ahoyhere

74 ms·

601.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
Funny, I'm purely self-taught and have worked for little local cos as well as big ones such as Pepsi & Bear Stearns (as a consultant at $hundreds per hour). Never had any problems with the fact that I had zero "official" credentials wha
602.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
I'm tired of the useless back and forth over whether "design is horseshit." That's not only a falsehood, it's a simplistic falsehood. Reducing the work of something as broad and universal as "design" to "laying on the pretty" is definitely
603.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
The role of "designer" is by definition a person who doesn't get their hands dirty. It's one that depends on other people to make things happen. Care to justify that statement with evidence? Or do you think that only back-end code will ma
604.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
If you think that design == appearance, you must not spend time on the internet.
605.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
So. You definitely know the difference between visual design and interaction/workflow design. Why the flamebait?
606.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
Here's the problem with the "plenty of startups are successful with virtually no design at all" argument: It ignores the special nature of the customer. To talk about these successful startups, or design in general, as if there is one true
607.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
Don't do it. Go with contractors. Here's the thing: a contractor is running a business, just like you are. If you don't work with them any more, they are not out of "a job." Their livelihood is no longer your responsibility. You are only re
608.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
In the US at least, and Europe, that is illegal discrimination.
609.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
You're looking at this from the wrong angle. I actually did a lot of work for fairly large ad agencies and I still only knew Chiat Day from your list (I did work for them, never heard of the others). The bottom line is, nobody cares. They c
610.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
The vast majority of people who homeschool bring in less than a typical salary for a good developer. It's not about feasibility for the HN crowd, it's about willingness to prioritize.
611.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
Also in "hard" subjects, it's a matter of interpretation. Such as, real science. Such as interpreting the results of a finding. There are very few things in life where there is a true, platonic right answer and everything else is wrong. "Fo
612.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
Perhaps, but in every sense -- legally, tax-ably, and accounting-ly -- a founder is not an employee.
613.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
Thanks :) Thing is, you're right about attrition except for one thing: Freckle gains customers even when we neglect it entirely, through word of mouth. So it holds pretty steady even with total neglect.
614.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
At its current run rate, 10 years would be $2.5 mil. Except it's growing. I expect it to be earning $500k/yr run rate within 24 mos. And like I said, we could leave it alone and it would still continue to grow. There have been times, while
615.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
It's not Manager Quarterly confirming biases it's real world "coders" who are often completely unqualified as well as the many businesses out ther who encourage this because they can't seem to understand what the role is or what would quali
616.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
I don't think it's a sense of entitlement in this case. Why shouldn't people be upset when they would gladly pay to keep a service alive, but the silly creators decided not to let their customers pay out of some misguided hope for megar
617.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
It was clearly a joke. Laugh a little. :)
618.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
Flickr, YouTube, FeedBurner, etc. were obviously not charging enough money to sustain themselves. $25 a year vs free doesn't make that big a difference when costs are $100+/year per user. I pulled the $100+/year cost per user figure out of
619.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
phillmv, our company is a 2-man operation (me + my husband, no less) plus freelancers. We run 2 SaaS products: http://letsfreckle.com http://charmhq.com Recently we fielded an acquisition offer for Freckle. Just the app - no strings, no
620.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
Is Backblaze profitable? A lot of services which charge money still don't charge enough to be self-sustaining. A self-sustaining product may still be sold. But if a product CAN'T sustain itself, it MUST either be sold, or shut down, eventua
621.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
This is a really great way to divide up the ecosystem. And you're right, it's mostly eyeballs or teams for sale in "traditional" startups (if you can say there is such a thing). So few people in the startup ecosystem sit down and think hard
622.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
Saying "I changed and grew" is not the same as the narrator changing and growing. You just agreed with everything I said: "he just says what he has to say." That is engaging and persuasive for almost no one. Moreover, him saying "I changed"
623.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
Being the "product guy" is a shitload of work. I know, that's the role I serve in the company that I founded. Customer interaction, roadmaps, design, prioritization of features, plans for growth -- it's hard and it's a lot of work. It's
624.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
Here's a little literary criticism of pg's writing that I left as a comment on that blog post. Still awaiting moderation so I thought I'd share: Anyway, you’ve probably noticed with close reading that Graham’s essays are almost entirely dec
625.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
The comparison doesn't matter. The fact remains: if men do what "society" has "conditioned" them to do, we hold them personally responsible. If women do, we rush to take care of them and save them from themselves. The moral of the story: wo
626.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
Oh, because men hitting their wives don't also hurt themselves? Please. The toll of committing violence is high. "Poor women, we can't let them do what society tells them to do!"
627.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
I'm so tired of the double standard. If men are raised and "socialized" that they are the rightful leader of the family, and it's not only okay but right to hit their wives, we hold them personally responsible for their actions. If women ar
628.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
You're welcome. FYI: My name is Amy. I may be a badass with balls of steel, but I'm not a man.
629.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
You're half right: "There is always, repeat always who is going to do more work than you." This is true. The trick is to be smarter than them -- do more of the right things, do the right things more right, and make wise choices to create le
630.
by ahoyhere 15y ago
You might find my blog interesting: http://unicornfree.com - I just ran a series on pricing, and will be doing other practical nuts & bolts things soon. (Mixed with, I admit, no small amount of philosophy.)

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