3 ms·

Gahd, who reads this and thinks it describes them? Some of PG's essays stress me out just by reading them. They usually involve the d-word (http://www.google.c

Gahd, who reads this and thinks it describes them? Some of PG's essays stress me out just by reading them. They usually involve the d-word (http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apaulgraham.com+determination http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apaulgraham.com+determi...). I did my thing (http://readwarp.com http://readwarp.com) for 8 months. But PG and others told me early on it didn't have commercial possibility. So was it determination or inflexibility that I kept at it? I eventually figured it out for myself, in some approximately systematic way, that it wasn't going anywhere. I've taken a job so I can save enough in a year to last me two years while I take stock. Is that lack of determination or flexibility? Would I be more determined if I was contracting instead? I still work on readwarp in the weekends; I find I can't stop even if I know it's not going anywhere. Is that inflexible? Taking a job has allowed me to change readwarp drastically, make it even more minimalist, something I just couldn't prioritize when it was something 'serious'. I still use it everyday. Am I being inflexible? When the running back retreats is it flexibility or lack of determination? Can you really tell without knowing if he ended up downfield? If you watched me work on any given day you'd think I have no determination or persistence at all. I give up at the first sign of trouble, go off to do something else, one of a dozen projects. But in the large I do seem to get things done. I circle back in a few hours or days on that problem I was stuck on, and I find a way to make progress. Is this flexibility? It seems a dynamic fundamentally at odds with being an entrepreneur. Funny thing is, I think PG works like this. I'm not making excuses, just seeking my blind spot. Somehow the things I'm interested in don't seem to be of more general usefulness. I haven't accomplished anything that would stand out in a YC app. I don't know how to hack any realworld systems, except maybe job interviews and negotiations, but that's probably just another sign I'll give up and go back to a job. So I keep seeking my blind spot. What's missing? What works for others? Why am I on the outside looking in? Perhaps you think I just shouldn't care what he has to say. But shouldn't I keep looking for feedback? Different phrasings suggest different answers.

jayliew 16y ago
Hey Kartik, I remember when I first got to know you before you took that job. Your story reminds me of when Evan Williams (Blogger) was the only person left, and he was just stitching it all by himself, no money, etc. But he had users. I sense your frustration, that you feel like you're spinning your tires - and I've been there. (1) do you have a non-negligible number of users? (have you done qualitative + quantitative research, customer development, etc) (2) do you have a business model hypothesis, that you've sought to validate/invalidate? (3) does getting into YC have to be a pre-requisite for your startup to succeed? (Can you try to succeed without it?) Another quote came to mind as I read your comment; as they say in startup world, there's fine line between a visionary and a lunatic. I genuinely want to believe that you are a visionary. All startup founders want to be visionaries. But we know the dismal rate of startups. We're techies, and we naturally like data. We know that while we founders are emotionally swayed, data is not. What does the data say? Is it looking good? I feel you when you talk about finding your blind spot. Blind spots are by definition, well .. hard to find, which is why it's so frustrating (been there). There's a quote that I can't seem to recall now, but it's something to do with trying too hard. Counterintuitive, I know. But if you've been staring at something for too long, you might be too close to the problem to objectively assess it. I don't have answers to your questions. The way I sometimes deal with ambiguity is to define processes, fail-safe checks, high/low-level watermarks, etc. More structure. If I were you, I would come up with a sign post. How do I know I've gone off the deep end? E.g. wait for someone to tell me, or specify mile-markers, or ..
- akkartik 16y ago
  Thanks Jay. "does getting into YC have to be a pre-requisite for your startup to succeed?" The goal isn't getting into YC. Or even a successful startup. It's finding something I can do that is of use to others. Somebody boiled it down to four words somewhere..
  - jayliew 16y ago
    A long time ago when I met you, you told me you had a few passionate users that used it daily. Does that meet your criteria? May I ask what is it that you are looking for?
    - akkartik 16y ago
      The users left. It's mostly just me and one last reader who checks out a couple of stories everyday. It doesn't engage anyone but me. There's a problem with this whole category of apps. Reading solutions are like content - they're getting commoditized. There's also lots of problems with this app itself. There's no overt personalization. It's good that the UI is simple, but bad that the layout is simplistic. There's none of the richness of a newspaper layout to stimulate the visual cortex. If I could build something that truly engaged a few users I'd be happy for a while. Let's chat more offline if you want.
      - dkersten 16y ago
        I don't know if this is helpful or not, but I had a look at the site and don't really understand what its trying to do. Perhaps you need something to engage new users - to show them what it is and why they want it? I don't know if I like it because, after browsing for a few moments (like every other potential user of anything, I have a very short attention span when checking out random websites without any prior goals), I still don't know what it does.
Revisor 16y ago
Hi, I just checked Readwarp out and have absolutely no clue what it does. If it's some kind of personal, learning newsfeed I'd be definitely interested in it but without a clear proposition I can't be bothered to dive in deeply (you know, register and such). Thought you'd like to know. Good luck.
- akkartik 16y ago
  Yeah I wasn't really trying to get eyes on the site itself at this point. It used to have a landing page and value proposition and the usual stuff (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1306313 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1306313), but lately I've optimized it more for employers and coworkers to see what I built, and for the two of us return users, and for me the sole developer and maintainer. No more metrics, traffic acquisition, funnel analytics. To answer your question: it's a place to come for an infinite stream of stuff to read after you've exhausted your usual haunts and are still bored. When you vote up a story it's more likely to show you stuff from that site. When you vote down it's less likely. Basically a feedreader for people who don't understand feedreaders. There's smarts to show the full text, that works most of the time (try clicking the green arrow at the bottom of some stories). When you get to the bottom of the page it'll autoload more stories. There isn't that much more to see if you register. We repeat users don't like the scrolling so it shows just one story at a time. There's keyboard shortcuts. That's about it. I pruned everything that didn't work. Thanks for checking it out.

jayliew 16y ago

Hey Kartik, I remember when I first got to know you before you took that job. Your story reminds me of when Evan Williams (Blogger) was the only person left, and he was just stitching it all by himself, no money, etc. But he had users. I sense your frustration, that you feel like you're spinning your tires - and I've been there. (1) do you have a non-negligible number of users? (have you done qualitative + quantitative research, customer development, etc) (2) do you have a business model hypothesis, that you've sought to validate/invalidate? (3) does getting into YC have to be a pre-requisite for your startup to succeed? (Can you try to succeed without it?) Another quote came to mind as I read your comment; as they say in startup world, there's fine line between a visionary and a lunatic. I genuinely want to believe that you are a visionary. All startup founders want to be visionaries. But we know the dismal rate of startups. We're techies, and we naturally like data. We know that while we founders are emotionally swayed, data is not. What does the data say? Is it looking good? I feel you when you talk about finding your blind spot. Blind spots are by definition, well .. hard to find, which is why it's so frustrating (been there). There's a quote that I can't seem to recall now, but it's something to do with trying too hard. Counterintuitive, I know. But if you've been staring at something for too long, you might be too close to the problem to objectively assess it. I don't have answers to your questions. The way I sometimes deal with ambiguity is to define processes, fail-safe checks, high/low-level watermarks, etc. More structure. If I were you, I would come up with a sign post. How do I know I've gone off the deep end? E.g. wait for someone to tell me, or specify mile-markers, or ..

akkartik 16y ago
Thanks Jay. "does getting into YC have to be a pre-requisite for your startup to succeed?" The goal isn't getting into YC. Or even a successful startup. It's finding something I can do that is of use to others. Somebody boiled it down to four words somewhere..
- jayliew 16y ago
  A long time ago when I met you, you told me you had a few passionate users that used it daily. Does that meet your criteria? May I ask what is it that you are looking for?
  - akkartik 16y ago
    The users left. It's mostly just me and one last reader who checks out a couple of stories everyday. It doesn't engage anyone but me. There's a problem with this whole category of apps. Reading solutions are like content - they're getting commoditized. There's also lots of problems with this app itself. There's no overt personalization. It's good that the UI is simple, but bad that the layout is simplistic. There's none of the richness of a newspaper layout to stimulate the visual cortex. If I could build something that truly engaged a few users I'd be happy for a while. Let's chat more offline if you want.
    - dkersten 16y ago
      I don't know if this is helpful or not, but I had a look at the site and don't really understand what its trying to do. Perhaps you need something to engage new users - to show them what it is and why they want it? I don't know if I like it because, after browsing for a few moments (like every other potential user of anything, I have a very short attention span when checking out random websites without any prior goals), I still don't know what it does.

Revisor 16y ago

Hi, I just checked Readwarp out and have absolutely no clue what it does. If it's some kind of personal, learning newsfeed I'd be definitely interested in it but without a clear proposition I can't be bothered to dive in deeply (you know, register and such). Thought you'd like to know. Good luck.

akkartik 16y ago
Yeah I wasn't really trying to get eyes on the site itself at this point. It used to have a landing page and value proposition and the usual stuff (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1306313 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1306313), but lately I've optimized it more for employers and coworkers to see what I built, and for the two of us return users, and for me the sole developer and maintainer. No more metrics, traffic acquisition, funnel analytics. To answer your question: it's a place to come for an infinite stream of stuff to read after you've exhausted your usual haunts and are still bored. When you vote up a story it's more likely to show you stuff from that site. When you vote down it's less likely. Basically a feedreader for people who don't understand feedreaders. There's smarts to show the full text, that works most of the time (try clicking the green arrow at the bottom of some stories). When you get to the bottom of the page it'll autoload more stories. There isn't that much more to see if you register. We repeat users don't like the scrolling so it shows just one story at a time. There's keyboard shortcuts. That's about it. I pruned everything that didn't work. Thanks for checking it out.