skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Nontechnical 17 year old startup founder with chutzpah is asking for advice
Thanks in advance for any advice you give.

I don't know how to program but I love startups and am dedicated to becoming an entrepreneur.

I have read all of PGs essays (some many times) and "Founders at Work". I came to realize that the hackers are the core of any good startup team. Thus, I want to learn. I have tried and am making progress but it has been a slow and hard process. I am not to the point where I can actually make stuff yet.

But, I have an idea that I really like. I feel like Sabeer Bhatia of Hotmail (excepts I can't program). I have my best friend signed on and he is so behind the idea (and not into high school) that he is willing to drop out to pursue this idea full time. He is ahead of me on the hacking learning curve but is still in the process of learning.

I don't know if we are the rock star founding team that PG talks about but we have heart, are incredibly optimistic and want to work like hell to make it happen. I don't want to wait until finishing college. I don't even want to wait until finishing high school.

I have always been somewhat interested in startups but my interest has grown this summer. I now know entrepreneurship is my calling. I am doing a 3 week internship and am meeting really cool people and doing research. It has probably been the best 3 weeks of my life.

So my tentative plan is to apply to Y-combinator and similar programs for next summer's session after spending a year trying to get as far as possible in the development of the project.

My co-founder and I will split the coding (he will probably do more) and he will do the design interface and I will do the market research and corporate stuff. We have a lot of focus on product vision (even though we are yet to have a product).

So does our plan make sense? Any advice.
Judge: Copying a game to RAM violates copyright
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Homeowners with a traditional 30-year mortgage were on track to become mortgage free after only 8 to 11 years.
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Also see this comment which is the most interesting anonymous comment on Slashdot in a long time.

http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=613143&cid=2...
Being the Boss - an incomplete opinion on managing teams from the intern in the group
Real-Time Shared Editing - Google Tech Talk
Three weeks ago I gave a talk at Google on my real-time shared editing project, which in its first incarnation materializes as a set of eclipse plug-ins.

A couple of posts on Google's Open Source blog and my blog respectively provide a little more insight concerning the event at which I presented the algorithmic details for the first time.
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/06/eclipseday-at-googleplex.html
http://codesurgeonblog.com/2008/05/eclipseday-hosted-by-google-attendee.html

If you don't care too much for the inner workings but would rather like to see the shared editing in action, I have put together a screencast, available via http://www.vimeo.com/1195398
Three weeks ago I gave a talk at Google on my real-time shared editing project, which in its first incarnation materializes as a set of eclipse plug-ins.

A couple of posts on Google's Open Source blog and my blog respectively provide a little more insight concerning the event at which I presented the algorithmic details for the first time.
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/06/eclipseday-at-...
http://codesurgeonblog.com/2008/05/eclipseday-hosted-by-goog...

If you don't care too much for the inner workings but would rather like to see the shared editing in action, I have put together a screencast, available via http://www.vimeo.com/1195398
Dude, you are only 17 so go for it. I would NOT drop out of school yet. You're doing the rightthing, apply for programs for next summer, but I would add one task between now and next year. Learn how to code! Its fun, you seem like you guys both want to be hackers, so just jump in. Even though knowing how to code is not a game breaker, it certainly helps when you are lean and small, so just take the leap of faith.
Why aren't more books written like this?
I’ve taken Modafinil extensively while I was launching my first start-up and still working full time. For six months I was waking up at 4am every day, working until 7am, having a one-hour nap, then off to work until 6pm… Bed-time around 10-11pm. I wouldn’t have been able to launch without Modafinil (I’m actually using Alertec rather than Provigil, it’s a bit cheaper). Those days I took up to 1.5 pills a day (150mg) - 1 pill 1 hour before waking up, to make the most of that 3-hour slot, then half a pill half-way through the day to allow me to keep productive at work.

I still use it occasionally, to boost a specific day’s productivity. I think taking it as described (and as I did while launching my first start-up) is abusing it and asking for trouble later, but using it to get an odd boost of concentration (which suddenly allows me to work like a beast for about 12 hours and get huge amounts of technical work done in that time, particularly in combination with a little caffeine) is ok and doesn’t have any side-effects - just make sure you drink plenty of water (sometimes on Modafinil thirst can also seem like a bit of a distraction, but you will get a mild headache if you don’t drink anything). Also, I only take half-pills now, so the max I ever do is 50mg in one day.

I’m in London, though, not Silicon Valley.
Running a Startup in NYC and Need Feedback? The Feedback Forum is Looking for Companies
Don't drop out of school. You've got all the time in the world, what's the rush? Your early twenties (let alone the time before you're even 20) are there to be enjoyed, not spent hacking away at a start-up 15-hours a day.

Here's how it will happen if you start up now. Your first start-up will be an unmitigated disaster. Your second one will be slightly less so, but still fail. Your third will break even. Your fourth will finally make you a reasonable sum of money. Then your fifth will make you rich. Allow for 1-3 years per start-up - with this, you'll probably be very wealthy by the time you're 27. However, you'll also have wasted the best years of your life working your ass off.

Wait a little, and chances are you might even be able to skip one of those failed start-up - after all, life experience does count for something. Finish school. Go to a cool university. Learn lots of interesting stuff. Meet lots of really interesting people (that you'll be able to recruit into your future ventures, among other things - but more importantly, some of them will be your best friends for the rest of your life - money cannot buy that). Sleep with lots of girls. Get drunk. Enjoy life. Wear sun-screen. Erm. Anyway, you can always start up after uni. If anything, it will be easier, since a) you'll be wiser to the ways of the world; at the moment your inexperience pretty much guarantees dismal failure, b) maybe we won't be in the middle of a credit crunch then.
Thanks for the encouragement.

I am taking the leap. I am working on learning to code but am having some difficulty but I will persevere.

If my co-founder dropped out he would get his GED and could always go the community college transfer route.
Developer Interest in the iPhone, Android, and Symbian
"What’s so funny is that entrepreneurs apparently aren’t interested in typical drugs - instead they find the one that gives them a mental and stamina advantage"

He must not pay much attention at his own TechCrunch events, as they are fueled by booze and weed with some coke thrown in for the bizdev types' girlfriends.
It wouldn't be too hard to figure that out automatically. Compilers have to do that anyway. But it's a good starting point.
Yes. See Plurk.
1) Despite high school not being easily deferrable he can get a GED instead and go to community college

2) We are not most startups. We may still fail and we accept that. We believe the process has inherent learning value. So we win regardless of financial gain.

3) Due to our youth we will have to prove our competence in other ways. We will work extra hard to make people take us seriously. Age is only a biological number. Maturity is different.

4) I am making sure we both work hard to learn. Learning is part of the process. There is always more to do so we want to work as hard as possible.

I will do my best to remain calm and keep the team level headed. That is some important insight.

I agree with you about the importance of collaboration on the different elements and we will check and help each other.

Time to execute
Full-Text Search on SQLite
We will work that much harder to prove doubters wrong.

The rush is to learn. If we fail now, oh well. We are that much closer and had a reason and motivation to learn.

A startup doesn't mean we can't have fun.

A credit crunch has very little effect on our idea.
Good luck, I hope your idea is really hotmail level. The world needs more paradigm shifts.

If you guys want to talk about your idea with someone, email me, I could sign an NDA if you want.
Can anyone give a reason why not to use SQLite for simple web sites that don't require lots of db writes?

I read this thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38287

I'm wondering if anyone has anything to add, now that another year has passed.

This: http://www.sqlite.org/whentouse.html seems to indicate that it shouldn't be a problem.

I'm currently using PostgreSQL with sphinx-search, which works great but I'm always looking for opportunities to reduce moving parts in my applications.

Thanks very much indeed!
Not sure that the "Yesterday" anecdote was appropriate; it's an example of creative thinking rather than learning.

It's also unclear as to whether the "same tasks" on subsequent days were exactly the same, or simply the same activity with different specifics. For instance, are people following the same path with a joystick, or a different path with a joystick? Are we talking about memory retention here, or learning skills?
Government sponsored enterprise
I started up when I was 18, and ended up going to uni when I was in my mid 20s - "these people are so much younger than me!". It was a mistake (for me) not to go when I was 18.

But in your heart you know what it is you want to do. You can always change track later. Richard Branson didn't finish high school.
drop out only if it can quantify something. odds are you can finish high school. dont just drop out because "gates and jobs" did it. Yes, I "stopped out" of college with one semester left. Before, you call me hypocritical realize that I had spent a good 2 years working up to that point. Take it one step at a time, fuck up a lot, learn from it, go fuck up some more, learn more, and eventually it will work out well. As long as you don't factor in "give up" into those plans, you will be fine. Hope this helps.

give up means, give up all together. odds are your first idea or vision or even company will not be "what makes it". Flexible people never get bent out of shape.
You're spending a lot of time arguing against any negative opinion that's given. It's great to see that you have a positive attitude, but you did post asking for advice ;)

Perhaps you have your mind made up already- But part of the criticism process is taking in what everyone says; I hope you wouldn't just argue against an opinion because it disagrees with what you've already decided.

I do hope things work out well for you and the startup.
Don't get too carried away with the hype about Provigil. It allows you to sleep less and may cause a mild increase in focus, with possibly fewer long term effects than amphetamine-type drugs (speed, ritalin, etc). IE Provigil users don't seem to turn into tweakers.

It is safer but less effective than good old fashioned amphetamine for actually getting stuff done.

If you're just a regular person trying to live a semblance of a balanced lifestyle (for this purpose I will include working a regular 8-to-6 job) the biggest effect of provigil is likely to be to make you say 'so what?'

If you are used to the caffeine-shakes and twitches that come at the rough end of an all-nighter, Provigil can take that away to some extent. The psychological price you pay for doing this too often is unknown, though.

Having said that, it is useful to get you out of a jam if you stay up partying all night and need to drag yourself to work the next morning.

And best of all, if you are in the UK, the NHS pays for it all. In other countries you often have to pay up to several USD per pill and it can take up to 4 pills to be effective.

Edit: Based on my experience, I would consider use of Provigil during a true work crunch or crisis that can only be solved by a burst of long work hours. However, if your masters get used to your performance at that level under those conditions, you might learn more about the expression 'burning the candle at both ends' than you want to know.
Public high school in the USA is indeed a waste of time. And, there is no time like the present to start a company. However dropping out can really mess up your life, and I don't mean 5 years down the road. I mean it can immediately mess up your life. A hacker friend of mine in high school did just what you are proposing, but 10 years ago. As soon as he dropped out of high school his parents kicked him out of the house. Being homeless at age 16 really puts a damper on getting anywhere with your startup.

I'm voting for finishing up high school. But, if you're going to drop out anyway, be sure you have some plan to cover all the basic life essentials type stuff.
First ask yourself do you really need 24 hours in a day, if not go back to school. You should have a very good reason to drop out. If you are not interested in education or if you think you can survive without it, then drop out. Remember it is all about knowledge, you will have to know more than an educated guy and always be a step ahead of the college educated people to win. If you are lucky you might hire some of the more educated people to work for you.
http://features.slinkset.com/
Next-next-gen DNA sequencing company raises $100M (zero-mode waveguide technology)
> We will work that much harder to prove doubters wrong.

I imagine you may be getting a far amount of backlash from older people in your life, namely your parents. I am much older than you and I entertain a fantasy of quitting my job and going to Latin America. At one low point during work, I almost booked non-refundable tickets with a co-conspirator. To show how serious I am about this fantasy (to my family and to myself), I am indulging in 3-5 hours a week of private tutoring in Spanish. The odd thing is that I can foresee myself in a middle ground of not quitting my job but learning Spanish in the States and taking the initiative socially.

I do not think your plan makes sense. The odds of success are against you. Most businesses on the Internet are unfortunately or fortunately, all about marketing, only partially about innovation. I'd like to advise you against it, as an older and not necessarily wiser person. Life does not always have to be dive-in, you can dip your toes in the water, wade - if you dive-in, you can drown. In this country, unfortunately, a GED degree is condescended upon and will hurt your academic prospects.

Build your startup part time. You have one of the most important ingredients, chutzpah, faith in yourself. But at the same time, L'Chaim ("To Life"). There is more than life than saying "I did it". If your parents are serious about you not leaving school, they will cut off funding. And in this country, money is important to maintain a lifestyle. And, if you do drop out and go back to school, you'll fall behind (disconnect with/lose your peer year/cohorts).

Maybe some of us are wrong. And we'll read about you in the 3rd edition of Founders at Work. But if we aren't wrong, you might be torpedoing your long-term life with short-term half-constructed disconnected realities.
Maybe Normalizing Isn't Normal
OK. I'll buy that, and based on a search of the various terms, things seem to be improving. My personal experience is clouded by supporting our own products, which is possibly not an entirely representative sample. But, for what it's worth, we have about 1000 paying customers who are web developers...and we're still hearing misuse of the terms on a very regular basis. I'd like to think things are getting better.
If someone sent me an email with an ftp:// link I'd assume it was an old email and had been delayed in delivery by 10 years.

The only use for ftp is to make uploading stuff to public places easier than http. Apart from that it's useless and redundant like telnet.
I've got to the point where I plan for this now. I stuff my head with the problem before I go to sleep, the next morning I wake up and there's the solution, I even get schedules some times :-), some times I wake up at 3 or 4 with the solution, if it's a curly one sleep can be elusive or I sort of have this twilight sleep where I'm half asleep but working on the problem as well.
I dont disagree with you, in fact I wholeheartedly agree with you - I'm just saying that when it comes to pretty much anything, the majority of people (intelligent or not) just aren't particularly concerned with taking preventative measures.

So I felt like the article was essentially "Pissing into the wind"
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It seems that there is no so much confusion. Maybe you've had bad luck and met a bunch of uninformed people, then you think that the misunderstanding is more common than it is. My experience is also that everybody I met knew what SFTP is.
If you're smart enough for starting-up, then the time spent on school is pretty much the time spent at school. Also, if you're smart, you've probably taken a lot of extra classes the first 2 years, so you only have 5 or less classes now? Seems to me you can be at home and coding by 1-2PM, leaving a lot of time. Plus weekends. If you think I'm provocative, I'm just trying to convince you not to drop out of HS.

Also, talk to people about your idea. You can probably even post it here. Ideas are supposed to be worthless anyways. Per your description of yourself, you're young and not a programer, so an older and wiser programer may be able to tell you in 5 minutes that your idea stinks (for real) or has been tried n times before.

I was involved in a startup when I was 17, and let me tell you, it was chaotic. Dropping out of any school over it would have been a huge mistake. Fortunately I didn't.
Finish high school...but feel free to work on your startup after hours and on weekends. You'll probably never have more free time for the purpose...unless/until you raise money in order to pursue a startup full-time (which, let's face it, is going to be a major uphill battle for a 17 year old). You'll probably also be better served by going to college--maybe taking a light load--and using the opportunity to meet additional co-founded and people you can work with to bring your vision to life.

You know far less than you think you do at 17. Confidence is wonderful, and I certainly encourage you to start a startup right away...today (I had a business in high school, and I learned a lot from it). But don't let it get in the way of having fun, going to college, and learning some stuff. Travel is also probably wise.
>I came to realize that the hackers are the core of any good startup team.

Only software startups need them, but there are many kinds of startups.

First think of your idea, then see if you need programmers.

By reading those sites you are causing yourself to ignore all the other kinds of businesses in the world, and especially since you are not a programmer, that's a mistake.

Those sites are written by hackers, so they will of course laud hackers, but it's perfectly possible to create a startup that does not need hackers. Just a hired, regular, programmer or two.
Don't drop out of high school: Hack nights. Hack early mornings. Hack at lunchtime. Allot some time to party/chase girls/work out. Most of all make sure you're having fun.

Before long you'll find you've built something of substance. It might be something people want. It might not. Either way you'll have both a startup and have/be-on-your-way-to a high school diploma.

Best of all you'll have options.
It's probably a side effect of being a more interesting game, whatever that means to be more interesting, at least.
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Introductory video on the Lynx Home Security System by Apx Alarm.
Am I the only one against performance enhancing drugs?
Condor: Building a Linux cluster on a budget
That 6 join query is wrong, and the rest of the article follows from that incorrect join.

Why would you ever want a query that returned the user data multiple times, once for every combination of screen_name and phone_number?!? No real site would ever want to do that.

If you need phone number, you get phone numbers, if you need screen names, you get those - but why would you need every possible combination of phone number and screen_name?

He's simply wrong. Speeding up joins is never a reason to denormalize for the simple reason that it doesn't!

A valid reason to denormalize is to precalculate data, which he touches on very briefly. But you always write that twice: once normalized, and that's the primary data, and then again, the "cached/precalculated" version. You should always be able to regenerate that from the normalized data.

OK, one final reason to denormalize which he didn't even write: if you need to do a where clause from one table, but the order by from a different table, you need to denormalize because you can not create a combined index from both tables. (Databases with function indexes might be able to but that's pretty complicated.)
Stay in school. Yes, you and your cofounder could get a GED, but I think you're missing a lot of the advantages of high school. It's hard to see them when you're there, but when you're in high school you have:

1) Large amounts of free time. You've got a six to eight hour or so block of time every night, every weekend. You can probably pull programming books into class with you if you're that insatiable. If not, just carry around a notebook with you dedicated to the startup, it'll be chalk full of ideas whenever you have a spare moment.

2) No responsibility. Granted, high school is tough, but it's also inconsequential. If you've studied the PG essays as much as you think, you'll remember the concept of a day job in "What You'll Wish You'd Known". Here's the link, it's worth a reread in your situation. http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html

3) Your parents are funding you. They pay for your housing, food, and are probably quite open to the idea of buying you and books you want to pursue your goals. You can afford to take the time to learn right now. If you drop out, are your folks going to want to keep feeding you while you sit around the house? You'd probably be expected to get a job, which cuts into all that free time you'd be gaining by dropping out.

Delay University if you want, but honestly you can get a lot of the same deal out of it if you approach it well. Right now you've got an idea and no skills with which to execute it. Don't create a situation that's more hostile to you getting those skills.
Some of that might be useful about now... :)

I'm lucky (depending on how you look at it) in that I seem to be able to work long hours fairly reguarly without drugs.
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The Money Merge Account can help you pay off your home in as little as 10 years.
It depends to a certain extent on what cipher you use. Try Blowfish, AES, etc for the kind of data you move and see which one is better. We aren't talking by much, mind, but every little helps.