Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings. Inquire within.)

Hi there, here's some unsolicited advice from someone who's not much unlike you -- I quit employment about a year and a half ago when I had a fair chunk of cash, and now I'm launching startups for myself.

I've built about 5 projects to "almost completed" status in the last year. And each project has been "re-built" at least twice. It sounds like I'm in a very sad state, no better off than you, but my friend, I have fantastic news! I'm running out of money! There's tons of pressure now! And because of the accumulated pressure I've been feeling in the last 2-3 months, I finally put up one of the projects I'm working on, and after a stint of work today, it should be ready to accept paying customers (even if it's not fully glossy and conversion-tuned yet).

My advice to you? Find ways to put yourself under pressure. If it's not financial strain (like I have no choice in), then make it peer pressure and social pressure; Put up a website for what you're working on, and start talking about it. Post it on your Facebook, to HN, and anywhere else you feel like talking about it. Pray to a god-you-may-not-believe-in that people give you negative feedback, because that's the best motivator. "You can't do it, you're gonna go broke, you're doomed to fail!" is what the little man in my mental coal-room is shouting as he whips the hamster that powers my typing fingers.

+1 - I could use some advice in this area too ...

(Not Mike, but I can relate) - I suffered from a similar problem some time ago, that I have since overcome. I'm not sure if I can offer any words of advice, but I can give you a recount of my experience that helped me overcome it. Like you, I would often start projects, leaving them unfinished after the interesting part. After noticing this trend, I stopped and did a little introspection. I thought long and hard about what I want to do in an ideal world. Do I want to be a corporate citizen my entire life (no harm in that) or do I want to do my own thing? I determined that I eventually want to be my own boss and try to build things that people (and I) care about. Although apparent, I had to realize and implant in my head that nobody was going to do anything for me. If I want to be successful, I'm going to have to bust my ass and do it on my own. I was going to have to make sacrifices and modify my behavior. I had to exercise self-control and only focus on one project at a time (I would tend to bounce back and forth between ideas). I had to treat it like a job and set up expectations and deadlines. I had to set up tasks and goals and deadlines, because flying by the seat of my pants hadn't gotten me very far, and sure as hell hadn't allowed me to finish any projects. So, I guess, what it boils down to, is that I had to make a behavior modification and realize that I have to do it on my own, and that I can gripe and groan and read about other's success on Hacker News all I wanted, but if I wanted to be successful, it was all up to me.

You're not finishing projects because your projects are too big. Choose smaller projects.

It's a lot faster to plan than it is to code. Before you start coding, plan. Try to figure out the Minimum Viable Product.

If you want your project to get used by others, try to verify that people actually need your project before coding.

You can plan and verify need much faster than you can code. After planning and verifying several projects, pick one that is very simple and do it. If you are unable to complete it in time, you messed up your planning.

I thought this was a REALLY great question. While I think all of the advice already given is important to consider, I have a slightly different perspective: http://nobulb.com/2011/08/just-do-it-and-actually-finish/

That's awesome to hear. Thanks for mentioning your progress! Most importantly, I'm happy to know you're collecting metrics that affirm for you that your changes are getting a positive outcome. (Better than intuition any day!)

What a great idea. Something like Hacker News, without "How is this Hacker News?" posts. :)

http://hubski.com/about

I'd recommend that you don't rely on only color for the post and following telltales. Use color plus something else.

    u->oscar
    oscar->u
    u->oscar->u

For the not shared, shared, and yours icons, in addition to color you could:

    Not shared: only the center circle, no surrounding dots.
    Shared: center circle plus surrounding dots.
    Yours: center circle, surrounding dots and a line circle around that.

Extra fancy if Yours icons only get dots (inside the line circle) if they're shared posts.

EDIT: Formatting.

First, I wish you the best of luck on your success. But, quite honestly, I loathe these popularity contests. These contests are thinly-veiled attempts at free marketing which are easy to game and indicate no real social proof for those who won. I feel badly for individuals who get caught up in these multi-round competitions because a lot of energy typically gets spent on spreading the word for this contest instead of spreading the word about their product's value.

Unfortunately, I'm not interested in doing promotions for Salesforce so I won't be sharing or subjecting my friends to the contest. Don't take it personally, please. But I'll at least throw my own vote in the pile for you. :)

This probably isn't the opinion that you're looking for, but I like the look of it. Make the space between posts larger. Your CamelCase clashes with the 90's vibe. A well placed tacky gif wouldn't hurt.

I like photoblogs in general... I also like to see photos in portrait orientation all at once instead of having to scroll to see it all. Consider limiting the height of photos to your target resolution. (Or use javascript to dynamically resize them to the current window height.)

I'm not a big fan of the blue color for links. But personal preferences aside, this is more than sufficient. With photoblogs, I prefer as little distraction as possible from the subject. So your minimalistic approach is wise.

I'll see if I can find some good resources for themes/templates.

I think what you have here is a good idea. Clearly the PaaS and IaaS markets as heating up and it would nice to have a one-stop-shop to spin up the servers you need. However, I don't know that your prices are framed properly. Your marketplace makes it seem as though I'm paying $12/mo for running MySQL (which is free to use is most circumstances). This might come across wrong. Instead, consider developing a "configuration" panel for the type of server the person wants and point them to a provider who can supply it. Then allow them to add "free" packages to those instances. In other words, make it clear that they are paying for server time, not for the packages you're deploying.

State clearly the problem that you are solving. As it is, you're assuming I already know.

Email en route. :)

PS: And congrats on the recent DDG integration!!

5-10 years is a long ways to be projecting, especially online. I don't think I could even go 2-3 years out the way things are currently going. But I'll give it a go.

Within 5 years:

- Infrastructure will improve significantly. If the economy doesn't tank so badly, we will see rapid expansion of bandwidth "to the curb". We're already seeing the beginning of this in unlicensed spectrum being leveraged to provide rural "high speed" wireless. And Google is lighting up dead-fiber like it's money is burning a hole in it's pocket.

- The cloud will be more federated. Instead of having two or three main incumbents in the IaaS arena, tools will gradually be released to allow individuals more authority to maintain their own part of the Internet.

- Data will be personal again. Projects like diaspora, The Locker Project, and others will force the API paradigm to shift toward individual users. Instead of a centralized API, a P2P network of individually managed APIs will allow web apps to get data where it (authoritatively) lives without users worrying about 3rd parties doing the right thing with their data.

Within 10 years:

- Traditional government will fragment. The existing government as we know it will change rapidly. Today's government paradigms worked for getting things done for the last century. I think it's clear that there are more efficient ways of how government could work given today's technology. I think many people will try to bring their own ideas of government forward. This will happen in a way that allows people to subscribe to the parts of government ideology that they agree with and opt-out of the parts that don't benefit them. Fragmented governments will not exist in the real world, but will be logical groups of people who self-organize online with the objective of specific benefits for their group. Traditional government will be forced to accept these "2.0" governments or will be shuttled gradually into obscurity.

- The singularity will be a lot more real and a LOT more pervasive than ever. While it will likely not happen in the next decade, we will start seeing nano-tech that we will use to improve parts of our biology. Within 20 years, bio-tech will be in the up-swing of a huge market growth that will easily be in the multi-billions. Mobile will no longer mean "cell phones", Mobile will mean "you".

- Pharma as we know it will die. (This is my own personal wish and completely unrelated to Internet/Mobile.)

Thoughts?

I used your app to type this:

While i think the idea of free writing has it's merits, i'm unconvinced that the information should immediately published to the internet. Braindumping has a very private and personal process to it and to expose it without any sort of recourse will probably prevent new users from trying it out. There might be a place for something like this as a Wordpress plugin or similar. A tool that users could rely upon to quickly generate ideas for themselves in the comfort of their own blog and not have to worry about the impending reprocussions of not typing for a few seconds.

Overall, I think the idea is neat. Some questions come to mind. How will you make money? How will people find out about this? This is about all I can think of off the top of my head.

The look is great! I like the simple design which keep distractions away from the typing. You should checkout the recent version of Wordpress. Their "full screen" mode is actually a good example to follow here. Completely blocks EVERYTHING.

Great work, over all! :)

--- publish

Fantastic. So it IS private. It doesn't look like there's any way to view it when you're not logged in. Unsure if other users could see it, however. Either way, Great work!

---- publish

We're developing on Gumstix (an Openembedded platform). The platform compiles everything for us into the native ARM architecture. I'm building it using lighttpd, sqlite, and PHP. I've built my own lightweight template/framework based on the work started at (www.sitepoint.com/beyond-template-engine/). It needs to handle pretty much everything your typical wifi AP control panel would normally handle. :)

Thanks so much for helping. Unfortunately, I'm still a little meager on the media end of the network. I know some local technology writers, but I don't know if there's an angle there for them with what you're doing. From the looks of it, you've got some decent content to get running with.

Fortunately, your site is ripe for catching the coattails of big news stories. If your satire is edgy enough while not crossing the line, you might bring to light some interesting points of view (through the absurdity of the story). Sometimes this could get you mentioned in editorials, or other writers who are covering an incident/event from all sides. (And probably a lot of SEM traffic, as well.)

Another suggestion is to write specific pieces in direct response to easily criticized pieces on other beats. Audiences love counter-point (especially when the topic is juicy at the time) and will flock to your content more easily.

My unsolicited 5 cents:

In order to become a founder on a startup it would help if you had confidence in your skill set, and it sounds like you're not at that point yet.

I would get an office job and continue to develop my skill set with self study- It's helpful to know what it's like working at a real office, so why not try it for a year or two?

If, within the next one or two years, you can avoid acquiring a mortgage/wife/child, AND can improve your skill set, you might be able to afford the risk that a startup entails.

I've known plenty of programmers at small and startup companies who were EE grads. I don't think you're at any significant disadvantage versus a recent CS grad.

First, stop second guessing yourself. (You did it at least three times in your question.) Second, CARPE DIEM! (Seize the day.) You will NEVER have the same freedom tomorrow that you have today. (Figuratively speaking.) Time and responsibilities have a way of accumulating over time and now, when your time is your own and the world is at your feet, is when you should be experiencing life even if you're not certain of your direction.

It's said that "time is wasted on the young and wisdom is wasted on the old". I realize it's hard to know what the right direction is and making the right choices ultimately means a "leg-up" against the competition. But honestly, the competitive spectrum is WIDE and there's plenty of room for someone to rise to the top no matter how late in the game they make it. So don't worry to much about this.

As far as your personal situation, i almost did the Air Force thing and I've gone through their OTS summer programs. I'd argue that their office jobs are NOTHING like the private sector. If you're eager to try out the startup game, there are people hiring like crazy right now and I'm positive you could land any of them (even as an intern). Express your desire. Drop the uncertainty act. Try it out and see.

Here's an intern gig in NY that I HIGHLY recommend: http://www.skillshare.com/careers/jobs

Here's a great intern site for a bunch of startups all over the country (still young and might not have stuff in your immediate area): http://www.internmatch.com/

And in the way of getting that first job, here's a post I wrote for someone who was in a slightly similar situation: http://nobulb.com/2011/05/wanted-an-entry-level-job-that-doe...

Search through auction houses, antique shops and old warehouse for unique looking bottles. Make sure your paints are high quality and won't scrape off when putting flowers or other things inside. Sell them for $15-20 depending on their uniqueness.

If you found a nice bottle for holding flowers, I'd totally buy one for Mother's Day or an anniversary. This is a great niche to be selling to and you could probably come up with some other interesting things to add that would "add value" to your knick-knacks. :D

(I personally like blues, greens, purples (cool colors) and really go for bottle designs that are more striking than utilitarian.)

Seems like you have duplicated some functionality of Google Keyword Tool.

I think the value that you're bringing to the table is being eclipsed by other major players (most notably, Google). If you want to continue this project, you need to really differentiate yourself in a clear and specific way that would give your potential users a reason to buy in.

When I look at your homepage, I see you selling me features of your product. I'm not interested in what your product does. I'm interested in what it does for me. Read this post from Dave McClure: http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2009/08/your-solution-is...

Your headline "What are people typing?" is probably not the question they are asking themselves. I'd suspect it's more along the lines of "Are visitors mistyping my URL?" It's a subtle difference, but you're facing the user with the question and making it relevant to them. Your headline is very unspecific and ambiguous.

Your demo let's me compare specific popular domain names, but I'm not sure what I'm suppose to be learning from this demonstration. Your value proposition gets lost and I don't know how this demo provides useful information to me.

I hope my feedback was constructive.

You say 'discover what mistakes [users] are making' but explaining why would be really helpful. Perhaps to allow me to identify typo-domain names that I should consider purchasing. Or maybe I could use your product to research ad keywords to purchase.

It looks like you have a really polished product, but I'm not entirely sure on how and why I should use it. I'd expect that information to be the most prominent thing.

I think this is going to be a steep uphill battle, but if you're willing to band your head against a wall a few times then definitely go for it. I just personally think that publishers are going to be very hesitant unless you come to them with a VERY compelling product (which I have no idea what that would have to be).