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1. Be a company whose mission is to "Create, share & reward paid coding tasks". 2. Make an article with a self-serving title encouring paid coding tasks. 3. P

by jstx1 5y ago

1. Be a company whose mission is to "Create, share & reward paid coding tasks". 2. Make an article with a self-serving title encouring paid coding tasks. 3. Provide no justification. 4. Cover up the lack of justification with a graph of a normal distribution. Mention standard deviations for additional perception of credibility. 5. Share this with people who would like to be paid for things they would do anyway. (The CEO of the company posted this on HN) 6. Profit?

ctvo 5y ago
It really is the definition of clickbait. The article is so low quality I have a negative view of the co now.
- dudul 5y ago
  When I reached the end of the "article" I thought that my browser had failed to load 2/3 of the page. The part where they would explain how they then started using this for professionals as opposed to interns, where they measured how it improved the quality of their hiring, where they would explain if there is any screening before getting people into the "paid for" program.
mylons 5y ago
coincidentally I just finished https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponsored_Content_(South_Park) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponsored_Content_(South_Park) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_Advertising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_Advertising is playing. This is just an advertisement, unpaid. I had no idea who the company was until reading this, and also thought it was an incredibly thin post lacking any real justification for what it’s trying to do. It also has a clickbaity headline for the general consumer of HN. The Ads just keep evolving.
camgunz 5y ago
I appreciate the DD you did and admit to feeling a little hoodwinked, but in fairness the CEO did do a Show HN [1] a couple days ago. I can imagine bootstrapping a startup, not getting any interest on a Show HN, and doing some blog posts to continue marketing. I think really the only thing off here is the lack of a kind of "Try Algora! We automate paid SWE interviews" section somewhere. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28236640 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28236640
- geofft 5y ago
  Not every startup idea needs to exist, and the world doesn't owe anyone attention to their startup. I can also imagine bootstrapping a startup that squeezes juice out of a bag using powerful motors and running into widespread skepticism, because someone did it. The answer there isn't to write "Hand-squeezed juice from actual fruits is bad" articles, the answer is to find a better startup idea.
  - camgunz 5y ago
    (hey love your thinkpad posts btw <3) Yeah I mean, I'm bearish on their idea too; but I'd expect there to be some discussion of it vs. what's in this thread, which is mostly like "this post is thin, feels like just a tricky ad". Or, idk, I'm open to the "huh, I suppose we now find ourselves on the slippery slope of 'everything is paid/advertiser content', FML" discussion too, which is happening. I guess I just thought there was a world where this company forgot the "by the way our company automates this" on the post, and we didn't need to jump to conclusions or w/e. But, maybe we do?
    - geofft 5y ago
      Hm, I haven't used a ThinkPad in half a decade so I think you're thinking of someone else. :) 'ggreer perhaps?
      - camgunz 5y ago
        Eek yeah you're right sorry. Though I have read "signalfd is useless" and found it super informative. Lot of cobwebs up in the old attic apparently haha.
zcesur 5y ago
Hey, Zaf from Algora here. I'm sorry that you (and some other people in this thread) felt this way, but I totally get where you're coming from. I wish we had more expertise and time on our hands to publish more thorough posts, but the truth is that we're just two young guys who are hacking up stuff in their home office, scrambling to get feedback on what we've been working on during the dwindling window of opportunity of the YC Build Sprint. The "article" had no purpose other than to share our story, provide a food for thought and most importantly to learn from the community if what we're doing makes sense and if so how we can improve it.
- moondev 5y ago
  > From our experience, hiring by building product predicts on-the-job performance really well. > the truth is that we're just two young guys who are hacking up stuff in their home office This context really changes the blog post
Tade0 5y ago
> 3. Provide no justification. > 6. Profit? I'm not up to date with youth culture, but I think these were replaced with "refuse to elaborate further" and "leave" respectively.
- rockbruno 5y ago
  "Profit?" is a South Park reference that became a meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/profit https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/profit
  - Tade0 5y ago
    I'm pointing out that it fell into disuse in favour of what I mentioned. Which is not surprising given that the episode was aired twenty and the meme emerged over fifteen years ago.
ldjkfkdsjnv 5y ago
Thanks for explicitly calling this out.

by jstx1 5y ago

ctvo 5y ago

It really is the definition of clickbait. The article is so low quality I have a negative view of the co now.

dudul 5y ago
When I reached the end of the "article" I thought that my browser had failed to load 2/3 of the page. The part where they would explain how they then started using this for professionals as opposed to interns, where they measured how it improved the quality of their hiring, where they would explain if there is any screening before getting people into the "paid for" program.

mylons 5y ago

coincidentally I just finished https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponsored_Content_(South_Park) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponsored_Content_(South_Park) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_Advertising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_Advertising is playing. This is just an advertisement, unpaid. I had no idea who the company was until reading this, and also thought it was an incredibly thin post lacking any real justification for what it’s trying to do. It also has a clickbaity headline for the general consumer of HN. The Ads just keep evolving.

camgunz 5y ago

I appreciate the DD you did and admit to feeling a little hoodwinked, but in fairness the CEO did do a Show HN [1] a couple days ago. I can imagine bootstrapping a startup, not getting any interest on a Show HN, and doing some blog posts to continue marketing. I think really the only thing off here is the lack of a kind of "Try Algora! We automate paid SWE interviews" section somewhere. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28236640 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28236640

geofft 5y ago
Not every startup idea needs to exist, and the world doesn't owe anyone attention to their startup. I can also imagine bootstrapping a startup that squeezes juice out of a bag using powerful motors and running into widespread skepticism, because someone did it. The answer there isn't to write "Hand-squeezed juice from actual fruits is bad" articles, the answer is to find a better startup idea.
- camgunz 5y ago
  (hey love your thinkpad posts btw <3) Yeah I mean, I'm bearish on their idea too; but I'd expect there to be some discussion of it vs. what's in this thread, which is mostly like "this post is thin, feels like just a tricky ad". Or, idk, I'm open to the "huh, I suppose we now find ourselves on the slippery slope of 'everything is paid/advertiser content', FML" discussion too, which is happening. I guess I just thought there was a world where this company forgot the "by the way our company automates this" on the post, and we didn't need to jump to conclusions or w/e. But, maybe we do?
  - geofft 5y ago
    Hm, I haven't used a ThinkPad in half a decade so I think you're thinking of someone else. :) 'ggreer perhaps?
    - camgunz 5y ago
      Eek yeah you're right sorry. Though I have read "signalfd is useless" and found it super informative. Lot of cobwebs up in the old attic apparently haha.

zcesur 5y ago

Hey, Zaf from Algora here. I'm sorry that you (and some other people in this thread) felt this way, but I totally get where you're coming from. I wish we had more expertise and time on our hands to publish more thorough posts, but the truth is that we're just two young guys who are hacking up stuff in their home office, scrambling to get feedback on what we've been working on during the dwindling window of opportunity of the YC Build Sprint. The "article" had no purpose other than to share our story, provide a food for thought and most importantly to learn from the community if what we're doing makes sense and if so how we can improve it.

moondev 5y ago
> From our experience, hiring by building product predicts on-the-job performance really well. > the truth is that we're just two young guys who are hacking up stuff in their home office This context really changes the blog post

Tade0 5y ago

> 3. Provide no justification. > 6. Profit? I'm not up to date with youth culture, but I think these were replaced with "refuse to elaborate further" and "leave" respectively.

rockbruno 5y ago
"Profit?" is a South Park reference that became a meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/profit https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/profit
- Tade0 5y ago
  I'm pointing out that it fell into disuse in favour of what I mentioned. Which is not surprising given that the episode was aired twenty and the meme emerged over fifteen years ago.

ldjkfkdsjnv 5y ago

Thanks for explicitly calling this out.