5 ms·

> sanj on July 18, 2007 [flagged] [-] > Did you win the Putnam? > If not, please don't be "bolder" than this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi_Vakil http

> sanj on July 18, 2007 [flagged] [-] > Did you win the Putnam? > If not, please don't be "bolder" than this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi_Vakil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi_Vakil > cperciva on July 18, 2007 [-] > "Did you win the Putnam?" > Yes, I did. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35083

lysium 8y ago
What a great rabbit hole down which you sent me! Thanks!
- nanokilo 8y ago
  Drew Houston even replied to one of his comments in that thread suggesting possible collaboration, and this was while Dropbox was going through the Summer '07 YC program, before they had even launched. Crazy to look back and see how things panned out for these two random internet commenters.
cperciva 8y ago
How did I guess this was going to show up...
s3graham 8y ago
That's the first one I thought of too. :) (Oh my, I recall reading that roughly in real time when Colin wrote it, can't believe that was 2007 already!)
bhl 8y ago
Reading those comments make me wish that I had known about this site back in 2007, back when graham responded to comments about his essays or when now-famous founders browsed as well [1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35095 (Same thread btw.)
- nanokilo 8y ago
  Crazy to look back at that exchange between him and Drew Houston knowing what we know today about the success of Dropbox (which hadn't even launched at the time of that comment!). It's easy to look back at the "good old days" with the benefit of hindsight, but I'm sure that even today many of the famous founders of tomorrow can be found commenting here on HN. We just don't know who they are yet.
  - pvaldes 8y ago
    There are a lot of redundancy in themes, but I didn't notice a decreasing in quality of the discussion. The good now days are perfect to me.
    - paulgb 8y ago
      It really is amazing, I've been here nearly 12 years now and the quality of discussion hasn't devolved. If anything, it was a bit more cynical/negative ten years ago than it is now.
      - code_duck 8y ago
        I feel like there are more brief and superfluous comments than there are used to be, but just as many or more lengthy and substantial comments.
        penagwin 8y ago
        Your comment gave me an interesting idea. What would happen if we imposed a minimum char-limit for say, hacker news comments? On one hand I'd expect more descriptive responses, fewer comments that are a short "Your wrong but I won't tell you why", etc. Comments just spamming letters would be fairly easy to detect. On the other hand what would this minimum char/word length be? Even your comment is fairly short, but it's descriptive and fully communicates your point...
        8y ago

lysium 8y ago

What a great rabbit hole down which you sent me! Thanks!

nanokilo 8y ago
Drew Houston even replied to one of his comments in that thread suggesting possible collaboration, and this was while Dropbox was going through the Summer '07 YC program, before they had even launched. Crazy to look back and see how things panned out for these two random internet commenters.

cperciva 8y ago

How did I guess this was going to show up...

s3graham 8y ago

That's the first one I thought of too. :) (Oh my, I recall reading that roughly in real time when Colin wrote it, can't believe that was 2007 already!)

bhl 8y ago

Reading those comments make me wish that I had known about this site back in 2007, back when graham responded to comments about his essays or when now-famous founders browsed as well [1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35095 (Same thread btw.)

nanokilo 8y ago
Crazy to look back at that exchange between him and Drew Houston knowing what we know today about the success of Dropbox (which hadn't even launched at the time of that comment!). It's easy to look back at the "good old days" with the benefit of hindsight, but I'm sure that even today many of the famous founders of tomorrow can be found commenting here on HN. We just don't know who they are yet.
- pvaldes 8y ago
  There are a lot of redundancy in themes, but I didn't notice a decreasing in quality of the discussion. The good now days are perfect to me.
  - paulgb 8y ago
    It really is amazing, I've been here nearly 12 years now and the quality of discussion hasn't devolved. If anything, it was a bit more cynical/negative ten years ago than it is now.
    - code_duck 8y ago
      I feel like there are more brief and superfluous comments than there are used to be, but just as many or more lengthy and substantial comments.
      - penagwin 8y ago
        Your comment gave me an interesting idea. What would happen if we imposed a minimum char-limit for say, hacker news comments? On one hand I'd expect more descriptive responses, fewer comments that are a short "Your wrong but I won't tell you why", etc. Comments just spamming letters would be fairly easy to detect. On the other hand what would this minimum char/word length be? Even your comment is fairly short, but it's descriptive and fully communicates your point...
        8y ago