skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
the digg-pownce-rev3 incest:

leah culver and daniel burka are going out

daniel burka designs for digg and rev3

kevin rose admitted he advises and "brainstorms"
VC Term Sheets (or: how you can make millions of dollars and keep none of it for yourself)
I've long thought that the mentor/mentee model was the way to go in this business. There are simply too many wrong doors to open and things to chase that don't amount to much. And I'm speaking only for the technology side -- I imagine the business side is just as bad.

Good luck with you idea. I don't have any concrete suggestions except finding a market will be tough: there are lots of things that "should" happen that never seem to work out.
i see you have not heard of the fabled digg origin story:

kevin rose is a college drop out, he was a CS major. he does tech stuff and then landed on a tv channel that focuses on web and tech stuff.

he contacted slashdot asking them to update their site based on this idea of letting users vote up or down a story. slashdot told him to go away.

kevin rose hired a programmer online for $600 to get his idea started anyways. after the site's made he pimps it on tv and all his nerd friends.

16 year old "hax0r" kids went to the site in droves. most adblock the ads. here we are today.
Thanks. I know that will be tough.

I am not primarily interested in finding a market for this idea. Foremost I am looking for a mentor. (Or even a mentee - if someone believes she can learn a thing from me.)
Can Microsoft, with a $237 billion capitalization, or Google, $177 billion, could afford acquiring Facebook at $10 billion (nevermind the $15 or $20 billion that they seem to expect)?

(In any event, they seem to only want a small stake.)

Last I heard their revenues were less than $50 million. This puts their P/E ratio in the triple figures. The whole business seems too risky. I don't think I would sleep well if I had a lot of my money in Facebook.
Ouch: mEgo Gets Kicked Out Of Demo
I think this is a bit unfair to the OP. Yes hackers are important but sometimes we tend to make ourselves want to feel too important. There's nothing stopping this kid from at least making a mockup. If he's going to hackers with just an idea that's his major problem. Show the hacker something tangible and he's more likely to get a partner.
Facebook..... obstinate?
I am not sure if this is a service people need. The people that need mentors the most probably refuse to get them. People that know they need mentors and actively seek them out eventually find them.

Also, you're talking about a small segment of a small niche numbers-wise. Of all the people in the US, only a portion are entrepreneurs or business owners. Of that segment, only a portion are actually successful and will actually be good mentors. Also, how will you qualify the quality of the mentee? No one wants to waste their time, especially if you already have several mentees.
This is an interesting contrast to the xobni target (http://blogs.xobni.com/asmith/archives/66)
Just part of the latest outsourcing trend: kids in the 3rd world will make sure your bank statements are up-to-date ;)
> while Rand is almost the canonical example of a philosophy that attempts to be objective, systematic and rational.

I tend to think of Rand's work as the canonical example of a philosophy that is defined primarily by its _claims of_ being objective, systematic, and rational.
lol.

Yeah, I suppose time will tell!
Do you by chance have a link to the Forbes study in question?
It's not the worst way to raise funds; there's been enough curiosity raised that they should get several takers on that offer (I know I'll participate when I get the chance in November).

It's also interesting why they scrapped the "buy one / donate one" idea in the first place; according to this NYT article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/worldbusiness/24l...):

Staff members of the laptop project were concerned that American children might try the pared-down machines and find them lacking compared to their Apple, Hewlett-Packard or Dell laptops. Then, in this era of immediate global communications, they might post their criticisms on Web sites and blogs read around the world, damaging the reputation of the XO Laptop, the project staff worried.

Strange, because so many of the initial reviews were overwhelmingly positive.

Also, it contradicts the official line given in February, which was "they want to focus the production output to kids who need them".
"people who register what they think is a great domain name and think that's their website pretty much done now."

Another painfully true observation.

There is a spectrum between being a complete retard and a coding ninja, though. There are plenty of sweet spots for entrepreneurs between the two ends of that spectrum.
I keep thinking: "7 minute abs, man!"
P/E ratios in cases like this can be misleading - it is hard to predict earnings for what is the poster child for the social app phenomena.

Put another way, facebook isn't really focusing on monetizing its users yet - it is (rightly) focusing on becoming the platform of choice for the social web.

10B might be a steal in the long run if you believe a site like this is the future of content distribution or advertising.
pbnaidu@gmail.com
The main purpose of philosophy is to find truth without exceptions.
There are people, like descarte, that spend their lives trying to find something that is true, and then measure everything else within that truth

Metaphysics: What is true, without exceptions, about things that are not physical or on the boundary of being physical.
Ontology: What is true, without exceptions, about existence (being)
Epistemology: What is true, without exceptions, about how you know what you know
Ethics: What is true about the way things ought to be, without exceptions.

Epistemology/Ontology/Metaphysics have provided lots of value for those that love truth without exceptions.

If you read philosophers and try to see the problems they want to solve within those branches of philosophy, ask yourself what are the exceptions. When you try to battle with them, you will have the feeling of thinking you are the first one to climb a large mountain, only to find a whole city at the top with a lot of people saying, 'What took you so long to get here? PS here are the real mountains for you to climb!'

Is there anything that is true (epistemology)? If false, why have an essay? If true, what is it?

A simple start, can a self refuting statement be true? Well the vast majority of philosophers would tell you no. That is to say they would believe the following statement to be true:

1) Self refuting statements are false or inscrutable.

So you have plenty of people in the world that deny (1). Philosophy allows the Descarte types to relax when dealing with these people.

So lets take a Descarte truth based on (1). That would be:

2) I cannot doubt doubting.

Or in other words I do not have the ability to doubt my ability to doubt.
Then when someone says something like this:

4) If I am multiple pieces, I do not exist (?!)
5) Empirical data has shown that I am multiple pieces (cells)
6) Therefore I do not exist

a descarte type doesn't waste brain energy on either (4) or (5) (or both).

To sum this up, philosophy is the domain of what is necessarily the case. Science (positivism) has nothing to say about this. That is what philosophy brings to the table. But only a descarte type would enjoy this.

For programmers, an analogy could be said as lisp programmers laugh at the 'pattern circus' and the 'aspect oriented design' of other languages (which basically fix what should not have been broken in the first place), philosophers laught 10X as much at people that say things like 'I don't exist' and 'there are no true statements' and wish that they could help them, but know that some people love their circus so they let them have their fun.
>because as a non-programmer you think too vaguely and declaratively.

Youch. That's a painful trap of circular logic to fall into. Keep in mind that most businesses have been started by non-programmers.
I would second that. At the risk of hyperbole, the "mini-lisp revolution" could be one of the more important things to happen to the state of the art. Lisps just have so much going for them, but common lisp can not be the answer. No idea about arc, but at least there is some potential for leadership to be shown.
People need to just start using stuff for "hobby" projects.
Its possible that lisp could become very popular, due to "language oriented programming" - which is just a silly name to attract people (notice how "DSLs" are now so popular, well lisp is nothing if not a platform for creating a DSL which solves your problem for you). heh, its not anything knew, I think words to that effect are mentioned in the SICP notes.
the advice of a mentor is essential to building a broader realization but ultimately you will have to follow your own instinct and make your own decisions.
I've done technology mentoring for several years now on the side. I've found that you have to be co-located for it to work effectively. It's one thing to be a voice on the phone or an icon on IM, it's something else entirely to drop by for lunch, take a look at the build, and roll your sleeves up and pitch in. That's a face-to-face kind of thing. As another commenter pointed out, a lot of people don't feel like they need any help. Those that might entertain the idea want to see that you can walk the walk and not just talk the talk -- which is exactly as it should be.

So I'd look locally if you can.
I did too! Found a partner who can program and we're well on our way.
Insane. Completely irresponsible. If I were a MSFT shareholder, I'd be pissed.

Just watch... Steve Ballmer will have some extremely hard time at the next shareholder meeting when questions start flying his way.
"ideas aren't patentable"

That's true, but business methods and certain software implementations of novel ideas are patentable...at least in the US. I've found that truly good ideas are easily translated into one or both of these. The problem is, most people have "me too" ideas.

All philosophical arguments aside, the patent system can be an entrepreneur's best friend. Yes, the system is heavily abused. I personally don't believe in software patents. But I damn sure use them. Color me hypocritical.
I had an interesting chat with Emmett last week here at justin.tv. I was whining about having to use Python instead of some kind of Lisp, and he pointed out that the language choices at jtv have been made because of some very important libraries, much more than language features.

If Arc wants to succeed it will need to come out-of-the-box with some great libraries, and it will need to address the issue of how new libraries get "blessed" and made available. Just my humble opinion of course...
While I agree about the P/E ratios, I think Facebook has definitely started monetizing it's users, short of charging them a monthly fee anyway. Logging in now gives me a home page with banner ads to the left, and at least 3-4 ads in my 'News Feed'. Not to mention the marketplace aspect of it. If Facebook becomes the de facto identity manager on the web, I could see a sky high valuation like this, but I think they will piss off their users if they keep going like this.

I read somewhere else that they suspect that Microsoft just wants the 5% so it has more control over serving ads, much like Google owns 5% of AOL so it can serve a ton of ads to AOL users/visitors.
Find a partner. Like me.
That's complete bullsh!t.

It is execution that matters. Ideas are a dime a dozen. What google did was excellent execution of an non-original idea (there were lots of search engines at that time).

Look at the UConnect vs. Facebook. vs. that other dude that that the same idea.
Facebook was able to execute much faster and better and got traction, while Uconnect is just crap, and they have to resort to lawsuits.

Sure, if your idea is dumb to begin with, then no matter how good the execution is, you wont get anything out of it.

But you still can change ideas and business plans around, and from a loser make a winner offering. (many startups end up changing their ideas business models at some point, including the company I am working for).
If your execution team still sucks, your products will show it, and the next guy that likes idea, will copy it, and make a much better version of what you are offering. (just like Friendster got hosed by poor execution).

But it is a common trait from "Business" people that think ideas matter more. It is more of a whishful thinking. Honestly being good at business is nothing more that having a good common sense and street smarts, and knowing how to B.S. a little. Things that no school teaches you.

So my advice, learn how to build websites (as a programmer I'd like to concetrate on the harder stuff), do everything you can help the whole team, (from marketing, getting graphics, building mock-ups or prototypes) etc.. While you don't have to program, you better have some good technical skills, and really understand what's going on and how hard or easy is to do some stuff.

One thing that is very annoying, is how non-technical people think it is sooooo easy to just have an ajax drop down, or that little thing here, that little thing there, without having the slightly idea how much work it really takes.
Why can't I upmod run4yourlives on this? There are no mod arrows on his comment?
Maybe you already did?
Bug Driven Development
http://www.forbes.com/2006/09/20/ent-manage_biz_06rich400_se...

Don't miss it.
Apple Says Unlocked iPhones Will Brick After Software Update (Coming Later This Week)
Drug-dealers vs Software Developers
somehow this doesn't feel right.

Google is nearly impossible to replicate where as social networks is and will always be a trend. Also people tend to use more than one of these social networks.

PG pondered once in one of his essays, if I remember correctly, that naturally myspace or any other current social network will not be the only one in the years to come.

update: "So in a hundred years the only social networking sites will be the Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and Del.icio.us? Not likely."
http://www.paulgraham.com/startuplessons.html

The internet population is already 1 billion. Thats plenty of people and opportunities.

Microsoft and Google with all that money should just buy all the startups they can and kill Facebook for good...

Or we should just expect the new "Norton" to invent the NEW anti-"socialnetwork"/virus
I think kyro is 100% right on this point.

I learned to program just for these exact reasons (better understanding of the problem domain for a business, better communication with technical staff, etc.) By all rights, I should be the absolute worst programmer in the world. But based on unofficial world rankings, it turns out that I'm only in the bottom five ;-)

Programming skills (however limited) and business savvy are a very potent combination. I don't regret learning to code at all...
Maybe. (Damn you, short attention span.)
Agreed.

That's the trick -- a good mentor will show you the world and tell you about different places you might want to go. He can even help you book the ticket, but he can't make your decisions for you. A mentor is not a cofounder, is not a coder, and is not a partner.

It's like my father-in-law, the carpenter who lives out of town. I know nothing of wood-working, so if I need some work done, I use him as a mentor. He doesn't show up and do the work, but he guides me around the arena and shows me what to worry about and what not to worry about. Maybe I'll hire out contractors, or maybe I'll do it myself. In the modern world, you can't do everything yourself, so it's good to have somebody with that information.

Good mentors are priceless, and we use them all the time without thinking about it. But you have to be clear about roles and expectations.
Wow, they kicked them out of the conference, and then refused to refund $18k? Unless their contract very explicitly lets them do that, I hope mEgo sues for conversion and cleans up.
I agree ten-thousand percent about libraries, which is part of why I think it'd be just peachy to have an Arc alpha. I think it's ridiculous to expect PG & co. to be able to create a ton of libraries (or any) because they're doing so much work on the language.

At least with an alpha, all of us excited kiddies can start poking around and filling in holes.

Otherwise, we may all have to resign ourselves to the possibility that Perl 6 may actually release first ;)
Build it, they will come
"Acquirers are less prone to irrational exuberance than IPO investors. The closest you'll get to Bubble valuations is Rupert Murdoch paying $580 million for Myspace. That's only off by a factor of 10 or so."

-- PG, circa Nov 2005

:)
It may be that the solution to this problem is not to reform the elite colleges, but to go around them, so that they are no longer the gatekeepers they once were.

That's what happens with technology, anyway. You don't beat the incumbents; you make them irrelevant.
"Ideas are easy, execution is hard" is a cop-out excuse by people who don't have any patentable worthwhile ideas

I have a lot of ideas. Some are worthwhile. And yet I think execution is the hard part.
How do you attract smart people to work at your startup?
We're getting ready to hire our first employee. We've decided to go with an intern, because they are cheap, and if they turn out to be an idiot it's easy enough to get rid of them.

The bulk of the development will be done by me and my partner but we need someone to be our sidekick with respect to consulting work, and other jobs that take away from product design.

So how do you go about finding someone smart to work for you? what do you look for in a resume? what are some strategies for interviewing?

We have a number of ideas. Some conventional, some kind of crazy. But I'd be really interested in what you guys have come up with.
Even if someone isn't cut out to be a great programmer, it will help a lot to have done some programming. Jobs wasn't a hacker on the scale of Wozniak, but it helped him a lot to have done some technical work. He was not just a suit.
"Facebook, which is used by over 40 million people to set up their own personal Web pages...has emerged as the poster child for the latest Internet wave."

Yes, the latest e-Wave to hit the the Beach of Interweb e-Shores.
the question is can mEgo afford to sue? It may cost a lot more than $18k to fight back (not to mention time, energy, and focus)... besides Arrington is right. With the DEMO incident mEgo has a lot more face time now
The "success" number of $1M a month is a little high no?

Move that down to $100K - $300K and things look a little nicer for a new startup.

Not that $1M/month is not a great looking goal, but in the traditional world that would be a pretty established small business.
>Who can perceive both, to perform such a comparison?

Our fourth dimensional overlords.

It's really tough to go anywhere with this conversation because it quickly hits the limits of what our consciousness can express. I feel that our consciousness is missing something that would allow us to understand why the big ball of burning gas exists on a higher plane of existence than us. This is of course completely impossible to justify.
Nah. It would be a pretty straightforward piece of litigation and would most likely just settle. $18k enough to be able to tell a lawyer "Just take care of this, I don't want to hear about it" and still come out ahead.
I tend to agree with this (PHP is perhaps my least favorite language outside of C#/Java).

But there is some really good PHP code out there. The problem is finding it--particularly for a non-programmer. DokuWiki is very nice. Flyspray aint even half bad. Wordpress, while extraordinarily popular, is a bit painful to look at...it's getting better, but it's not ideal to learn from (I'm not knocking Wordpress...I use it for two blogs and recommend it to everyone who asks about blogging software). The majority of Joomla is downright scary bad--I feel dumber every day that I spend working with it.
"Keep in mind that most businesses have been started by non-programmers."

We're talking about web technology businesses here, I presume. Otherwise OP wouldn't be trying to round up a programmer. The vast, vast, vast majority of web application startups are started by technical founders. Even the exceptions tend to bring some technical know-how to the endeavor (Digg, MySpace are examples of the non-programming founder, and they're the only two successful startups that meet that criterion I can think of off-hand).

Non-technical founders can create value. But that's hard to prove in the initial "Hi, do you wanna start a company?" phase. That's why he's not getting much traction from developers he talks to.
I am considering buying one and donating one, but I still wonder if giving a laptop to a poor child in the third world really helps them vs. doing something else like improving their education or health care by $200, or maybe giving $200 worth of microloans.
I was probably wrong in saying it was only worth a tenth of that, but I still think $580 million was high. Remember, what he bought wasn't the present-day Myspace. Most of Myspace's user base (and thus value) was added since the acquisition.
ecuzzillo, I've been running the marketing department of a well known retailer for 10 years. I think I have discovered a way to use data from social networking sites to enhance the models we've been using to analyse particular buying patterns. Obviously, I know a few people in the industry and everybody agrees that this idea has huge potential. I'm thinking of starting my own business to explore this further. Would you be willing to join me? I gather you are a great hacker with some maths and statistics skills, is that right? Oh you say you're not going to paint my picture... too bad. I guess I should learn Python ;-)
Good product (or idea).
Good chunk of equity ( if you are offering a good salary but a petty stock options package, then you just going to get mediocre people that want a job).
Let techincal people feel they will have a great impact on the company (and eliminate unecessary b.s.)

Whatever else you do, it doesn't matter. As the really good programmers will never apply for a job at your company.
If your job offering is just that (a job offering and nothign more), then you will never attract the great programmers out there.
So I'm a bit confused.. Are they saying that both unlocking AND installing apps will brick the iPhone, or just the unlocks?
"6. You can start a project in one of the open source communities like sourceforge put some high level specs and see whether any one will be interested in joining you."

This is a rather persistent myth about Open Source. It's entirely fiction. If you post a working version to sf.net, you'll probably get a few bug reports and a few questions. If you work on it for a year, and do something really valuable to a lot of people, you'll see a few patches. If you work on it for another year, and continue to add value for a large technical audience, you may have a few parties who are interested in joining the project in a serious way.

Open Source software does not spring into existence. Nearly every project has one (or more) extremely dedicated developers pushing it forward every day. A non-programmer wishing something into existence is not going to make anything happen. I promise.