bsirkia

11 ms·

61.
by bsirkia 13y ago
A more accurate title would be "Studied Humanities, Will Code". I have a liberal arts degree from Middlebury College where I studied Computer Science, so it shouldn't be too surprising that I will code (and do code full-time
62.
The Higgs Boson Re-Explained (Comic)(phdcomics.com)
5 points by bsirkia 13y ago|0 comments
63.
by bsirkia 13y ago
This is an awesome article explaining carsongross's point on survivorship bias: http://youarenotsosmart.com/2013/05/23/survivorship-bias/
64.
by bsirkia 13y ago
I would add they were also a bit lucky (whether with timing or virality or some other factor) at some point in their lifecycle.
65.
by bsirkia 13y ago
Haha ya, I guess that's really on the low end. I was thinking of old people who seem to sleep like 4 hours a night for the last 20 years of their lives. Plus people are generally sleep deprived.
66.
by bsirkia 13y ago
It blows my mind (pun intended?) that we still don't really know why we need sleep, even though we sleep for like 20% of our lives. We know some stuff, like if you don't sleep, bad stuff happens to your body and you don't for
67.
by bsirkia 13y ago
That's amazing. At least intrusive security measures give us great fart videos!
68.
by bsirkia 13y ago
I don't get why pg felt the need to write this post and don't think he should have. The last post clarifying his out of context comments was enough, but continually emphasizing "I am not a sexist" (when the majority of
69.
by bsirkia 13y ago
Rather than smarter, at least better at accurately assessing risk.
70.
by bsirkia 13y ago
In one way, words are hard because it's difficult to communicate all the ways your program is unique just through its two word name. In another way, words are easy because in just a few hundred words, you did exactly that.
71.
by bsirkia 13y ago
Ahh that's interesting. Was the overlay un-dismissible?
72.
by bsirkia 13y ago
So, was the overlay more effective at conversions than no overlay at all? I think this is a great article about how to measure overlay timing effectiveness, but didn't convince me that overlays work at all in general.
73.
by bsirkia 13y ago
Definitely agree, if you're in college and thinking about being an entrepreneur, take some computer science classes. Even if you don't learn web dev specifically, you'll learn the principles and meet some technical people.
74.
by bsirkia 13y ago
I agree that the "Shake Alarm" is the only feature that I think uniquely helps with waking up. Is there any evidence (other than anecdotal) that having a laborious alarm clock actually helps people get up? I feel like making it ha
75.
by bsirkia 13y ago
It cracks me up that the most implausible part of this story is the idea that everyone's privacy would be so well protected.
76.
by bsirkia 13y ago
"I suspect there is only one way to really get trust back. We need to pass strong regulations, embodying norms of good behavior, and appoint bold regulators to enforce them." Isn't this the exact opposite of trust-building be
77.
by bsirkia 13y ago
Definitely, it's not always easy knowing what to search for and it can take awhile to narrow that down.
78.
by bsirkia 13y ago
Definitely a good idea. I'm thinking about writing a post at some point about how valuable outsourcing certain facets of the process can be, provided you have some cash.
79.
by bsirkia 13y ago
That's a fairly bleak view of entrepreneurs simply as "takers" from innovators. Do you not feel they can be the same person?
80.
by bsirkia 13y ago
I still do it, though you might be right that it's deprecated and just doing "rideshare carpool service startup app" would be the exact same. EDIT: Just tried it, and it does return different results. The search modifier OR s
81.
by bsirkia 13y ago
I agree, the amount of time you spend can really vary. If you're going after a space with major incumbents, it should be much longer, because you really need to drill into the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of your competitor
82.
by bsirkia 13y ago
That's a great question. I think the only thing you can do is address who your competition is, even if they're only tangentially related. I usually follow a pattern of "X competitor is doing Y, which helps our target customer
83.
by bsirkia 13y ago
Right, I had a hard time figuring out exactly how long to put there time-wise. I think the amount of time you put in actually looking into what they're doing (figuring out what they're doing well, not well, their traction) can var
84.
by bsirkia 13y ago
"You should know who your competitors are, but focusing on them is a waste of time." I agree. The point of this post is that entrepreneurs very rarely actually know who all their competitors are and this is a way to get a complete
85.
by bsirkia 13y ago
I definitely know what you mean, it can be incredibly discouraging. But, hopefully you can copy what they have done well and improve what they haven't.
86.
by bsirkia 13y ago
That sounds brutal. Do you have anyone that you both trust, like an older advisor, college professor, etc. that could maybe sit down with both of you and mediate?
87.
Why Entrepreneurs Are Bad At Finding Their Competition(berserkia.com)
94 points by bsirkia 13y ago|45 comments
88.
by bsirkia 13y ago
I know that in New England, where I'm from, it's only major state govt subsidies that make home PV economically viable. Even then, it takes 15-20 years to break even.
89.
by bsirkia 13y ago
The top comment from u/theysayso on the same Reddit thread seems to put things in a good perspective: Other posters have already noted that you can still have the solar panels, you're just not going to get paid for net metering. W
90.
by bsirkia 13y ago
That's a great summary.

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