skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Design is not just about pixel pushing and pixel perfecting. It is more than that. The blogger purely equates design = making things pretty, which is not true.

Design starts from understanding and empathizing with the user. Design helps to shape the product and connect with the users emotionally.

The Design Fund highlights the importance of designers in startups not just because they make things look pretty. Designers are usually trained to understand users emotionally. An engineer look at a problem and start using equations to solve it. A designer look at a problem, start by understanding the user, and develop a way to solve it.

Design teams in big companies have User Researchers (on the ground, understanding users, find out needs, etc), User Experience Designers (connecting the dots from research to product, how the product should function and flow), Interaction Designers (that transition effect you see in iOS? not just pretty. Helps users to orientate where they are at), Visual Designers (make things pretty).

As you can see, in the whole field of design, only Visual Designers are the ones who really make things pretty. Once again, The Design Fund values designers because they look at things differently, and they can build products with emotion. (Apple products have a lot of emotion tied to people)

*I am not part of The Design Fund.
value = solve a real problem

there is always value in that
You and me both!

I agree that the new Lego pieces get a bad rap; my kids have done ridiculous things with them; in fact, I'm not sure they've ever actually built the thing the box told them to.
Good point about AtheOS. Confusingly, the successor project Syllable did release a linux distribution in "Syllable Server".
That's one way to interpret it. You could also see it as MG being decisive and Joshua constantly waffling and attempting fake objectivity.

A great example would be the review scores for the Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4S. Really? They just both happen to deserve an 8.6? What a coincidence.
+1 for the use of the word "Horseshit." That's all...
And would BREAK things if you run Tomcat/JBoss/Glassfish/etc... Seriously the idea of running a package update that would erase key requirements to running my production J2EE apps is totally insane. I guess I'll stick with RHEL. For all it's issues, they've never talked about silently deleting my JDK.....
On Teams+Talking
I think you only have to do the email verification one time. After that, you'll be able to log in to any BrowserID site without entering anything.
So then why should it be alright for men? No one really makes a stink about needing more men florists or hospice nurses? Doesnt it seem like instead of really talking about or trying to fix the gender stereotype issue we aren't doing much good by singling out women. It seems like we're making them into victims. Wouldn't you say the problem works both ways and focusing on one gender or race turns them into victims imstead of addressing the entire issue as a whole which could be more helpful?
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First of all... good blog post. Money quote: "Your universe is small and very hard to sell to."

Secondly, I hope I am not misunderstanding your comment, "... completely switch the CMS platform."
While it may not be clear in the slide, this is not a new CMS. It is a backup and security service for popular CMSes.

Secondly, I am not aiming this service at other developers. It's partially omitted in the slide but the market segment is administrators of sites that receive >15K uniques per month.

Administrators != Developers.
15K+ uniques per month implies traffic is high enough to monetize which means uptime is critical.

Does that alter your opinion? Or generally, are there any parameters on the slide that could be tweaked to reach a threshold of viability in your opinion?
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Thanks for the link on sortition.

> > Then revert Senate seats to be appointed, not elected, positions.
> In the US and Australia it used to be the case that Senators were appointed by States.

That's why I suggested the seats be "reverted" to appointments.
Dry Cut Metal Saw
You stole those words from me! (just kidding)

RIP.
Heaven forfend that people converse!
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You want 'em? I'm getting tired of them.
So, if you know Java has a similar syntax that is the same terseness, why mention it without example? I've found that many people don't know of it:

In Java this is:

List<Integer> c = new ArrayList<>() {{
add(3);
add(4);
add(5);
add(6);
}};
Plenty more probably create valuable products that are hidden behind l33t interfaces and web pages that look like someone vomited up four different wordpress themes. Odds are these products are also going to die a slow death because the value they bring is too well hidden behind poor design choices. Arguing at the extremes provides no value here. In the vast middle there are probably products that could provide more value (and more revenue) with a bit of thought given to design and how the end-user will interact with the product.
It seems the author might do better framing this as "don't design first" (which would also be a significantly less baiting headline). While it's certainly not how I would build a startup, if it works for some, I won't argue against evidence.

But most of the post is spent venting against a perceived popular bias in favor of visual designers over "real value creators." The problem with that is that everyone who contributes to a product or service can create value—a particular startup may not need design early on, or it may not need developers early on, but it depends on the market it's tackling. The wrong omissions can spell disaster; the right omissions can spell success.
I think he clearly understands design to be something that "looks amazing." Humorous post.
An obvious conclusion if your definition of design is "how something looks". I would suggest that your attitude would doom any startup relying on a human to machine interface to failure. Without a focus on designing for useability or user experience I would argue that your startup will not solve any users problem, as they will give up on even trying to use it. So I think anyone giving credence to you views with respect to their startup will quickly find themselves with a lot of wasted effort and a pile of horseshit.
This has been too depressing of a year.

Where's the good news?!
Apple wasn't a "design startup". Sure, Jobs valued design, but none of Apple's founders were designers.
This might be a little cynical, but Debian was originally intended to be the Master Distribution that would function as a sort of open source gatekeeper for the Linux world.

However, it ended up shipping late and RedHat derivatives got a foothold. If it wasn't for Ubuntu, it would have never fulfilled it's original intention at all.

Also, since I'm commenting here, that chart shows a whole lot of completely dead distributions continuing onto the right. It would be a lot more interesting to see how long these forks actually lasted.
Sure, that's a good point too. Maybe a productive response to this rant is, "yes, but: if you're going defer design work, keep your interface minimal and unamibitious".
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Damn. Miss you.
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Well, the House and Senate consists of 100+ people with about equal power, and there is also the separation of powers between branches.
This is an annoying situation. If Oracle won't allow third-party distribution of the JRE and JDK, they should maintain apt and yum repositories of their own. I'm not sure how they benefit from barring the effort of volunteers who made their software easier to use. I use Sun's JRE because OpenJDK's browser plugin does not work with the management interface of some hardware I use. I'm struggling to find a mailing list I can subscribe to in order to keep up with the updates I'll now have to manually download and install.
Kris and Scott work in the same office in Seattle with PA and (last I checked) he didn't give up the dream; ChainSawSuit and Starslip are updated multiple times a week.

I like Scott as well, and I probably would hire him for this as he has the perspective and the willingness to get the job done, even if it offends people.

But I'm not from a syndicate and if I get my way, I'll help flush them and book publishers out of existence :D
Not that passion can't reinforce grit, but I tend to think that it's actually grit that causes passion, as Cal Newport often argues: http://calnewport.com/blog/2010/01/23/beyond-passion-the-sci...

So, indeed, what increases grit?

Sayemm's quote about prodigies seems to imply that there is something innate causing a singleminded obsession. Maybe in some cases, but there are cases like Mozart and the Polgar sisters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polg%C3%A1r#Early_life), who were basically raised into the target of their grit and passion.

I think one of the answers, as in the forth point, is environment. Take programming. In my case, I got started at a young age because I had a computer and found a programming book one time when I was bored. From there it was extremely easy to surround myself, via the internet, with people who are gritty about programming, to read books and blogs all the time, and to have projects all around me.
I had the same concerns about one-handed operation. That was my complaint with the Nexus One, but the Galaxy Nexus' nice display and better balance make it not such a big (no pun intended ;) problem.
I don't know why tptacek's comment is downvoted.

My take is that Enrique Allen, the guy behind the D-Fund, is not trying to say "startups should focus more on retention and user experience," he's trying to say "startups should think about users in an effective way."

In a recent talk Allen gave, the designer-founders he mentioned all had significant programming experience.

Almost all of the people he mentions could code their own products. So, he's not saying "get a bunch of photoshop designers to improve your ux," he saying "having people who think from a design perspective can be the difference between a product succeeding and failing."

For him, a design perspective could include something like thinking "how should I construct this API so that people will be able to use this library?"
That seems like the only reason that makes sense.
Apple is a not a particularly pertinent example. I'm not particularly familiar with Apple's history, but I suspect that their products delivered value immediately--people actually had a use for their stuff that nobody else could supply. Then, thanks to design (and marketing, and fashion, and engineering, and...) they grew.

The whole point of the article is that the foundation of any successful company lies in the value it provides people. Everything else--design is singled out because of the earlier article on the matter--is built on that foundation. Since a startup is just the foundation of a company, its primary goal should be creating a product people use.

In short, he didn't really mean that design is completely worthless--it is merely worthless without a solid product behind it. The same could be said about engineering and strong copy; neither is going to matter if you're making something utterly useless. Thus, given this meaning of "design is horseshit", "engineering/writing well is horseshit" actually makes sense.

Coincidentally, I agree with the idea behind the post: producing something viable is the most important thing a startup can do; the younger a startup is, the more important the product's value. However, I think the overly sensational, antagonistic and slightly misleading title was poorly chosen to represent his point. The post is solid but the title isn't. It does drive clicks and readers, so in a sense it was successful, but primarily from its less desirable qualities.
The nut is pretty simple:

1. Always update on time, every time. Never miss a beat if at all possible by making comics ahead of time and posting them in advance with a delay.

2. Write & draw what you love, whether it is video games (PA, PVP, etc), sex jokes (leasticoulddo), anime (megatokyo), music & life (questionable content), nerdy awesomeness (xkcd)...you get the idea.

3. Connect with your fans by blogging as much as you post strips. Let them feel a part of the creative process and help them get to know you.

4. Profit.
Maybe a balance and not remove it on servers? I have a pretty locked down environment and trust my ability to read advisories and take necessary precautions. It's weird to presume your users can't deal with that.
And what I'm saying is that he doesn't see design as "elegant, usable, pleasurable user experiences that in and of themselves make people want to come back to the product".

Because once you do, you see that design and "raw value creation" aren't mutually exclusive. But it's easy to see them as mutually exclusive when you give design a definition of "make things beautiful", exactly as he did.
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While that's a ridiculously trolling headline, I agree with the argument. I'm a designer(check my profile) and my job is to communicate ideas and products not create them.
That was formerly true in other sciences as well, but things have been changing: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2011/scien...

I don't know if mathematics has been following the same trend.
Indeed.

I'd like to think that design = caring.

As in: If you care for your users you spend time thinking about how the product should work for them.
We shall have to work faster.

http://yudkowsky.net/other/yehuda
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I knew he didn't have long, but this still feels so sudden. I got so much out of his way of framing things. I'm grateful that he wrote and spoke so much while he was here.
Yes, when I read this argument I thought: "You must be fucking kidding". Just because some companies offer cheaper initial subsidised phones it doesn't mean that the phone itself is cheaper. And it's not. At retail, most iOS products are $100 or $200 more expensive then their comparable Android equivalents (not talking about $99 tablets, of course, but I wouldn't consider them equivalent).

When I saw the initial Transformer Prime price I thought that it actually was incredibly cheap compared to the initial price iPad 2, especially considering that it comes with a dock and still is cheaper. At this rate I might be able to afford one when the prices drop.
Plus, those monies are simply campaign contributions. How much grift to career politicians actually pocket?
A lot of people are making this joke in these first minutes and it's ok. I upvoted you.

But I'd like to make the point that he stared death in the face and didn't finally profess his love of god and all things mighty like some wanted him to and I'll always respect for that. One of the good ones.
Too short, but he won at life.
Is a well-lived life worth anything?
How in the world does that justify Ubuntu's actions? And this isn't so much about trusting software as it is about trusting an organization.
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He and his family are in my....well, in my sincere thoughts that I say in my head directed towards a nonspecific metaphorical anthropomorphic being.
You don't know what design is
Stupid hiring trick - converting our referral into a ski trip...
It's a lame joke, just accept that
Design is the saddle, the ride, and the journey.

Articles like this are the real droppings. The submitter merely the bowels.
Good for him, he hustled well.

Quick question: what framework/library was that landing page built with (if any)? Thanks
"I’ve created products / services in the past that have garnered praise for their design."

...you've also [wisely?] abandoned projects that had great promise without to due diligence necessary to hand them off to a willing steward (Sweetcron).

I was pleased to see your domain here on HN, but I still have a bitter taste after being forced to abandon Sweetcron in favor of Chyrp. Regardless, I've been quite impressed by what you've delivered thus far and am pleased to see your weight provided in the direction of reason.
Moments of his life in pictures.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/12/christoph...
Technical users are the only ones that are going to have this installed. You have to go out of your way to source the partner repo already and then explicitly pick the Sun JDK since it's not the default java implementation. Everyone running the Sun JDK on Ubuntu knows that they're running it.
We will find out in 80 years time when the eulogies are written.
Hitchens was essentially a Marxist (by his own admission) who was also in favor of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the foreign policy it represented. So there was very little I agreed with him on.

But I'm terribly upset about this and I'll tell you why.

Because of his willingness to debate. I'd literally scan right wing talk radio schedules for his name because you just knew it would be a great show. In a world where so many people in our modern society hide in their little cliques I think a smart person who is willing to have their ideas challenged is the most valuable person of all.

Losing a voice like that is a true tragedy.

So, with all due respect, I hope he is wrong in his beliefs about the after life because if there is a heaven he's surely earned his place in it.

Edit: On that note this is awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4JJqXISBiI (though skip the first 4 minutes of the host self aggrandizement)
U.S. invading Iranian airspace is not as benign as you are pretending especially given it is not an isolated incident. It is one thing to have the neighborhood peeping tom looking in your window, another thing to have a serial killer rapist snooping inside your house. The U.S. government has aggressively worked to overthrow the Iranian government by setting U.S. public opinion against the Iranian government for possible military action. The U.S. has also installed sanctions, the 2007 congress funding of covert operations inside Iran, Iranian scientist assassinations, and the recent dubious Saudi assassination plot.
I don't think you'll missing anything. I just go there when I like to read a bit of the holier-than-thou attitude of Apple fanboys. Reminds me of the earlier Ruby / Git attitude which has, fortunately stopped. I couldn't stand these weenies.
> marketing

Exactly. When I was a child, Lego held the patent on the plastic brick and therefore could sell bland collections of 4x2s at enormously inflated prices.

When the patent expired, the market was flooded with clone bricks at greatly reduced prices. Lego floundered a bit before figuring out their value was no longer technology but instead "brand recognition".

Since then Lego has been primarily a marketing-oriented company. In fact, "bricks" aren't even close to their main product anymore and only really exists as a branding element at this point.

It would be great if some Chinese company sold huge tubs of quality bricks for a penny each. But it's not going to be from Lego.
its amusing that a site like digg which was fairly widely popular is now only as popular as a niche site like Hacker News. Don't get me wrong, Hacker News is, IMO far and away much better than either Digg or Reddit but both of those sites have much broader appeal. Digg shot themselves in the foot
Considering the steps required to install the Sun JDK in the first place, is it really a stretch to believe these people are able to make a conscious decision about leaving it installed?
`please` don't use this in scripts. It makes it so hard to debug things later when the next guy comes along and has no idea where you end up after you pop. (can you tell this has been happening to me recently?!)
"Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works." - SJ

Jobs had a major role in how the products at Apple have worked from the start.

I also recall Jobs making interface design references in his Stanford commencement speech about typography, calligraphy, kerning, and typesets. This happened before he started Apple.
I am from a developing country (Bangladesh) and use a pirated version of Windows (because you cannot buy the genuine one at stores). If I wasn't a web developer I would probably be using Windows XP and IE6 (easier to crack).

I regularly pay for stuff on the internet (domains, hosting, invoicing apps, ios apps, etc. etc.) as long as Paypal is supported (we cannot use credit cards to make international payments).

You need to support as many people as possible with your webapp, you never know who your customer is.
Me too. I even tried climbing a tree.
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Microsoft launches SkyDrive for iPhone: 25GB free cloud storage
Alright Captain Obvious.

Design alone is horseshit.
Engineering alone is horshit.
Blogging alone is horseshit.
Marketing alone is horseshit.

But put these together in the right proportion and you get a beautiful product. The proportion depends on your product/service. It takes a lot less selling, if the visual design of the product is impressive. It releases dopamine in your customer's head which urges them to put their credit card number in the checkout form. It may not be important for enterprise product as the person signing the cheque does not use your product. But it is vital for consumer and small business based products. But I agree with the author that pretty design is not a substitute for good engineering, good customer support or good marketing.