-clean-and-stylish-180972270/ <comment> frosted-flakes I'm a big fan of articles that that use lots of photos and illustrations interspersed throughout the text as examples.

Sadly, this article is not one of those. It describes many of Loewy's designs, but only has photos of a couple of them.

</comment><comment><USER2> Had he been alive to see it, this dude would have fallen out of his chair the day CAD software got NURBS.

</comment><comment><USER3> Those who played the Fallout video games series (e.g. 3 or 4) will recognize this aesthetic.

<comment><USER4> 1 and 2 have the same aesthetic. You just see less of it because they're RPGs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> XCOM: Apocalypse also took this aesthetic and ran with it all the way into the future.

[https://youtu.be/2CUYps6AOZ4](https://youtu.be/2CUYps6AOZ4)

</comment><comment><USER6> Disappointed with lack of images in the article.

</comment><comment><USER7> He (and/or his employees) was by no means the first to have or apply these ideas, though. There was Bauhaus, and before that Dutch De Stijl and Russian constructivism. The article is really lacking context.

<comment><USER8> There's nothing new under the sun. That's a phrase many on HN and in tech in general need to remember. In most cases, being first at something is almost completely irrelevant.

There are things that matter far more, such as execution, timing, adapting, salesmanship, etc. This guy happened to have the right combination of these things at the right time.

<comment><USER9> Agreed. Creating demand, a market for your product, and executing on delivery are key.</comment></comment></comment>


Minimal Ring Alarm Clock for Couples - <AUTHOR> http://mmminimal.com/minimal-ring-alarm-clock-designed-for-couples/

<comment><USER2> At the risk of being patronising towards someone using English as a foreign language, to my mind the best thing is the text accompanying the cartoon story: "The piteous woman is disturbed. A sweet dreaming is broken. She is feckless in the hospital". For some reason I find that utterly charming.

<comment><USER3> Funny, I felt the same!

My favourite Portugese to English phrasebook of all time, incidentally, is _English As She Is Spoke_ , which I learned of in Stephen Pile's book, _The Book of Heroic Failures_ , where he comments: "Is there anything in conventional English which could equal the vividness of 'to craunch a marmoset'?"

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I have one of these, which is more practical and a real product: <http://www.lark.com/>

<comment><USER5> I'm _still_ looking for one that gives me some kind of access to the raw data. I don't suppose this does?

<comment><USER6> If you're fine by wearing a headband while sleeping then Zeo [1] is your new friend with raw data.

After some soldering I even managed to get the live serial output to my laptop with a python app.

[1] [http://www.myzeo.com/sleep/shop/featured-products/zeo- sleep-...](http://www.myzeo.com/sleep/shop/featured-products/zeo-sleep- manager-bedside.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Great! Now all I need are some products to allow me to get dressed in the dark; quieten opening draws and wardrobes; silence the noise I make as I hop around the bedroom trying to get my left foot in a sock; stop the floorboards from creaking...

<comment><USER8> Marpac Sleepmate can help with this. I've been using one for about five years. Occasionally I go to sleep without turning it on and invariably my sleep is interrupted by noise from outside or another room.

<http://www.marpac.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Its not future if it has sockets. Even today this is almost doable with Qi wireless charging and NFC.

<comment> paul-woolcock Looks like the design is actually from 2008, so it's actually the past

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> 36 comments and nobody figures out that you could do this with the phone you already have?

<comment><USER11> how do you do this with a phone without accidentally crushing it during you sleep?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I find the idea fascinating, and would do wonders for my relationship... but I doubt I would be able to get a tension on the thing that would be soft enough to not bother me during wearing it, but strong enough to keep it on all night.

</comment><comment><USER13> Kind of reminds me of this: <http://www.instash.com/ring-clock>

</comment><comment><USER14> Is it a real problem? My wife sets her alarm clock around 6am and i almost never notice it. I sleep through till 7-8am.

</comment><comment><USER15> Has anybody ever read "Quelqu'un d'autre" from Tonino Benacquista? This directly stems from an invention in the book.

</comment><comment><USER16> Husband and wife are never awake at the same time. Doesn't sound like a fun marriage

<comment><USER17> I don't follow. Because they don't wake up at the same time that means they are _never_ awake at the same time?

Each of them would have to sleep more than 12 hours each day for that to even be possible.

<comment><USER16> Sorry, never awake and not-at-work at the same time

He gets home from work at 6pm, she's been at work since 2pm He goes to bed at 10pm, she finishes work at midnight He starts work at 8am, she's still asleep

There's always weekends I suppose :(

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Yet another concept product that's never going to see the light of day.

</comment><comment><USER19> It's thoughtful, useful and minimal. Why isn't this popular yet?

<comment><USER20> Because it's a series of pretty picture - not an actual working product.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> 2011, And yet it uses the phrase, "Deaf Mutes"

<comment><USER22> What is a more appropriate term?

Also, I understand how this product benefit deaf people, but I don't understand how it would be any more useful to _mute_ people than non-mute people.

<comment><USER23> "Deaf-mute" has mostly fallen out of usage, much like other once-commonplace derogatory classifiers such as "colored", "oriental", and "savage".

Generally speaking, "deaf" = physically deaf, i.e. unable to hear, and "Deaf" = culturally Deaf, i.e. part of a visual-culture / signing linguistic group. Big-D Deafness does not necessarily imply little-d deafness, nor the other way around. Children of Deaf adults, for example, often learn a signed language before an auditory one, despite being physically able to hear. And sadly, many physically deaf children are still deprived of language until quite late in their development.

And, as always, if a Deaf person tells you something that contradicts me, that person is right.

For more info, see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf_culture>

<comment><USER24> It's hard to keep up with quickly-changing political correctness, especially if you're not a native English speaker (like the author). Words that were once considered sensitive are now derogatory and new words invented to replace them. In a decade or two, that new word will be insensitive and new words will need to be invented. People will then forget the word was offensive. "Idiot" was once the technical term to describe someone with severe mental disabilities.

Colored can hardly be called derogatory, just ask the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: the NAACP.

<comment><USER23> I agree it can be difficult, and these things do change drastically over time. The NAACP was founded at a time when "colored" was not considered derogatory, and they haven't changed the name since, for a number of reasons. But if you go around talking about "colored people", you will get lots of weird looks.

Beyond simple political-correctness, though, the most important thing is to understand how our language affects people. A major problem with "Deaf-mute" (and also with "colored" and "oriental") is that these terms are oversimplifications at best, and drastic misrepresentations at worst. They're not just words - they represent actual cultural misunderstandings.

With the Deaf, for example, the core misunderstanding is usually thinking of deafness as a medical disability. It comes as a surprise to most people that the Deaf do not generally consider themselves "disabled", but instead possessing a different human experience. This is difficult, I think, for a hearing person to imagine if they have not met and interacted with a Deaf person.

Anyways, that was a very long-winded way of saying that it's not just about finding the most politically-correct term to use - it's about finding terms that describe the world as it actually is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Don't try picking your nose at night...

</comment><comment><USER26> August 29th, 2011 _yawn_

<comment><USER27> It's older than that - [http://techcrunch.com/2007/07/10/ring-the-alarm-clock- you-we...](http://techcrunch.com/2007/07/10/ring-the-alarm-clock-you-wear/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Sh*t up, and take my money! Why this is not a real product? "Concept award 2008"?

<comment><USER29> It appears that the effort and skills required to follow through with a product vision and take it to market are greater than or equal to those required for its conception.</comment></comment>


Why I "Need" an AR-15 - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jonst0kes/why-i-need-an-ar-15-832e05ae801c#.qt8qihvvy <comment><USER2> >> I do actually believe the fact that this violent nutjob who had been interviewed by the FBI three times was able to get a gun is so obviously messed up that it's foolish to suggest otherwise.

Interviewed because he went to the same church (-equivalent) as some criminal. Is it a crime to be investigated by the FBI now, sufficient to treat you as a felon? Do you think that precedent will only impact "unhinged Muslim guys"?</comment>


I'm not John Oliver, but my startup will be paying $1000 of someone's debt - <AUTHOR> https://www.civilizeit.com/julyfourth <comment><USER2> I think this promotion is a weak piggyback on top of John Oliver, but it got me to read about your company.

I _love_ the concept and would be much happier to upvote the company itself than this promotion. I hope you're very successful!

Edit: I also see now that you posted the "sexual misconduct" article (which I tried to vouch for after people killed it) and that you generally advocate for women here. That's also wonderful, and I'm sure it's not fun to have so much vitriol sent your way. I do believe it's worth it for the people who come after you and completely support the effort.

<comment><AUTHOR> OK- the tagline WAS click baity, but we've been planning it for weeks. It just happened that John Oliver did his thing last week

We also just did a Memorial day campaign for members of the military (you can see the page on our site)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Also- just FYI, John Oliver was paying off expired medical debt which was actually very useless and one of the most annoying media exploits of the defaulted debt industry I have ever seen. He didn't actually help anyone.

Plus he was copying Occupy Wallstreet that paid of 35 mil of actual medical debt for people and forgave it without giving them any credit.

#justsayin

<comment><USER3> oh you mean this? [http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/john- oliver-m...](http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/john-oliver- medical-debt-forgiveness-last-week-tonight)

Just ping JO through twitter to ask for an acknowledgement on his next show?

<comment><AUTHOR> Funny you say that. I thought it was weird that he didn't mention it because I've been in the industry for years.

But apparently, he left them out on purpose so as not to be associated with Occupiers (according to them) [http://blog.debtcollective.org/whos-afraid-of- occupy-hbos-jo...](http://blog.debtcollective.org/whos-afraid-of-occupy-hbos- john-oliver-erases-debt-resistance/)

<comment><USER2> > _he left them out on purpose so as not to be associated with Occupiers_

That was probably a good idea. Some people (including some liberals) would close their ears as soon as they heard about any association with Occupy.

<comment><AUTHOR> If I were him, I would have put it in at the end, but I would have included what they did even if he didn't say he worked WITH them.

What they did was very important- and as an economist I would say that they deserve to be included in the history of dealing with this massive debt problem

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Just FYI- this has been part of our marketing plan for weeks- the John Oliver thing is just a coincidence.

</comment><comment><USER4> * A contest with a forced signup

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, you enter by signing up to the free service, which then takes you to a page informs you of your legal rights to protect against harrassment and fraudulent debt, and gives you a bunch of useful resources.

If people are in debt, we want to give them more than just money.</comment></comment>


Getting Away from the Daily Digital Noise: A List of Time-tested Classics - <AUTHOR> http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/getting-away-from-the-daily-digital-noise-a-list-of-time-tested-classics.html <comment><USER2> Plato is outright evil. And Aristotle is not much better.

They helped kill the first scientific revolution that took place around 300 BC in Greece. Read Archimedes and folks instead.</comment>


Ask HN:  Can anyone recommend a good way to learn basic electronic circuits? - <AUTHOR>

I have read some interesting links via HN about circuits, etc., and I would very much like to dig into this and learn how to make simple ones that do interesting things.
I ordered an Arduino yesterday, but I'd also like to be able to design analog circuits and to understand how basic components interact.
Can anyone recommend a software simulator for this?  Or a book? <comment><USER2> You prob won't learn much from the simulator itself.. but try pspice if you just want one to play around with. Most simulators are based off of spice, so you can find a variant. LTspice <http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/ltspice.jsp> is also pretty good

As for learning the theory, this site has helped me alot. It has everything you need to know to go from 0, to a highly functional level

<http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/>

</comment><comment><USER3> I started off on an ee route. We used this textbook in our first circuit class: [http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Circuits-8th-James- Nilsson/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Circuits-8th-James- Nilsson/dp/0131989251?tag=dudugo-20) .

In later classes we used this book, which I see in the bookshelves of my coworkers: [http://www.amazon.com/Microelectronic-Circuits-Electrical- Co...](http://www.amazon.com/Microelectronic-Circuits-Electrical-Computer- Engineering/dp/0195323033?tag=dudugo-20)

If you want to learn more basic concepts, I'd recommend looking perhaps for a class in your area to audit, or possibly mit ocw might have something.

I will say the following though:

1) many folks in industry get to a point to where they rarely, if not never sit down on paper and do node-voltage analysis. They eventually get a conceptual "feel" for everything and work in simulation environments (matlab, spice, etc.). The best way to get here is to do the conceptual exercises on paper first, then play with a simulator afterwards.

2) designing basic analog circuits can be learned from textbooks, but doing more "active" things like building a switching power supply requires more specific books.

</comment><comment><USER4> <http://www.elenco.com/snapcircuits.html>

This is what you need. There's various 100-in-one or 500-in-one kits, you get a big bag of parts some instructions and you can start making all kinds of cool things. Also great if you have kids.

</comment><comment><USER5> That's a really vague question. Do you need to know about fundamentals? Like what a capacator/resistor/transistor is? Do you need to know how to solder and assemble components? Are you interested in messing around with micro controller boards, maybe adding a temperature sensor or servo here and there? Or designing a board completely from scratch?

If want to know fundamental electronics, start with one of those corny radio shack kits where springs hold the wires in place.

For microcontrollers, I like NerdKits more than the other stuff out there. The LCD display gives you a lot more feedback than assembling some other kit, and finding out you can only make two LEDs blink.

<comment><AUTHOR> Do those kits actually teach principles? I know what each of the components do, but I lack a broader conceptual framework...

for example, I don't know how to build a circuit that would plug into a headphone jack and switch a light on and off based on the volume level...

I also don't know how to build a simple audio amplifier, timer, etc.

Do you recommend any specific kit based on the above? I mean, I could read instructions and hook components together but I want to be able to build novel circuits that I dream up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> You may find these of interest:

<http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/>

Horowitz & Hill's "The Art of Electronics" is also excellent, but more expensive.

<comment><USER7> The Horowitz book is always quoted as the electronics bible. But I always found it really dry and couldn't really grok the concepts at least when I read it years ago. I think I learned a lot more by just reading articles online and trying out random circuits people posted on geocities.

<comment><USER6> There is no replacement for trying out circuits.

I have been told there are some good introduction to electronics manuals published by the Navy through the US Government Printing Office, but I have looked at them myself. If you happen to run across one of those you might check it out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm also getting into Arduino, just ordered mine. There seem to be a lot of blogs and the forums also look good.

<plug>I'm starting an online store for hardware hackers in the UK - <http://laughingcomputer.com>. There's a lot of good stuff out there which is not easily available in the UK. I'd love to fix that and get more people into hardware hacking.</plug>

</comment><comment><USER8> An old fancy breadboard, components and a good guide from the internet should suffice. Do amplifiers, RF generators, explore the OPAMP.. timer circuits...you'll be ready for more stuff when u are done.

</comment><comment><USER9> "Concise electronics for geeks" <http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/electronics/></comment>


Watch an Entire Building Get Turned into an Interactive Rubik's Cube - <AUTHOR> http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/watch_an_entire_building_get_turned_into_an_interactive_rubiks_cube_26008.asp

<comment><USER2> At Burning Man a few years ago they had a massive Rubik's cube installation. There were 3 control points spread around the cube, and the people at the control points had to collaborate to solve the puzzle. Very cool.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IdX6UlClGg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IdX6UlClGg) (Unfortunately the video is side-on, but you get the idea)

And it was solved: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GC13nB_P7A](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GC13nB_P7A)

</comment><comment><USER3> Cute, but it has to be annoying to try to solve a Rubik's Cube without being able to flip it around. Also, not sure if it's due to the quality of the photos, but the colors seem a bit difficult to distinguish. But hey it's art, so who cares about any of that?

<comment><USER4> The video shows people turning the cube as a whole to see the other sides.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Build the cube from Cube instead.</comment>


Ask HN: How did Theranos get to the point that it did? - <AUTHOR> How did Elizabeth Holmes successfully create the biological equivalent of vaporware? How did she build such immense hype along with a $6bn evaluation for what amounted to nothing? Just trying to understand what the major contributing factors were. <comment><USER2> [http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2016/05/theranos- cul...](http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2016/05/theranos-cult-of- personality.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> This was covered in detail in Vanity Fair and the Wall Street Journal articles about Theranos and Holmes.</comment>


Voyager Set to Enter Interstellar Space - <AUTHOR> http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/28apr_voyager/

<comment><USER2> It just so happens I was listening to some beautiful 1970s space music when I read this (Tangerine Dream, if you're interested).

The dreams of exploration we had from the time of the first man in space through the 1980s were so wonderful and optimistic. I grew up reading OMNI and Discover, watching Carl Sagan on television and playing with toy Space Shuttles.

When the Voyager left earth, we believed that man would walk on Mars by the end of the millennium, and that first contact was just around the corner. It was unthinkable that, in 2011, we would be seeing the end of the Space Shuttle with nothing to replace it and the suspension of SETI.

I hope that moments of wonder like Voyager leaving the solar system, still functioning, will light our collective spirit and inspire us to remember why we wanted to reach for the stars in the first place.

<comment><USER3> > It just so happens I was listening to some beautiful 1970s space music when > I read this (Tangerine Dream, if you're interested).

Thank you for introducing me to Tangerine Dream.

<comment><USER4> I was just going to say thanks for reminding me about TD, I haven't listened to them in a while...but now I'm back on them ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The article reminded me of this classic story of geek-love between Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan as they were creating the "gold record" that is traveling on both Voyagers.

[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1235348...](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123534818)

</comment><comment><USER3> Every time I read about either Voyager I/II or Pioneer 10/11 I am amazed at just how vast space is. Nothing like spending the better part of 50 years to go an incredible distance - a distance, which is so small in the grand scheme of things...

At the same time I'm delighted to be alive during a part of history in which humanity accomplished such a pitifully tiny and yet monumental feat.

<comment><USER6> > _"Nothing like spending the better part of 50 years to go an incredible > distance - a distance, which is so small in the grand scheme of things"_

50 years is very short on a galactic scale as well.

<comment><USER3> True, and yet it's a good chunk of a lifetime for a human.

<comment><USER6> Until recently, 50 miles was a long distance for a human to travel.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's almost as if the universe was created to mock us. So much space to explore, but physical law makes it impossible to explore more than the smallest, most insignificant fraction.

<comment><USER8> Which is why we need to work on the aging problem. Once that is solved, we can explore all we want.

<comment><USER9> We've already solved that with reproduction. We need to figure out how to out- live our planet.

<comment><USER10> I think we know much of what we need to know (the basics: how to procreate, how to create a craft, etc; plus the steps to take) but the costs are just a little hard to justify for many given existing world problems and a predilection to just fighting everything.

<comment><USER11> If it is a generation ship or some other from of slow craft (and aren't they all at the scales we are discussing), then it needs to contain a biosphere if it is going to take humans in their current form. We aren't anywhere near good at making those at all.

Unless we are thinking about some form of entirely synthetic food and oxygen production, in which case, we aren't any better at those really.

<comment><USER10> True, true - but with funds and 5-10 years, surely we could ramp up a serious shot?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Fantastic read!

Fantastic technology! This stuff is old, but it _still_ works _extraordinarily_ well. They sure knew how to engineer stuff then. They say that they might keep going until 2020 -- I bet those bad boys will surprise us and keep on kicking for much longer!

<comment><USER13> > They sure knew how to engineer stuff then.

Arguably, the current generation of engineers aren't too shabby themselves. Spirit and Opportunity were designed to last 90 sols, with their actual missions lasting some 25 times that, and Opportunity is still knocking about up there.

<comment><USER12> On a second thought, you're absolutely right. There's really no way I can tell what's good engineering or bad in present time until a few decades down the track.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Voyager is a beautiful example of reliable code and engineering. 30 years and 10 billion miles out, and still functioning.

<comment><USER15> This was back in a time when one guy could be familiar with every single line of code running on a computer, from user space programs right down to the kernel. This level of simplicity surely did wonders for reliability. Not to say you couldn't achieve good results with a more complex modern system, though to spend a lot more time making things failsafe.

<comment><USER16> > This was back in a time when one guy could be familiar with every single > line of code running on a computer, from user space programs right down to > the kernel.

This is still possible, by the way. Humanity hasn't lost the ability to create simple computers. :) We just see less of them because the complex ones are more useful for day-to-day life.

<comment><USER17> I'd argue that more complex ones (appear) beneficial to programmers more than anything else (users don't appear to benefit from complexity).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The fact is that we won't break the bonds of earth with NASA. Decades of bureaucracy and budget cutting has left them as little more than another government agency that exists solely to expand and maintain it's own budget. I'm 29 years old. So is the space shuttle program. It's completely unacceptable that we are taking 30 year old vehicles to space. Would you trust a 30 year old sedan on a cross country road trip? I wouldn't. And now, the program is being discontinued with nothing ready to replace it. We are going to have to rely on Russia until we can get our next rocket operational. If the men who created the Apollo program were told that one day we'd rely on the Russians for our space travel, they'd laugh you out of the room. Also, why haven't we been to the Moon in nearly 40 years? Is there nothing worth exploring left on the entire thing? Thank(insert deity here) that companies like Space X are taking up the slack. It's unfortunate that NASA has fallen so far, but it has.

<comment><USER19> Your 30 year old sedan analogy is terrible. A space shuttle isn't a "daily driver" that NASA changes the oil in every three months or 3 million miles. They're meticulously maintained. Yes, they're old tech and certainly in need of replacement, but they're not bad just because they're old.

Heck, thousands of people use the Golden Gate bridge every day, and it's 70 years old!

Anyway, I'm much less pessimistic w.r.t. NASA than you. Am I disappointed that we don't have permanent bases on the moon and mars? Most definitely. I'm a huge fan of space exploration, and I really wish we were farther along. That said, NASAs robotic exploration continues to impress. There have been failures, mismanagement and poor performance in plenty of cases, but I'd be willing to pay even more tax to increase NASAs budget. I still view them as a good example of things the public sector can do right.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'm so proud of Humanity right now. Thousands of years later when future Historians would be studying our period, I am sure they will feel proud about the far-sighted decision this Voyager project had been. Future scientist may thank us for setting a benchmark they now have to excel.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> How many years until V'Ger returns home?

<comment><USER10> For anyone who didn't get the 'joke' (like me) and who knows nothing about Star Trek (also me), turns out that "V'Ger" is a Star Trek character. From Wikipedia:

"A sentient being that evolved from Voyager 6, a fictitious space probe from the 20th Century that vanished into a black hole and was given life by a race of living machines. The story of V'ger and its return to Earth to seek "the creator" forms the plot for the first feature film in the Star Trek series, Star Trek: The Motion Picture."

<comment><USER21> I'm personally waiting for V-GINY.

<comment><USER22> It must suck to create a new account, just to have your first comment failguy out and render your account useless. Won't the auto-kill feature just automatically deaden any future posts from this guy? Seems like a poor way to nurture possible good HNizens who make a mistake or two in the beginning.

Technically he was only following the example of the V'Ger guy who isn't being downvoted.

<comment><USER10> V'Ger guy was being downvoted initially.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How your home network looks like? - <AUTHOR> How your home network looks like:<p>Do you have NAS or small server? How is your home network secured? What do you prefer and why? <comment><USER2> I am a proponent of the Slow Internet Movement. It has actually helped me a lot with unwinding and refocusing after work. So I have a 28.8 kilobaud connection in a token ring ethernet LAN configuration. No wifi.</comment>