In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace - <AUTHOR> https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/ <comment><USER2> To pre-empt a lot of comments in this thread:

The decline of religiosity is a global trend, strongly correlated with economic development. The US has historically been an outlier and remains unusually religious. The relevant question isn't really why religion is declining in the US, but why it hasn't declined sooner.

Claims that the decline in religiosity are related to increases in crime or social problems are not strongly supported by the evidence; there is not a consistent relationship between religiosity and criminality or wellbeing.

[https://news.gallup.com/poll/142727/religiosity-highest- worl...](https://news.gallup.com/poll/142727/religiosity-highest-world- poorest-nations.aspx)

[https://web.archive.org/web/20131021065544/http://www.wingia...](https://web.archive.org/web/20131021065544/http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/14/file/14.pdf)

[https://sci-hub.tw/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2009.00247.x](https://sci- hub.tw/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2009.00247.x)

<comment><USER3> > The relevant question isn't really why religion is declining in the US, but > why it hasn't declined sooner.

It's possible that religion is treating the symptom of another problem. Assuming someone religious attends an organized function related to that religion, it's making them part of a community and might be helping them feel less lonely.

2018 study shows that half of Americans feel lonely. [1], but a similar kind of study on people in europe surveying if people had anyone to ask for help or discuss personal matters has a much smaller amount [2]

The European study indicates that income inequality has an effect on social isolation, with the lowest incomes having twice the amount of isolation.

The income inequality in America is even more pronounced, and geographically, many of the areas with the highest levels of religious beliefs seem (on a map) to line up pretty well with levels of poverty and income inequality.

Usual disclaimer about correlation/causation and everything... But perhaps economic conditions that cause people to tend to be socially isolated are being self-treated by pursuit of religious groups because the community it gathers results in a decrease in the isolation symptom?

[1] [https://fortune.com/2018/05/01/americans-lonely-cigna- study/](https://fortune.com/2018/05/01/americans-lonely-cigna-study/) [2] [https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat- news/-/D...](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat- news/-/DDN-20170628-1)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Some side effects of this that are worth thinking about...

As churches see less membership, at some point congregations merge and one church is shut down.

Many churches do outreach and provide services to the community, the poor, and the homeless. This often includes shelter from the elements, soup kitchens, food pantries, meeting places for groups like AA/NA/etc.

When a church shuts down, the distance that the population has to travel can increase, and there might not be enough room to provide the same resources to those populations.

Additionally, it's not necessarily a problem, but more of a musing... What happens to all those old churches? The impact on the property market has to have local effects...

I wonder how many churches are shut down, but are just maintained by a skeleton crew of maintenance people in the hope that their customer base will increase enough one day to restart their services and reopen the property.

I assume churches don't pay property tax, so as long as the church is in hibernation mode and not actually totally dissolved, could they hold onto the property indefinitely for just the cost of maintenance? Or would them not providing religious services anymore cause them to lose the exemption?

<comment><USER4> I would think that many churches sell the property. I know people who live in an apartment building that used to be a church.

While churches do provide services and outreach to the poor, I've always wondered about what happens when they're serving the opposite effect by not paying property taxes. Property taxes are the public education base in the USA, and quality education is the way out of poverty.

Churches' outreach programs will also discriminate against causes they don't agree with based on their own teachings - i.e., Christian churches might not recommend that someone use contraception or get an abortion even if those options are the best logical course of action.

<comment><USER3> Those are some excellent points.

You know how some people have pointed out that McDonalds wasn't in the food business, it was in the real estate business to franchise owners? They often hold prime real estate locations.

The Post Office also has prime real estate locations.

I think that Churches, collectively, hold some of the most desireable property locations in our communities. Especially older churches in city centers have been there and grown organically since cities were founded so now they're very valuable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What's disheartening to me, a life-long agnostic, is that this change doesn't seem to correspond to an increase in rational, scientific materialism. Indeed, it seems like science is on the outs as well with increasingly common denial of basic scientific facts when they conflict with ideology. Instead, this seems to be a change of aesthetics - trading one set of pseudoscientific beliefs (Christianity) for another (new age mysticism, astrology, goop.com).

<comment><USER6> When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing — they believe in anything.

G.K. Chesterton, circa 1924

<comment><USER7> A fellow that is not exactly neutral on the subject.

And really not true.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> A great sorrow I think. Not for Christianity per se but all that comes with it.

What is most essentially "home" in the world is the set of rituals you make for yourself and others, things that allow you to dwell more poetically in place. Traditional rituals, like those found in religions, enhance our sense of belonging in the world, or if the world is a rough and scary place, at least within a society. I think we do not have the words for all the good parts of religion and ritual, and because they are not easily articulated, they are easily dismissed as irrational or nonexistent.

People instead will attack any religion, or any set of rituals that are not easily explained with a dollar value, _gleefully_ as things that need to die, in service of a more rational world, by which they only mean a world more easily explainable to them. Since they cannot easily explain what's lost, they assume it must be nothing. I think this is a mistake due to a lack of attention.

People do not think about this, for that matter I fear people hardly think of our sense of dwelling and belonging at all. Culturally, the idea of "belonging" anywhere has been entirely subsumed by "wandering"[note]. This makes for a more consumer-friendly world, but a much less nice one to live in day to day. I fear that until we have the easy words to properly describe what it is we have lost, people will simply continue to cheer its loss, perhaps pausing once in a while to wonder aloud why they feel somewhat lost.

[note] ask people about their aspirational hobbies, they are amost always quick to point to "travel", and "experiences". Weirdly a lot of the "experiences" wording people use comes from a study commissioned by LivingSocial ("millennials prefer experiences over things", as if that's the dichotomy) to hawk the selling of experiences. The pseudostudy seems to be outliving the failed company.

<comment><USER4> I would guess that the high level of religious affiliation in the United States is somewhat abnormal for a developed and wealthy country.

Can you find another Western nation out there with similar levels of religious affiliation?

I think I see this decline as a correction. It's not actually normal to have so many people finding religion important to their lives in a large, connected, developed society. The USA's unique history and geography lent itself to high levels of religious affiliation, but since the Internet has connected us all a little closer, it's been harder for religious institutions and religious parents to prevent younger people from obtaining unfiltered information.

Enjoyable secular rituals are also easy to find if you look right in front of you - the Thanksgiving Day parade, the SuperBowl, Halloween and Trick-or- Treating, Valentine's Day, city-wide marathons, County Fairs, street festivals, etc...the list is nearly endless.

And tradition itself isn't a religion or belief in something. The fact that the Catholic church has you cross yourself, stand and sit at specific times, or eat a cracker are not examples a belief in anything, they are physical ritual and tradition. One can partake in all those activities without having a thought in their mind. There are also secular traditions that have no root in surviving religions, like putting a tree in your house during the holiday season. Plenty of atheists put up "Christmas trees" because it's fun!

<comment><USER8> There are so many implied claims in what you say, it is difficult to give a response. We would almost certainly be talking past each other.

> I think I see this decline as a correction. It's not actually normal to have > so many people finding religion important to their lives in a ...

Why use that as your normative base? Why not say that everything after, say, Descartes or Jesus or the printing press is abnormal level of religion, and that we are in a lull of divinity? Why do you think anything about the religiosity of anyone in the last 1-30 centuries is _normal?_

> in a large, connected ... but since the Internet has connected us all ...

 _Are we_ in a large, connected society? _Has_ the internet really done as you say?

<comment><USER4> The normative base I'm talking about is the religious importance levels in various countries:

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

The United States is one of the most religious countries for being as wealthy and developed as it is. Many of the similarly developed nations that remain religious are the oil theocracies.

As I mentioned, the Internet has allowed people to read opinions beyond their own filtered literature. A religious school or household won't buy books that question religion. But an entire generation (the millennials shown in the article) grew up with Internet connections that largely took them beyond those filters.

I know that part is speculation on my end, but eliminating the Internet's role in inter-connectivity as a possibility is an odd hypothesis. I have friends in Japan in shared interest groups for Japanese pop stars, how would that have happened before the Internet? Writing letters?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What else is new?

Religion is the most conservative institution ever created. It does not adapt (well, almost..) it doesn't change (also, almost..) and it's no wonder that with developments in science and culture, religion doesn't seem as important as it used to be.

It's been going on for a while, in suburbia the main purpose of religion has nothing to do with religion, it's mostly about community, church is the place when you meet a talk with your neighbors. That's it.

Well, strong economy is also there to "blame", one talks to God only when one needs something, nothing wrong with that just to make a point that when everything is good religion is on decline.

</comment><comment><USER10> Good! I come from a family that is split between A) secular/atheist people and B) deeply religious people from the South. Group A has done well, all have happy families, and are overall good people. Group B are, to put it nicely, uneducated bigots who blame a lifetime of bad decisions on everyone besides themselves, oh, and they are also some of the most hateful people you will ever meet. The only people in group B who turned out okay were the ones who rejected religion or turned out gay (and newsflash, they were exiled by their so loving families).

</comment><comment><USER11> I am a Christian, and I believe this is caused directly by a few factors:

1\. The history of actions taken by theocracies is not good. There is a strong modern social justice movement, and even saying something bad 10 years ago is enough to cancel someone. Now imagine a group that committed multiple genocides over the centuries.

2\. A growing rise of "spiritual but not religious" has led young people to eschew attending church. These young people grow up and have young people of their own who are now never exposed to Christianity.

3\. Relegation of religion to personal matters alone, taboo in public.

4\. Christians have allowed the book of Leviticus to overwhelm their message. Because of what is said about LGBTQ, Christian == bigot in many people's minds.

I'm sure there are fellow Christians who visit HN. I think these are the primary obstacles that must be overcome in order to grow the cause. All the mission work and happy Easter messages in the world won't make a lick of difference against these 4 issues.

<comment><USER12> The intolerance of Christian groups for non-Christian is a part too. I think it has to do with the myth of being persecuted that hasn't been true since Constantine.

<comment><USER13> Tell that to the Catholics in England and colonial America, or the Protestants in Ireland, or the Jacobites in Scotland, or churches of various denominations in many Islamic countries or territories, such as the Congo.

<comment><USER12> In general for every group X, you can find a subgroup Y who's done terribly toxic stuff somewhere.

The larger and more coordinate the group, the more likely. It doesn't need religion. It needs humans, organising, to happen.

<comment><USER13> Of course. Even subgroups within the Christian church itself have been guilty of such atrocities at various points in history. But to say that all organized persecution of Christians ended with Constantine is just historically wrong.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Wonder what will replace the community for a lot of people in the near future. In a lot of places the church is a de facto community place. There usually a lot of posts in HN about the modern life, loneliness, depression, isolation etc. and I think if you strip away the outward trappings and dogma, this is what religion is good for. Not in a "believe in Jesus" or "trust in God" kind of way, but in a "how to orient your life" kind of way. Which is to say, the actually useful portion of religion generally teaches that your best life is probably not focused on you. It isn't about finding yourself, or being true to yourself, or really thinking about yourself at all. It's in being of benefit to the human beings around you. And in serving those around you, you become something that is worth being. There are parentless children, drug addicts, parks that need cleaning etc. And not christianity per se but local churches do a great deal of job in these. We will see what the future holds.

</comment><comment><USER15> If the trend continues, we can expect parity in Christianity and religiously unaffiliated by roughly 2040. However I would expect the decline to increase in rate at some point, as the network effects due to the ubiquity of the Christian community start to fall apart.

</comment><comment><USER16> Turn Christianity into a vehicle for conservative identity politics instead of a community and moral framework, and the people victimized by it will cease to identify as it. Simple as that.

<comment><USER17> Catholicism has never been that, and it's declining too.

<comment><USER5> Catholicism as an organization has a _lot_ of skeletons in the closet. I'm surprised it's not declining faster.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This community doesn't seem to have the capacity to discuss religion.

Edit: ok you guys, message received. I won't do it this way again.

<comment><USER19> Wow that's the sort of comment that usually gets removed. An unnecessary slur on an entire group of people with no supporting argument. Being disagreeable for the sake of being disagreeable. I'm disappointed.

<comment><USER18> It's partly strategic. The presence of a moderation comment like that in a thread often seems to evoke higher-quality comments. I'd bet that it such had an effect in this case—the thread improved almost immediately—but who knows.

You're right that I should have written something longer and not in haste. But I'm a bit surprised by the strong reaction to that one; it's atypical. Perhaps to some readers it felt like a disparagement of their own view on religion—which of course it was not.

<comment><USER19> Sorry if I was catty. It was a bit of cold water in the face, is all.

Personally I like to avoid such threads. You can't really be understood, whatever you contribute.

<comment><USER18> I don't think you were catty, and you were far from the only person who had an adverse reaction to my comment. I've learned something. So thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> One set of rules is enough. Don't want to have to follow common law and some made up religious laws as well.

</comment><comment><USER21> Will be interesting to see what happens when the country trades the Protestant worth ethic, concepts of morality, duty to family, for .... whatever is adopted as faith instead.

Identity politics seems to be the new religion for many.

</comment><comment><USER22> Joined with a rise in suicides [https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental- health/suicides-homici...](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental- health/suicides-homicides-rise-young-people-n1067786)

and mass killings [https://news.wttw.com/2019/08/13/northwestern-research- shows...](https://news.wttw.com/2019/08/13/northwestern-research-shows-us- mass-shootings-rise)

and violent crime [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/us/violent-crime- murder-c...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/us/violent-crime-murder- chicago-increase-.html)

and homelessness [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/homelessness-on-the-rise-in- som...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/homelessness-on-the-rise-in-some-u-s- cities/)

What do Christian churches do? (quick Google search random).

[https://www.uchristianchurch.org/mission-and- outreach/](https://www.uchristianchurch.org/mission-and-outreach/) [https://www.diamondcanyon.org/missions](https://www.diamondcanyon.org/missions) [https://www.newhopechristianchurch.com/missions](https://www.newhopechristianchurch.com/missions) [http://northridge.online/about/missions](http://northridge.online/about/missions)

<comment><USER23> Assuming there is direct causation here rather than simple correlation I'll take it. The long term harms of religion far outweigh these items. You don't have to look much further than the death toll in the middle east for an example.

<comment><USER24> One of the services a church provides is a community. For some religions it's wielded as a weapon though. Leave, and lose everything. Take a peek at /r/exmormon for a bunch of examples.

What people need is a secular community to replace it, and not all find it. Some of the things listed above are exacerbated by feelings of isolation or lack of purpose.

A lie is best concealed between two truths. Churches know how to organize people. It's a rare set of people management skills that has nothing specific to do with the Divine. They've just had more opportunity to hone those skills.

But as humans we often trust people who show expertise in multiple areas to be telling us the truth about other things as well. There are plenty of good things that happen at churches, but they don't have to happen at a church. And the more they happen in the secular world, the more people figure out they can pick and chose things that make them feel like decent human beings without signing up for the others. That's either a terrifying or comforting statement, depending on which way you are coming from.

<comment><USER23> I absolutely agree. America really needs some mandatory citizen participation program. Force everyone to work 5 hours a month towards some project while increasing social cohesion.

<comment><USER24> It doesn't need to be mandatory if someone makes them fashionable. We have plenty of other colors besides Pink and (RED), for instance.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


I made $37.91 from frontpaging HN; what now? - <AUTHOR> http://yieldthought.com/post/1477902830/37-91-from-frontpaging-hn-and-reddit-what-now

<comment><USER2> One thing I've noticed is the difference in the url structure of your amazon affiliate links compared to the ones that I have on a site that I've pretty much abandoned <http://www.albumvsalbum.com>

When I click one of your links and navigate to amazon, I get a url that looks like this:

www.amazon.com/Rio-Grande- Games-U00090-Power/dp/B0007YDBLE%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAINAGOCRZFLVCUJUA%26tag%3Dfindanewgame-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB0007YDBLE

This is in contrast to links from my site that look like:

www.amazon.com/Night-Of-The- Hunter/dp/B002XHWB3W?&camp=212361&creative=385533&linkCode=wag&tag=albumvsalbum-20

Note that your link at least visually is not formulating the ?, &, and = like mine is. Instead those characters are being url encoded. Now I don't know if this is causing difficulty on Amazons end or not but it's something I noticed.

EDIT: if this is the issue, please let me know.</comment>


Latest Data from IMAGE Indicates Spacecraft's Power Functional - <AUTHOR> https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-image-confirmed <comment><AUTHOR> For those out of the loop, this is related to a previous post on hackernews of an amateur astronomers blog. He accidentally found signals from an unknown object that looked like NASA's IMAGE satellite, which had previously been lost in 2005.

This blog post ended up reaching a few people who were on the team that worked on the satellite, and lead to NASA investigating whether or not it is still up and running. And according to this post, it seems that NASA has been able to get telemetry data to confirm its the IMAGE satellite.

From what I remember, solar flares can cause reboots for the satellite, and some time in the past 10+ years it started working again. Its a pretty cool example of what amateur astronomy can do and pretty amazing that this long lost scientific instrument can be brought online again.

<comment><USER2> The blog link for those interested: [https://skyriddles.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/nasas-long- dead-...](https://skyriddles.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/nasas-long-dead-image- satellite-is-alive/)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Can noise cancelling headphones decrease costs and improve productivity? - <AUTHOR>

Can giving noise cancelling headphones like Bose's Quite Comfort 15 to employees (those who would like to use them) improve productivity (letting them concentrate or overcome noise distractions better), while allowing the use of 'open hall' environment that can keep costs low?<p>(open hall vs individual offices, which are supposed to help in concentrating better)<p>Would it be justified investment for a low cost operation (thats what my outfit is now and they cost $300 a pop)?<p>(I swear, I am not plugging in for Bose :). I did buy one recently though and it helped me quite a bit. That's what gave me this thought) <comment><USER3> I've not found noise cancelling headphones on their own helped all that much. For me, there's still a set of frequencies that seem to penetrate past the noise cancelling tech - outside street traffic, some walking on floors, low frequencies, certain speech. Noise cancelling headphones _while using whitenoise_ works better (though still traffic and such get through, just not as distracting). That said, for me, whitenoise on its own with cheap headphones was much better than fancy noise cancelling ones. My wife had a pair of the high end bose noice cancellers last year - they didn't work for me for work purposes, and they were too bulky for her to sleep with.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey mgkimsal, thanks for the opinion.

Is there any particular sort of whitenoise that you found better?

Where do you get your whitenoise, CD, download, etc?

<comment><USER3> I can't remember where I got it. I probably just googled for whitenoise, then looped a resulting mp3. I've tried some of the generator apps - some aren't bad - but I just have another app in the background running which I don't want all the time. A single looped mp3 I can play on any device. I've also got a sound machine I use for sleep - it's got a 'waterfall' sound I use as whitenoise to go to sleep.

<http://indieconf.com/whitenoise15.mp3> is what I use most days.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've had a pair of Bose noise canceling headphones since 2004 and while they help, they're no substitute for the real thing. Hmmm, I haven't used them in a year or two and while checking them (looking for the model) I noticed the rubberized surface material enclosing your ears is now disintegrating :-(.

Most people listen to music, but I've read that studies show that increases programmer's error rates. I certainly know that for myself there's certain sorts of simpler work that go well with music I know well whereas harder work requires no distractions.

How difficult is the work your people are doing?

<comment><AUTHOR> The work so far has been mainly testing, about to get programmers and its going to be quite busy. One of the issues is this office is in India in part of a city with high noise pollution, high enough that it comes into the office.

The other issue is that the staff expansion plans would soon make the current office a tad small, in which case I would have to incur expenses for moving to a bigger office. So, it is also about stretching out the usability of the current office with a one time expense.

Abt the Bose, the new ones (QC 15) are quite good in noise canceling (the construction does look quite cheap). Tried the QC 3, 2 years ago, didn't find them helpful enough, so I returned them. But the new ones are so good that I am keeping them, and this is from a guy who hardly ever buys $300 gadgets. You might want to check out the 15s

I use them more for noise cancellation than for music, hmm.. for a simulated private office environment :)

<comment><USER5> _this office is in India in part of a city with high noise pollution, high enough that it comes into the office._

When I lived in a small apartment in the San Francisco Bay Area, I bought a bunch (~9) of bargain-bin flat king-sized sheets (the flat sheets only, not the fitted ones) and copper piping cut at the store to fit the lengths I needed and closet supports. Some sheets come with a fold at one end that will work to slide a pipe through. Others, you can have it customized for very little money at a tailor shop. Alternately, you can buy clips to hang the sheets as curtains without any modification. I found that having them tailored, so I could wash them frequently, worked best for me. For one especially long wall, I bought a hook for a middle support. Some of these curtains were used to separate rooms (the living room from the dining room, the dining room from the kitchen) but others were hung flat against a wall solely for decoration and sound-proofing (between the master bedroom and kid's bedroom). I think I spent roughly $100.00 for the whole thing, plus a few bucks more later when I took them to a tailor to modify them because I was sick of dealing with the clips.

If you do this to divide spaces, you do need to consider that air flow may be an issue. But if hung flat against an exterior wall just to block out noise (and assuming the wall itself has no air vents), this shouldn't be an issue.

<comment><AUTHOR> awesome idea, may be I can hose in the air with an air compressor and that should help overcome air flow issues too.

nah, I will just reverse the vacuum cleaner, air compressor's too expensive and that's better utilization rate for the vacuum cleaner too.

 _hung flat against an exterior walll just to block out noise_

Plain brilliance at work!

<comment><USER5> Just a thought: when I say "flat" against a wall, I don't literally mean the curtains should lay flat. Leave an inch or so from the wall if you can and let them have folds, like normal curtains. It can look very elegant. I just bought solid color sheets (no patterns).

Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> right, moreover the folds can give additional sound damping too. and I wouldn't have to spend that princely amount on those noise canceling headphones.

you are an angel.

Do you think that 1 inch space in between the curtains and the wall can provide some extra thermal insulation too? and save me a bit more money on the aircon expenses?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think that decent, comfortable headphones - for a third of that cost - <USER2> do a lot of the same job without the added expense.

</comment><comment><USER5> I work in a cube farm. Most folks use earphones and listen to music to help block out distractions. I can't do that (it promotes ear infections and I am very prone to them). Recently, the place was rearranged to put more space between some people which has cut way down on idle chit-chat. The place is a great deal quieter now. Where I work, actual work doesn't seem to be that noisy. It's the socializing, involving loud laughter and such, that tends to be noisy.</comment>


Single Address Space Operating System - <AUTHOR> http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SingleAddressSpaceOperatingSystem <comment><USER2> Jeff Chase ([http://www.cs.duke.edu/~chase/](http://www.cs.duke.edu/~chase/)) was one of the authors on the 'Architectural Support for Single Address Operating Systems' paper in '92\. I read that when I was at Sun and thought it was pretty amazing. It shaped a lot of my thinking about what the world would look like when we got to ubiquitous 64 bit address spaces.

That change is coming. You can statically link to addresses in that world. It makes for some really interesting optimizations in terms of code which falls through into optimizations in terms of JITs.

<comment><USER3> Do you have any insight for what the security implications would be (if any) for an OS like this?

<comment><USER2> Security is pretty solid in terms of things like libraries where every library entry point is a call to a particular address. That eliminates a number of dynamic linking vulnerabilities. Every process can have its own memory prefix (rather than everybody thinking they are at 0) which gives better visibility to memory incursion and excursions. Kernel space is distinct address from non- kernel space etc (this got really challenging on non-64 bit machines at the end of their reign)

Is it a net win? I think so, there would clearly be new ways in which it would be a challenge but you can make some useful reasoning about validity of addresses with a numerical compare that isn't nearly as efficient in a variable address OS.

<comment><USER4> _Every process can have its own memory prefix (rather than everybody thinking they are at 0)_

The way you describe this, it sounds like segmentation. Wouldn't the value of each processing having a memory prefix be that all its internal data would think they have an offset of zero?

<comment><USER2> I was thinking more along the lines of being able to do binary arithmetic on pointers for validation,

       ptr & prefixmask != prefix

means its out of range. That is a pretty cheap optimization, VMS and SunOS both used that sort of check in kernel space to insure that the kernel wasn't about to dereference a pointer outside of kernel space (potentially in some random process).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Apple Newton did this; used a single address space and some fine-grain protection capabilities of the MMU to get proper security. It was . . . okay, but it's unclear what the performance hit would have been if we had run out of hardware-level protection IDs (there were 15 or 16 domains, IIRC). ARM later deprecated the MMU features that we used (and properly so, I think).

There's a 1994 COMPCON paper on it.

<comment><USER6> Not only that, but the early ARM architecture was terrible at running unix or other non-single address space OS's.

If I remember correctly, the caches were virtually tagged, even on the StrongARM, making context switching on linux very expensive.

<comment><USER7> Tagged TLBs should make multitasking faster, not slower, unless I don't catch your meaning at all. On a non-tagged cache you have to dump the _entire thing_ whenever you change address spaces. With tags you lazily invalidate only the entries that aren't part of the active virtual id.

<comment><USER8> Different kind of tagging.

salem is referring to how addresses are compared in the cache: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_cache#Virtual_tags_and_vhin...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_cache#Virtual_tags_and_vhints)

you are referring to ASIDs which are the mechanism by which different address spaces can share space in the TLB at the same time: [http://www.helenos.org/doc/design/html.chunked/mm.html#id253...](http://www.helenos.org/doc/design/html.chunked/mm.html#id2535017)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> As shown in the article the system i from IBM (aka AS/400) is an example of this architecture. Originally 48bit it moved to 64bit when the RISC (power) processors came to the forefront. Yet that memory model is only element to the longevity and flexibility of the platform.

However their best trick was keeping the machine code and OS so separate than when migrating to RISC from CISC you didn't even need the source code for the majority of code running on the system to migrate.

<comment><USER10> The apps and most of the OS are distributed as the equivalent of high level byte code using 128 bit pointers. Once run it gets translated into the local machine code.

For anyone unfamiliar with the AS/400 and predecessors I highly recommend the expensive book by Frank Soltis who is largely the architect of it. Many things were done very differently than other operating systems and applications. [http://www.amazon.com/Inside-AS-400-Second- Edition/dp/188241...](http://www.amazon.com/Inside-AS-400-Second- Edition/dp/1882419669)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> A 128bit address space would be fun. Of course as the page mentions, if you want to use IPv6 for this, you actually want something more like a 196bit address space or just round it up to a 256bit address space.

Imagine all the world's computers running in a single unified address space. All network access is abstracted away, loading a resource is as simple as loading a memory address.

It would be like a new golden era for C! Rather than using URIs or some sort of XML addressing schema or whatever else people decide to invent, instead, all the world's information and knowledge from all around the world (solar system, universe?) is available through one unified address space.

Although I imagine we'd still need some sort of DNS system running on top. ;)

<comment><USER12> _Imagine all the world 's computers running in a single unified address space. All network access is abstracted away, loading a resource is as simple as loading a memory address._

The standard rebuttal to this thinking is Waldo et al. "A Note on Distributed Computing" from 1994. [http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.41.7...](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.41.7628)

"We argue that objects that interact in a distributed system need to be dealt with in ways that are intrinsically different from objects that interact in a single address space. These differences are required because distributed systems require that the programmer be aware of latency, have a different model of memory access, and take into account issues of concurrency and partial failure."

<comment><USER13> I'd argue that at this point one has to be aware of latency and concurrency on the local system also, and any programming model ignores this at their peril.

It's the greatness of the potential of failure/hang on all actions that separates local RAM access from distributed computing. You don't generally need to worry about your app hanging indefinitely because of a memory read.

<comment><USER14> While true, there's enough orders of magnitude in play that the same mechanisms can only rarely be optimal for both. Reaching into a chunk of NUMA space you don't own vs. reaching out to a highly-contended hard drive on the other side of the world are forever likely to be too different to unify.

<comment><USER11> Compare order of magnitude for register access versus cache versus RAM versus HDD.

With page files, all of those are treated the same by the programmer.

Local HDD can already have access latency similar to the local network!

It is another order of magnitude to go beyond that. Meh.

Reliability is, IMHO, the bigger issue.

<comment><USER15> _" Local HDD can already have access latency similar to the local network!"_

Right, there are situations where "in RAM on that other computer" is closer than "on my disk".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Microsoft's Singularity [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_(operating_system)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_\(operating_system\)) project was able to eschew the MMU and use verification to prove that programs couldn't harm the kernel or each other.

Structuring a kernel like this makes the micro-kernel idea much more palatable as context switch overheads drop dramatically.

<comment><USER16> Here's a crazy idea: single addresss space for the kernel, virtual memory for applications in userland since their memory grows more unpredictably. I guess this dual approach would need hardware support?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> "40 bits can address a terabyte, two orders of magnitude beyond the primary and secondary storage capacity of all but the largest systems today"

Couldnt' help but smile when I read this.

</comment><comment><USER18> I've just been learning about OSv from Cloudius Systems. More than just a single address space they have a single process (intended to run as a KVM guest). It makes some interesting optimizations possible and they get some incredible results: memcached, unmodified, runs faster in their KVM guest than it does on the bare metal. It seems limiting at first, but for the right use case their approach is really worth a look.

</comment><comment><USER19> Surprised no one has mentioned that the Lisp Machine operating system worked this way.

Maybe it doesn't count because there was no protection against _intentional_ reading or writing of memory belonging to other apps or the OS. But the protections against _unintentional_ writing were good enough to make for a remarkably robust system, in a time when nobody cared about security.

<comment><USER20> For anyone interested, the Lisp Machine OS was called Genera:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genera_%28operating_system%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genera_%28operating_system%29)

Fascinating thing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> This is basically what VxWorks (real-time OS) started doing in their 6.x series - the MMU is active and all memory addresses are virtual, but no two processes get access to the same virtual address range. That way you can debug with virtual addresses turned on and see page faults instead of whatever hilarity ensues from overwriting the operating system itself, then turn the MMU off and stop taking the execution speed hit of translating addresses. It turns out that almost everyone just leaves memory protection on all the time anyway, since duh, it's the only sane thing to do.

Fun fact, the most reliable indicator that you have this kind of setup is whether the Unix emulation layer (if present) offers fork() - if only one process can access a given address then you obviously can't create a copy of a process that uses pointers.

<comment><USER22> How is the process isolation implemented in such a setup ?

The traditional approach is to flush the tlb and load new a new memory map on a context switch in order implement isolation , though what you're talking about sounds like something else.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Henry M Levy's relevant 1984 book, _Capability-Based Computer Systems_ , is available free in PDF form on the author's web site: [http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~levy/capabook/](http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~levy/capabook/)

</comment><comment><USER24> I was disappointed that there was no real discussion of _why_ you would want to do this. I see some potential for interesting optimizations, but that's ... it.

<comment><USER25> In short, private virtual addressing is legacy cruft from a time when this was the only way to organize things due to a constrained memory block identifier namespace.

Think about it like IPv4 vs. IPv6, i.e. hacks like NAT, vs. "everything has its own IP address in a single flat address space of IPs".

It's the same, but with computer memory. And it has the same benefits.

<comment><USER21> That's true but I think the bigger reason is that a single address space makes system calls as cheap as regular function calls, since there is no kernel boundary any more.

Ironically, VxWorks's latest major rev was all about turning memory protection _on_ since overwhelmingly people prefer the performance hit of kernel calls over the heisenbugs that come from stomping on the kernel's code and data structures.

<comment><USER26> But, like you said, you still need protection of kernel data, which means that you need to execute kernel code on a stack not writeable by the user, at a greater permission level that allows ONLY the kernel code to modify kernel pages. Single-address-space or not I can't see these needs being met in a cheaper way than what we already have, presuming that kernel code/data are in never-invalidated global pages available in every address space.

Edit: Oh, I see from your other comment that you're talking about the benefits to people who don't feel this need.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Sorry if this is a stupid question (I don't fully understand SASOS), but would an OS that does this make ROP chain exploitation easier?

<comment><USER28> It should not. The exploit cannot access any more libraries or addresses compared to traditional layout.

One bonus not mentioned in the article is context switches no longer need to flush the TLB (the MMU's cache which is indexed by virtual address). Thus you don't lose the cache entries for shared libraries or kernel space.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Could this be retrofitted onto any mainstream OS? I guess the answer is "no" for Unix, because of fork(). But how about Windows?

<comment><USER30> The mill CPU [1] has a single address space and they plan to port linux to it.

[1] [http://millcomputing.com/](http://millcomputing.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Amiga was fun.

I still miss Marble Madness and Hole-in-one Miniature Golf.

And Tom Rokicki was a god.

<comment><USER32> I thought that at first too, but the link isn't about architectures like the Amiga or Mac OS 9 that ran without any memory protection from other processes. Memory is still virtualized and protected like modern systems, but it _also_ gives every process a unique address space, so that pointers are unique across the system.

Kind of an interesting idea. Seems like it would pair well with the NixOS way of doing things…

<comment><USER33> There are at least a couple of AROS developers that wants to retrofit some level of memory protection onto AROS (which is API compatible with AmigaOS), while remaining single address space.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Imagine this for our brains...</comment>


Launch HN: Simple Habit (YC W17) – Spotify for Meditation - <AUTHOR> Hi, I'm Yunha Kim, founder of Simple Habit (https://www.simplehabitapp.com). We're in the Winter 2017 batch of Y Combinator.
Simple Habit is a curated library of the best 5 minute meditations from the world's leading teachers. It's like Spotify for mindfulness and meditations.
I started Simple Habit because I used to be a perpetually stressed out banker in NYC, and I started meditating, and it changed my life. Happy to answer questions about the app, or about meditation in general. <comment><USER2> Cool app! Thanks for sharing. I think this is great for an introduction to meditation and to help build a habit.

One difficulty I have with apps like this is that they're not necessarily incentivized to produce good meditation habits. If a user builds a real meditation practice then they're likely not going to want to use an app like this -- they'll probably want to meditate in silence and for much longer than 5 minutes. I'm curious how you think about what the ideal end-game is for each user and if you're concerned about churn? How do you plan to serve users who grow beyond 5 minute meditation?

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a great question! It's true that hardcore meditators often prefer to meditate for longer than five minutes, so we do have meditations up to 30 minutes in length to cater to that. What's interesting, though, is that even experienced meditators can see the value of a quick meditation in the middle of their day, like during their lunch break or right before an important phone call. We like to think of meditation as a more integrated practice that's accessible anytime and anywhere, which is why we believe that 5 minutes of mindfulness can be helpful to anyone.

<comment><USER3> there is something very weird to me about calling someone a "hardcore meditator" for meditating >5 minutes. It takes me 5 minutes just to get my brain to shut up. Listening to someone else put words in my brain for five minutes isn't meditation. It's not mindfulness. It's training towards the two, but it's not a substitute for either.

<comment><USER4> Your parent isn't defining a hardcore meditator as anyone who meditates for longer than 5 minutes. As for the rest, I suspect your parent would largely agree with you, though guided meditation can be useful as part of mindfulness practice. Depending on your level of practice and what's going on, five minutes could be a great break or just barely enough to quiet yourself for a bit.

<comment><USER3> I hear you and appreciate the reply. I do agree, in that one minute of meditation is better than 0 minutes of meditation, just like 7 minute workouts are better than 0 minute workouts. So any effort to encourage folks to pause during their day, no matter what their motivation (even "hey, a new app!"), is net positive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Neat! If you find this interesting, Thanissaro Bhikku of Metta Forest Monetary has absolutely superb resources with guided meditations, talks, and e-books, all for free under creative commons[1]. This is in the Thai Forest lineage, so not purely secular, but I feel like there's so much being offered to learn from in a full teaching tradition that it would be a loss to just focus on a Jon Kabat-Zinn style mindfulness meditation technique.

[1] [http://www.dhammatalks.org/](http://www.dhammatalks.org/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Will check it out :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hi, I'm Tim Brady, one of the partners at YC that works closely with Simple Habit. We funded Simple Habit because Yunha is a great founder. She is resourceful, energetic and has created a product that solves a problem she understands well. Happy to answer any questions as well.

<comment><USER7> How does this turn into a unicorn? I have trouble envisioning the scale tbh (and it seems fairly easy to imitate). I like the general idea but it doesn't strike me as something a VC would find attractive.

<comment><USER8> Moreover I can just go on YouTube and listen to meditation for free. How to compete with that?

<comment><USER4> That can be said of a lot of things. Convenience of aggregation? Lots of podcast material is on YouTube or can be downloaded from a website, and people still buy podcast apps. Execution? I personally don't care for YouTube's interface on either the web or their iOS apps. People have shown time and again they're willing to pay for convenience and execution even when free or cheaper alternatives are available.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This post should be titled as a "Show HN", not "Launch HN". The rules are here [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

A demo page on your website would be helpful for people to get a feel for what the service is about. Currently there is a lot of friction to even understand the service : download the app, signup. My guess is that a lot of people (atleast here on HN) were turned away by the friction involved to understand the service.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback! The new, updated web landing page coming soon :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> John Kabat-Zinn masters the link between science and meditation and has published very valuable books (including progressing guided/audio meditation exercises, each 5-10 minutes), such as [https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4180277/Mindful_Way_Through...](https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4180277/Mindful_Way_Through_Depression_- _Guided_Meditation_Practices)

<comment><USER11> > > [https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/41..](https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/41..).

I think it's inappropriate to encourage piracy here.

One legal way to get Jon Kabat-Zinn's material: [https://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Way-Through-Depression- Unhapp...](https://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Way-Through-Depression- Unhappiness/dp/1593851286)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Charging people as a subscription service for meditation help feels a little queasy.

Also I think it's a Silicon Valley neurosis that you need an app or technology to address problems like depression and low self-esteem (which meditation in the traditional sense addresses).

<comment><USER13> > Charging people as a subscription service for meditation help feels a little > queasy.

Yes and it's sad that they all do it. I would prefer a one time buy.

<comment><USER14> I believe they have a one-time "lifetime" subscription buy

<comment><USER15> I use this app which used to be $5 but is now free - [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mindfulness-app- meditation/i...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mindfulness-app- meditation/id417071430?mt=8)

Apparently they too switched to a freemium subscription model. Having subscription models for meditation apps is like having a subscription model for a music service with 20 albums. I get that there's the whole tracking aspect of it but that's hardly interesting enough and there's not enough demand for new content to make sense to rent monthly. Clearly I'm in the minority because Headspace is hiring in Santa Monica and SF now.

I'll say this, if Converse changes to a subscription model for chucks there's gonna be trouble...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> 1\. Is there any evidence that multiple teachers are better? If so, I'd love citations.

2\. Is there evidence that situation-specific meditations are useful?

3\. How much are the teachers paid, if at all?

4\. What's the criteria for one being a "top mindfulness teacher"?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for these great questions!

1\. Before Simple Habit, I was actually a power user of some of other meditation apps so the benefit of a multi-teacher platform is something I stumbled upon personally. Being able to explore different voices, styles, and techniques helps users experiment with what really resonates with them. We've found that our users like the diversity and will often (if not always) engage with content from different teachers on the app.

2\. Situation-specific meditations make it easy for users to integrate mindful moments all throughout their day. At Simple Habit, we believe that meditation helps people do more throughout their day, be more resilient, and engage more with life. Situation-specific, meditations make the benefits directly applicable to whatever they might be doing, whether they're heading into a meeting, about to give a presentation, or going through a conflict.

3\. Yes! Part of our mission is to help meditation teachers monetize on their impact and hard work.

4\. We primarily vet teachers based on reputable training/credentials (many of our teachers were trained through Google's Search Inside Yourself program and/or top universities), and the quality of their teaching experience. We're aiming to create a high quality platform comprised of the most respected teachers in the space.

<comment><USER17> Thanks for coming by to answer questions. Here's a followup.

You addressed situation specific above, but in general, is there any evidence that the type of meditation affects the outcome, as long as directed focus is achieved? I realize it's hard to quantify results, but what is known?

<comment><USER18> They absolutely have differing effects, just like different sports can produce generally fit athletes with different specializations in musculature and skill sets.

Furthermore, directed focus is not strictly necessary, depending on what you mean. There are techniques that do not entail keeping the attention fixed on one object, though in my experience attentional control is super important.

Shinzen Young has a talk on YouTube where he discusses the flavors of enlightenment as they differ from lineage to lineage. I'm not aware of research, however, that compares the effects on tradition/technique to another, though there may be some out there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I tried the headspace app for the free trial, and I liked it a lot, but I did not want to pay their price.

A friend tried transcendental meditation but the price for the course was pretty steep.

If I were to try your app, how does it compare to the others in terms of features and price?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the question!

What sets Simple Habit apart is that

1) we are a multiple teacher platform instead of just one teacher. We bring top meditation and mindfulness teachers from all over the world and put them on one platform.

2) We focus on 5 minute meditations designed for busy people.

3) Our meditations are designed for different situations and moods so you can find meditations for just about any use cases. For instance, my favorites are meditation for before public speaking, before an important meeting, for going to bed.

We're a freemium model and we have a LOT of free meditations available. You can find several months worth of free content so try them out first. If you like them and want to access to our premium meditations, then you can subscribe. We have three different pricing options: $11.99 a month, $99.99 a year, $299.99 for lifetime.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I should mention my now mostly-ignored Dharma API: [http://www.dharma- api.com/](http://www.dharma-api.com/)

It scrapes the major meditation talk websites to provide unified JSON API access to about 25,000 talks.

</comment><comment><USER21> I have a suscription to Headspace that I rarely use to be honest. 10-30 minutes feels like "too much" time to take out of my day. Like most people here, I feel like rests will make me fall behind.

SimpleHabit's 5 minute meditations can be done anywhere and are really easy. I find that 5 minutes is just what I need to kickstart this habit. The "stress fix" is a godsend. Thanks for this!

<comment><USER11> "You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day. Unless you're too busy, then you should sit for an hour."

\-- passed around as old Zen saying

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I've also recently launched a meditation app (iOS only for now), I'm taking a slightly different tack in that I'm not planning to deliver multitudes of teachers and am going for longer duration meditations. The first version only went live in the App Store yesterday and provides a breathing and bodyscan meditation if approx 10min, each time it is played the content is slightly different so as to avoid becoming repetitive. Something like Pzizz for meditation.

The reason I've taken that approach is that when listening to pre-recorded guided meditation from a book that I found myself getting so familiar with the guidance that I knew what was coming up next, and this was quite distracting. In subsequent releases I aim to introduce options to configure the duration and to dial up or down the guidance to silence ratio.

If anyone is interested it's called Alive Meditation in the App Store, and I'd be more than happy to hear any criticism or suggestions.

</comment><comment><USER23> "This item isn't avaible in your country" on the android play store.

Any plans to make the app available worldwide?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey there! Thanks for the question. While our mobile apps are not available in some non-English speaking countries, our web app ([http://simplehabitapp.com/](http://simplehabitapp.com/)) is available worldwide. Try it out and let us know what you think!

<comment><USER24> Honestly, I don't think people would expect the meditations to be available in their native language and having at least access to english ones would be amazing.

<comment><USER23> It's not about having them in my native language, it's about having them on my phone as an app instead of a website.

At least the website seems to work well on mobile.

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome! Just curious, which country are you based in? We can look into enabling it. The only concern for enabling in non-English speaking countries is that often users give 1 stars for not having meditations translated in their languages, and that's challenging to do so quickly for a small startup, as you might understand :)

<comment><USER25> Please enable it for Poland! We usually speak English pretty well :)

<comment><USER26> Oh yeah, that would be nice.

<comment><AUTHOR> Will do :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Looks simple, great, like something I'd wanna use and later on when I fall into the habit possibly subscribe to. Buuuut, not available in my country. How come it isn't worldwide?

Now, I got a bunch of questions:

Why don't you link your instagram/twitter from the site? Had to google it which was "ugh" already.

How do you pick your teachers?

Why do you think you can take the piece of the big player's pie in this market?

What is your marketing strategy (if not secret)?

How well do you sync with calendars (can I put reminders in my Google calendar)?

How come you moved the focus from "keeping the streak" to "choose your meditation"?

Are teachers getting paid based on the number of plays, finishes, fixed rate or?

Congrats on launching and wish you all the best! Go kill it!

Also now that I've found your instagram, why the hell don't you post a 60 second meditation as an instagram video? That would be so awesome.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for some great questions :)

1\. Thanks for pointing that out! We're going to link our Instagram/Twitter accounts on our site right away :)

2\. We vet top meditation teachers from around the world — most if not all of our teachers have been trained through reputable programs (e.g. Google's Search Inside Yourself), and teach at top universities and institutes, like the University of Pennsylvania or Columbia University. Teachers who express interest in working with us go through a rigorous vetting process to ensure that we're consistently onboarding high quality and respected teachers in the space. You can read more here: simplehabitapp.com/teachers

3\. You can use Simple Habit's daily reminder feature to set a time for your meditation. Also, Simple Habit is synced with Apple Health under Mindfulness Minutes and can track your daily meditations. A lot of our users use both features and find them helpful.

4\. Simple Habit provides a revenue stream for meditation teachers. Subscription prices help both Simple Habit operate its business and meditation teachers making a livelihood :)

<comment><USER24> Thanks for answering Yunha! This is the second time I've heard about Google's "Search Inside Yourself" today, guess I should start meditating. Also, my last question! Why don't you post a 60 second meditation as an instagram video? That would be so awesome and I know I'd love it, think that as a sponsored post would be a pretty interesting marketing tactic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Hi Yunha, are there any tangible (e.g. psychological) differences between guided/unguided meditation? What do you prefer more?

<comment><AUTHOR> Strictly speaking from my own personal experience, I found that guided meditations are much more effective and helpful in building a daily habit of mindfulness. A couple reasons:

1) I love learning new techniques every day and this really motivates me to meditate daily. For instance - This morning, I meditated to Simon Moyes' new year meditation on Simple Habit and I learned how to associate a happy moment with an unhappy moment in my day and that was super interesting. I can't laern new techniques from unguided meditations.

2) When I meditate to a guided meditation, I build a personal relationship with certain meditation teachers (even though it is just through recordings) and this helps me to look forward to meditating daily. Perhaps I feel more accountable for meditating.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Interesting, your app store description mentions previous launches from before June 2016. Seems like you got some solid attention on previous launch(es), what kind of traction are you looking for on your definitive launch?

Big fan of the Airbnb approach of launching until someone notices!

[http://www.businessinsider.com/top-17-startups-launched- in-2...](http://www.businessinsider.com/top-17-startups-launched- in-2016-2016-6/#simple-habit-wants-to-help-stressed-out-millennials-7)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for checking us out — we've been growing quickly since our launch in June on iOS. Now, we're available on Android and web as well. We're excited to announce Y Combinator's investment in Simple Habit!

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> How did you settle on the five minute length for meditations?

<comment><AUTHOR> One of the biggest obstacles for busy people is that they feel like they don't have time to meditate. As a startup founder and ex-i banker, 5 minute tracks make daily meditation accessible and doable, and significantly lowers the barrier to entry. Studies show that brief meditation, even if it is just a few minutes, if practiced consistently, can have powerful benefits within a few weeks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I like the name Simple Habit, without much back ground, its sounds like tiny- habits school of thought. By making the task sound simple, getting rid of starting inhibitions is a great tool. I hope it comes with daily tracking and daily "nudging". Hey, get 5 minutes of meditation for today. The Ultimate goal is to get people meditate way beyond 5 minutes.

</comment><comment><USER31> FWIW, I think I am a good example of the intended audience for this app: I have never meditated/done mindfulness exercises until ~2 weeks ago, when I found out about Simple Habit from a post Yunha made to the YC class list. I have been stressed recently and have had trouble sleeping/etc, and when she sent the email it sounded like a great use of just 5 minutes of my time. On my first try, I felt noticeably calmer after the 5 minute meditation. I am one of those people who (at least feels) "super busy and doesn't have time to meditate", and if I have time I would prioritize sleeping over anything else. But for me, the 5 minute exercises really reduce any immediate stress I feel, so I am a big fan! While there are lots of people in the world who make meditation a big part of their lives, there are many more who wouldn't do it without an easy and short option, and this is easy and short.

</comment><comment><USER32> After checking out a few guided meditation apps, the one with my favorite library has got to be Mindbliss [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mindbliss- mindfulness-medita...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mindbliss-mindfulness- meditation/id1092634583)

</comment><comment><USER33> Hi Yunha,

The hardest part of meditation for me was building the habit. Every time I started to build a practice I either lost interest, had a hard time staying engaged, or simply stopped. What have you done from a dev or design standpoint to help your users build a habit around mindfulness?

Thanks for the AMA!

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey there - I totally hear you. This has been a challenge for many of my new year resolutions personally, and I think this is also a challenge for those who design and build products in health & fitness space.

We're all about tackling this challenge (thus the name 'Simple Habit!'). And we do this by making meditations as simple and accessible as possible. Try out the app and you may understand what I mean!

Users also have the ability to get daily reminders to meditate at a certain time of day, and this has been quite effective.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I'd love to try it. I have been using Headspace for the past few weeks and getting good results.

Once getting to Google Play Store download page, it says the item isn't available in your country. I currently live in SE Asia and use a local credit card.

<comment><AUTHOR> Our Android app is currently not available in some non-English speaking countries, but try our web app ([http://simplehabitapp.com/](http://simplehabitapp.com/)), which is available worldwide!

<comment><USER34> May I ask why, since there are usually many expats and often locals who speak English fluently in most countries around the world?

What are the benefits of restricting distribution and thus market penetration? I'm curious both as a user and a fellow startup entrepreneur.

<comment><AUTHOR> The only concern for enabling in some of the non-English speaking countries is that often users give 1 stars for not having meditations translated in their languages, and that's challenging to do so quickly for a small startup, as you might understand :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Yunha, Great App! I have been using it every morning for more than a month now. I have explored Calm, Headspace, etc but I have finally settled upon Simple Habit. Easy to understand UX and great gamification.

</comment><comment><USER36> Sadly, the website doesn't show anything without JS.

</comment><comment><USER37> How do you see the competition, not just Headspace but also other upcoming players?

Do you expect many more in this space and how defensible is this model?

<comment><AUTHOR> The meditation industry is growing fast, and it's exciting to see what other companies are doing. Simple Habit is one of the only meditation platforms bringing top teachers from around the world to one place and helping teachers monetize their content. We're continuing to scale our platform, and speaking from personal experience, it isn't the easiest model to replicate because it requires bringing the best meditation teachers onto one platform ;) We're aiming to become the go-to resource for meditation and mindfulness content.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Why do I have to sign up in order to meditate?

<comment><USER39> Because it's a business.

<comment><USER38> Well, showing some teaser might actually help me comprehend what it's all about. All I see is three icons. I moved on to the next post.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yup, thanks for that feedback. New & updated web landing page coming soon :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> What makes this better than Insight Timer? That's currently my go-to meditation app.

</comment><comment><USER41> Why is the app not available in Germany in the android app store?

</comment><comment><USER42> Do you plan do have meditation in multiple languages?

<comment><USER43> The awesome thing about meditation is that it involves no language, and is therefore internationalized, right out of the box!

I'm not belittling 'guided meditation', which I assume this app provides and may be a good first step for beginners interested in meditation - but if there's a voice coming out of a speaker giving you suggestions, you're not actually meditating at all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> App not available in your country (BE). Meh.

<comment><AUTHOR> Our Android app is currently not available in some non-English speaking countries, but try our web app ([http://simplehabitapp.com/](http://simplehabitapp.com/)), which is available worldwide!

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Pricing?

</comment><comment><USER46> Mods, please change the title to "Show HN". It's outrageous in its current state.</comment>