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I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | revorad: Can you give links to those webapps you made? Have you tried figuring out why no one uses them? If you worked on either of them for another year, will they still not be successful? If not, why not?Sometimes, you have to plod your way to success, for years.Unlike most people, you are smart enough to have made a... |
ASK HN: I'm lost -- need direction | jnaut: First things first:
There are too many checklists out there for telling you what it takes to be an entrepreneur, I am not talking about them.
Do you believe beyond criticism, reason and logic that you have what it takes to be an entreprenreneur??If the answer is yes, read on. Be sure about it or you will regret ... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | jey: Keep it up, you're doing fine. You're learning a lot from your projects, and even if you don't "finish" them, you benefit greatly from them. That's a good place to be when 18, and you're already aware of the usefulness of finishing stuff, so keep doing what you're doing but keep an eye open toward finding projects... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | akamaka: You don't have to be successful at anything.I spent most of my twenties dwelling on my failures and wondering what I was doing wrong. I wish someone had just told me to chill out and do what I enjoy, but nobody did.You seem to have a lot of curiousity and willingness to try knew things, which is awesome. If ... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | lionhearted: You're thinking too externally:...capital, capital, people, people, publishing, acceptance/denial... and so on.To be successful, you can't wait to be blessed or funded or accepted by anyone else. A good place to start would be trying to get small jobs/contracts/articles/whatever that'll make you a bit of c... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | Tichy: As for the webapps: did you create a web app that you yourself would like to have? What I mean is, perhaps you could try to create something that is useful to you, then it does not matter as much if other parties lose interest. Chances are if you like it, other people might like it, too.A lot of the things you m... |
ASK HN: I'm lost -- need direction | apsurd: My buddy Francine says: "do eeeet~!" |
ASK HN: I'm lost -- need direction | iamelgringo: I'm a nurse with over 15 years of Critical Care experience. I Read Hackers and Painters in 2003, and I went back to school part time for Software Engineering. I finished up last spring, and I started working on being a serial bootstrapper. As soon as I can adjust spending, I'll cut down to part time, or... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | FreeRadical: Focus on one thing, try a simple web app that can potentially gain traction quickly (maybe twitter related? Finish it. |
ASK HN: I'm lost -- need direction | maxklein: How about this - put aside $500 of your salary each month to hiring a coder on rentacoder that develops and idea for you. Take your time about it, but this is risk free and you get to learn for cheap. |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | alexmacgregor: I have some ideas that might interest you or at least get you started. (My email's in my profile)Like other's have said, time is on your side. |
ASK HN: I'm lost -- need direction | InclinedPlane: You don't always have to be employee 0, there's plenty of room out in startup land for employee 1s, 2s, 3s, etc. Find industry friends to collaborate on new projects with, or simply go looking for brand-new startups to work for. |
ASK HN: I'm lost -- need direction | scotty79: If you positioned yourself so well in life then accumulate wealth, wait for retirement and do whatever you like then. There is never too late to become entrepreneur. Being successful entrepreneur is about hiring guys smarter then you anyway so age is no barrier in becoming one. |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | scottdw2: I have a few pieces of advice:Your feelings are just normal youthful listlessness. It will pass. You could try getting REALLY DRUNK, but it won't really help. In a year or two, things will be a lot better.Modeling the stock market is REALLY HARD. No one has done it yet. Don't fret over it. In fact, I'd say do... |
Why cloud computing? | rmoriz: Let's look outside the USA:Here in Germany, hosting is rediclious cheap. You get decent quad core boxes with 12GB RAM for about 70EUR (~100$) including 2-3TB of traffic.Compared to ec2 it's reeeealy cheap and located in the middle of continental europe. The Dublin/Ireland location of EC2 has a much higher laten... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | chanux: Dude, almost same story as mine. But I fall very short at the number of items on your list :).But still I believe that it's all about experience.All those things on your list will help you someway or other, on the right time. Just keep it going and more importantly _balance your life_ (AKA numairs comment :) ).... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | byrneseyeview: Sounds like a good summary of most successful people before they became successful.But if you want to get that real sense of accomplishment, I recommend getting a fairly blue collar job either next summer or at night during the school year.What you need to figure out is whether you're facing bad luck or ... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | zackattack: It seems like you are dabbling in a bunch of areas and improving your overall intelligence. Your improvements will eventually cross-pollinate and patterns will indeed emerge, and you will begin to start thinking rationally about your behavior, instead of acting haphazardly.You have to ask yourself what you'... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | RiderOfGiraffes: Is this you?http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=838640If so, why have you changed your username?If not, read the advice there, because your story sounds very, very familiar. |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | diG1tY: You are much more experienced than most people I know. And you are quite younger than them. Work as hard as you can, and live without regret, the rest will come along the way ;) |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | dsplittgerber: It reads like an amazing list of accomplishments. Actually though, you have accomplished close to nothing (please read on, I don't want to put you down; I had the same problem). Sure, you are interested in a lot of subjects. That's nice. But that's never going to translate into any success. Stop the dabb... |
Why cloud computing? | lrm242: A couple of reasons that are important to us:1. The ability to scale easily. This is going to depend on your application's traffic pattern. Is it predictable? If not, how costly is a failure due to an unforeseen spike? For us, since we host other people's communities, it's very important that we be able to scal... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | ahlatimer: I'll reiterate a lot of what the other people are saying: you're depending too much on other people. You're also looking at certain things that "failed" and saying, "I failed" instead of looking at them and saying "They didn't take off, but I learned this, this, and this."I'll take your webapp you built for ... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | jacquesm: So, why not try something simple for a change. And then finish that, make sure it involves you, only you and does not require a bunch of money.Then when you've done that try again, but this time with something a bit more ambitious. Find your 'comfort level' and slowly keep expanding that.If you keep at it thi... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | jeromec: Yes, it seems to me you are doing two things wrong. First, you are not considering carefully enough everything an endeavor will require for success - and if you can and will provide what is required. That leads to the second, which is you jump in fairly hastily, then fail to deliver what is required for succes... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | louislouis: Success is 99% failure. Keep trying. |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | bhseo: > Why do so many people talk about youth as some sort of idyllic time in one's life?Because youth is wasted on the young.It's a good thing that you've tried all that, even those left unfinished. The next step is to apply the Pareto principle, and stop doing a bunch of things. Do the easiest thing with the most b... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | swombat: (Successful) life: you try 50 things. 1 succeeds. You're about halfway there, well done! |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | julsonl: At least you had the drive, In my case I never knew what I truly wanted until a year ago. I kind of slacked all the way through college, thinking I was just going to be another cog in the wheel when I graduate. I felt that I wasted too much time.That said. I agree with having focus. Narrow down your area of fo... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | mechanical_fish: I see that people have already told you that it's fine, you're 18, everybody is a dabbler at 18, and those who aren't will have a midlife crisis where they wake up one day and wish they were you.This is all true, as far as it goes, but I needn't say it again. Let's try some coaching instead. Vince Lomb... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | coliveira: It looks like you're good at finding the wrong side of everything you do. Just look at the bright side. You did a lot of impressive things. Nobody is successful in more than a small percent of what they do.Moreover, in every success there is always some way to find flaws (it was too easy, nobody cares, I did... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | hooande: I think you're doing great. A lot of people on this thread say you should spend more time being social. There's nothing wrong with that, but if I had it to do over again I would do it your way.Yeah I had some good times as a kid. But now as I'm approaching 30 I don't really care about good times. I just want t... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | conquest: I sometimes feel the way you do. I started a local ratings company and then google and yahoo ratings took off. Interestingly enough it never really caught on and yelp perhaps has done a much better job. I've tried babysitting coops, and several other ideas all which failed. However the more I read, the mor... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | zaidf: I was almost in the same situation my freshman year around ~2006. I even wrote to pg(before knowing much about YC) on how he focuses and completes things. I was surprised when he responded.My context was startups. I kept building sites which I was promptly shutting down after launch because no one used it--and m... |
ASK HN: I'm lost -- need direction | symptic: I think you could benefit greatly from Gary Vaynerchuk's ideas in this keynote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4&feature=playe...The general overview of what he says: it's never too late, you don't have to jump neck deep into it at first (i.e.: quit a job and take funding), you need more passion than... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | brown9-2: Keep going. Don't give up and don't beat up yourself.You're trying and that's what really counts - most people have ideas and then never try to execute on them. It sounds like you are executing on a whole lot of things, which is really great.Also I don't get this thing about "my school has never produced any ... |
How to deal with a niche idea, that can be part of an existing service? | raquo: Get to know the companies you are going to compete with and their products. You're interested in their culture and ideology. See how they used to react to new threats, and whether given the scale and scope of their products they would consider you a threat to their business. |
Best Unix Tricks? | sql: Dr zb7 hacker hacked by www.msn.com |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | code_devil: When I read this it immediately reminded me of King Bruce and the spider story. I googled and found the link http://www.longlongtimeago.com/llta_history_bruce.htmlI see all these setbacks of yours as stepping stones to success, plus you are only 18. In other words you are learning thing's earlier. Keep tryi... |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | saurabh: Potentials |
What are your failures? | jacquesm: My personal biggest failure is not doing the wrong thing or doing it wrong, but simply getting the timing wrong.That seems to be the story of my life so far. |
What are your failures? | davidw: I should have pushed Apache Rivet more back when Tcl was still a reasonably popular language. |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | manico: This unfortunately describes me too much. Any ideas on overcoming it (please don't say "just do it")? |
What are your failures? | alexk: Here is mine:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=737192 |
What are your failures? | plinkplonk: Spending a decade in enterprise software. |
What are your failures? | jlees: This is one of the things I did years ago that, with hindsight, could have been so much more.I started up a website on the urging of some people from one of my Usenet hangouts nearly 10 years ago. It was specifically about demystifying university entrance interviews (and exams where applicable) at Oxbridge, some... |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | jlees: The road to hell is paved with good intentions? |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | kyro: 'Me' |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | brazzy: People who should get into research rather than development. |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | xy: Academics? |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | pavlov: Fisheye visionaries. Their angle of view is so wide that they get motion sickness from the slightest movement. Thus they'll rather remain stationary for as long as possible. |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | lucifer: slahacker. |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | briguy: Atychiphobia |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | shorbaji: nontrepeneurs? |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | diiq: Planning fanatics: planatics.As for overcoming the syndrome, try taking a workshop in improv comedy; most cities have a troupe that offers community courses now and again. By placing yourself in situations where you cannot help but work faster than your conscious mind can plan, you might break the cycle of prepar... |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | spokey: Dilettante? But that's not quite the sense you're going for.Evidently there's a neologism "professional student" that's quite close to what you're looking for: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/professional+student |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | mechanical_fish: This activity you describe -- which I know a whole lot about -- does not really deserve the bad reputation that it has in American culture, let alone the terrible reputation that it has on a website full of entrepreneurs. ;)I believe it was J. Michael Straczynski -- author of, among other things, a pre... |
What are your failures? | maxklein: In 1999, I bought 10 domains of several large companies and trademarks, who at the time did not have any non .com domains. Think something like toyota.co.uk, but different country.I sat on them for 2 years, then let them expire. Right now they are all owned by the rightful companies, but I don't know how that... |
What are your failures? | JimmyL: In (what should have been) my second-last semester of school I had a very solid job lined up for post-graduation. Then I D'ed a course by 3 points on a 150-point exam, which meant I had to tack an extra year on to my schooling, and lost the job. What really kills me is that there was an assignment I didn't hand... |
What are your failures? | WesleyJohnson: My main failure(s) have always been, and continue to be, not sticking with ANY idea long enough to see it through. What I consider good ideas (for myself) are few and far between, so when I have one I tend to over analyze it to the point that I add so much to the idea that it becomes too much to take on ... |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | larrykubin: - all talk- wantrepreneur |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | joshuarr: Students. |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | lkozma: As an interesting counter-point, here's Tesla's opinion on Edison:" His method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be covered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, at first, I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculatio... |
What are your failures? | kirubakaran: Something to read in the general context of failures: 'Technology and Courage' [pdf] http://research.sun.com/techrep/Perspectives/smli_ps-1.pdf |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | zacharyvoase: Perpetual students? |
ASK HN: I'm lost -- need direction | kgopal: I don't think it's late to do anything. Richard Bransons mom went around the world and learnt to scuba dive at the age of 85. If she can, then so can you (live your dreams that is).My harder problem is finding out what your direction is. You obviously have a rich experience so far, what is that interests you? A... |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | shalmanese: scholar |
How does Gemcutter support itself? | xgamerx: I believe they are storing the gems on amazon S3 and the costs are quite minimal. Here is the guy who runs gemcutter calculating S3 costs based on metrics for rubyforge: http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/rubygems-developers/2009-Augu... |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | adamcrowe: Particular |
When or if do you think the dollar will collapse? | lucaf: I'm not sure a catastrophic collapse will happen any time soon (unless as a byproduct of some non-financial catastrophic event - e.g. a meteor hitting NYC). Since currency values are only relative to each other, any loss of value of the USD has to be matched by a strengthening of other currencies. The Euro is in... |
What are your failures? | ilyak: My worst professional failure was adding Hibernate to my project at work.
I was charmed by their prospects, everyone reviewing it positively and quality of their docs.It turned out that I've spent more time making Hibernate do whatever I need without failing than doing everyting else. It followed the principle o... |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | sage_joch: I don't have ambitions of starting a business, but I consider it a problem that I don't have any recent side projects either. Just throwaway code (from trying to learn a language), and/or notes (from trying to learn a concept). For me, the main issue has always been the thought that I'm not quite ready; that... |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | clavalle: I know this is for a name but I have a cure:
Have a friend or close colleague that always starts without reading -- an eager beaver. You can piggy back on that person's momentum and they can pick your brain when they inevitably get stuck or do something non-optimally because they simply don't know of a bette... |
What are your failures? | jackchristopher: I sold myself short — I moved to a place I thought was a second rate. And what do you know? It was. Truth is my belief limited me. I was bound to confirm it.I ignored intuition — I should've connected with people. Focus on what I want and doing it instead of learning more. Maybe that's harder for the s... |
Joining a team later as a co-founder | workhorse: My situation was not identical, but similar.If you're not there from the beginning I would not expect an equal split. The longer the startup has been around, the less equity you can expect to get.I like to look on the brightside of things. Being a skeptic can be harmful. If your gut is telling you that somet... |
Joining a team later as a co-founder | tptacek: An even split isn't even expected when you're there at day zero. Everything is a negotiation. |
Joining a team later as a co-founder | jacquesm: Whether or not an even split is still to be expected depends on a few factors, such as how long they're busy, what their outlay was and their compensation to date vs yours.If they've been busy for a while and they've passed through one or more cusps would mean that your risks are reduced, on the other hand if... |
What are your failures? | stanleydrew: Moving just a little too slowly is my main problem. I tend to think in abstractions and try to implement those rather than implementing a particular solution and then abstracting it. |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | btilly: Are you doing something wrong? Probably you are. But that is to be expected since there are so many ways to mess up. The question is whether you're learning from your mistakes.Personally I would ask why people keep bailing on you. You had 2 professors bail on letting you complete a paper you started on. Yo... |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | yannis: At first I thought you were defining a philosopher when you wrote "but never feel like they know enough to start" then I thought it is just the opposite they alway know enough to start but have a never ending story.I also understood your question to exclude the person who can just afford to study perpetually, ... |
Name for Biological Buildings | yannis: Science Fiction! |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | cjoh: "Baby Boomer" |
What are your failures? | chrischen: I made one of my sites nonprofit. Unfortunately this did two things: gave me less incentive to promote it, and caused problems when it came to creative strategies to market it.EDIT: Also caused problems when it came to sustaining it fiscally. |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | gigl: University Professor |
What are your failures? | Eliezer: Probably not what most people here are looking for, but my epic failures as a rationalist are recorded in this LW sequence: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Yudkowsky%27s_coming_of_age |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | startingup: When I was in college, I wanted it all - wanted to prove theorems, found companies, join politics and so on. As I got older, I realized that just getting deeply focused on one thing gives you all manner of creative opportunities. Pick one area, and get in deeper and deeper - that would be my advice. |
Joining a team later as a co-founder | DaniFong: I don't think an even split is expected (or even suggested -- consider that Sequoia takes around 30% only!), but a good rule of thumb is that, prefunding, someone who joins is a cofounder. It really changes your perspective when you're part of a team with a vision, maybe some duct-tape prototype, and the idea... |
What are your failures? | zackattack: -Sophomore year of college, I took the spring quarter off. What did I do with it? I spent much time and money outsourcing the creation of a social network based on iterative drawing. I was truly the "idea" entrepreneur. It failed, mostly because at the time I had no understanding of the concept of product/m... |
What are your failures? | alexitosrv: My biggest failure:
Overworking myself and avoiding put all my energy and focus in only one thing at once. |
Joining a team later as a co-founder | agotterer: I was in a similar situation. I was "recruited" as a co-founder and CTO about a month after the idea was born and organized, but nothing built. I was given a smaller percent then the other founders, but adequate for what I brought to the table. As another commenter mentioned, an even split doesn't always ha... |
Are you working on a Location based application? | Mankhool: MAPLE is my acronym for Mobile Access to People Living Everywhere. Essentially a web/mobile app that will allow users to connect with each other, anonymously and in real-time to request information (text,photo,video clip,audio clip) based on their global location. |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | sidsavara: I call it metawork. Perhaps "metaworkers" ?http://sidsavara.com/personal-productivity/are-you-really-wo... |
What are your failures? | nostrademons: In decreasing order of painfulness (which is a good proxy for emotional investment):Diffle/GameClay. That one's public; you can read about it on the web.The MUD I started when I was 14. This was the first major programming project I worked on; I taught myself C and C++ and Java and UNIX networking for i... |
Joining a team later as a co-founder | gte910h: Only rake less if you risk has been reducedIf all the have done is pretty std business startup crap a monkey with a phonebook and checkbook could do, that does not really count as risky work |
What are your failures? | lucifer: Figments of my imagination. Every single 'obscure object of affection' that became a thorn in the flesh was something that did not/would not be subjected to 'reality test' early in the game.At this late point in the game my advice to the young ones is "Test the hypothesis early and often". |
What are your failures? | awolf: Over-developing a product that consumers didn't want.I learned it would have been much better to rush out an early prototype than to spend 7 months developing apolished product that no one would use. |
What are your failures? | bayareaguy: Many years ago I had the choice between staying with a successful company I helped start where I had little control over the overall technical direction and joing a very risky venture which gave me enormous freedom including the opportunity to immediately hire several friends from college, all of whom were ... |
Name for people who study without getting around to doing | flybrand: VCsrimshot |
getting content for online jobsearch | byrneseyeview: Like the dating market, there's a chicken-and-egg problem, here. You might start out by aggregating other job boards' information (if you present the same stuff in a more usable format, you'll get traffic). You could offer companies a money-back guarantee for posting jobs -- or just offer to not bill the... |
I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any. | lsc: One big regret I have about some of my early projects was that I did not leave them online. I wrote a book price search engine when I was a few years older than you. it was actually pretty cool, but I folded the company because the competition looked pretty hot at the time.Folding the company (or at least not wo... |
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