The graveyard of good ideas
Solutions that were tried, and what stopped them.
Patents that were rejected or abandoned, products that shut down, projects that went quiet. Borrow the idea, avoid the dead end.
796 solutions
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: How did you find joy in life?
I can't find joy in life. Nothing interesting. When I think rationally I am excepting myself as whom I'm. Yes, for example, friends talk to me passionately about something (music, events, chess, etc..). I'm just like, "yeah, interesting". I never feel excited about anything deeply. I admire people like Feynman who are passionate and curious about science, life, to learn. I want to feel like them but nothing triggers that type of feeling. In the end, I'm just passing my days. Naval says in his book something like " we will be forgotten 100000 years from now. There is no meaning". this is not the case for me. I don't want to be remembered or make something useful for people, for the world. I just want to be curious, and passionate like Zorba (Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis), like Feynman. Without curiosity, man is nothing. If you had exper
Why it failed: I can't find joy in life. Nothing interesting. When I think rationally I am excepting myself as whom I'm. Yes, for example, friends talk to me passionately about something (music, events, chess, etc..). I'm just like, "yeah, interesting". I never feel exc
jamilaghasiyev
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content
I have a publication on Medium https://medium.com/luminasticity where I publish some critical works, some poetry, some science fiction, humour etc. I have been pushing around writing a piece that might end up being quite long on Mark Twain and Racism, as it pertains to Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, and Pudd'nhead Wilson. And of course in writing this there are some well known racial slurs (and some antiquated, unfamiliar ones) that will have to be quoted and referred to, which I expect would probably end up getting my account automatically banned. The article will be showing Huckleberry Finn and Pudd'nhead Wilson as anti-racist works, so don't suggest any actually pro-racism sites. I suppose this is an argument for hosting one's own blog, but I do have a lot on my plate already. So just is there a platform for this kind of thing
Why it failed: I have a publication on Medium https://medium.com/luminasticity where I publish some critical works, some poetry, some science fiction, humour etc. I have been pushing around writing a piece that might end up being quite long on Mark Twain and Racism, as it pertain
bryanrasmussen
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: How did you switch to part time?
I currently work a full time week for a small ~10 person dev agency. I want to switch to a 3 (or even 4) day work week - reduced hours, not compressed. I’m unsure how to best pitch this. Would love any advice, stories about how you made it work (or failed to), etc. I’m most interested in people who’ve just reduced their existing full time role to part time, but would also love to hear other solutions - switching to contracting, switching jobs, increasing holidays, anything really. As an agency we bill hourly so it’s hourly salary * markup - I.e me working fewer hours = less cost but less profit. That’s why I’m struggling to see how to make this appealing.
Why it failed: I currently work a full time week for a small ~10 person dev agency. I want to switch to a 3 (or even 4) day work week - reduced hours, not compressed. I’m unsure how to best pitch this. Would love any advice, stories about how you made it work (or failed to), etc. I’m most inter
throwaway1178
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: Fast Deep Reinforcement Learning Course
I worked on this applied Deep Reinforcement Learning course for the better part of 2021. I made a Datacamp course [0] before, and this served as my inspiration to make an applied Deep RL series. Normally, Deep RL courses teach a lot of mathematically involved theory. You get the practical applications near the end (if at all). I have tried to turn that on its head. In the top-down approach, you learn practical skills first, then go deeper later. This is much more fun. This course (the first in a planned multi-part series) shows how to use the Deep Reinforcement Learning framework RLlib to solve OpenAI Gym environments. I provide a big-picture overview of RL and show how to use the tools to get the job done. This approach is similar to learning Deep Learning by building and training various deep networks using a high-level framework e.g. Keras. In the next course in the series (open for p
Why it failed: I worked on this applied Deep Reinforcement Learning course for the better part of 2021. I made a Datacamp course [0] before, and this served as my inspiration to make an applied Deep RL series. Normally, Deep RL courses teach a lot of mathematically involved theory. You get the
gh1
- startupShut down2022
Tell HN: Social media made me a worst person
I have been an insider in one of the widely reported news item in my country, and it was a news item I would under normal circumstances take at face value, since it's politics and it's the people I support, or at least did, if not for their unequivocal support for something that I know to be not true, but reported as if, for political purposes. If I wouldn't be familiar with the details I would be inclined to believe what is reported myself. It's not that I have been unaware that such bias can occur, I catch inaccuracies all the time when it comes to my own profession. I however realize that politics created a blind spot for me, along with social media, which I now increasingly rely on for news, because it's fast, and there are no nuances, like in a longer analysis, and because it's social. There is nothing like being surrounded by people who agree with you
Why it failed: I have been an insider in one of the widely reported news item in my country, and it was a news item I would under normal circumstances take at face value, since it's politics and it's the people I support, or at least did, if not for their unequivocal support for somet
Comevius
- startupShut down2022
Tell HN: Current WFH trend (part 2)
I wanted to follow up on my previous post - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27696235 My latest observation at my current company which is "fully-remote": 75% of the new headcount is out of US. Total compensation offered in foreign countries is much cheaper (35-60% lower depending on Canada vs EU vs LatAm vs Asia) than even the lowest pay-tier US regions. Bulk of the gains are flowing to the company's revenue bottomline, and thus to the biggest shareholders (Capital class). A small fraction of those gains is coming to the rank-and-file's pocket via the increased value of their meagre RSUs. To address a big point raised in the previous thread about outsourcing, when we have been trying that since 2000's and why is it a big deal now - with previous rounds of outsourcing, entire project was shipped to a different country. There were neither any &q
Why it failed: I wanted to follow up on my previous post - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27696235 My latest observation at my current company which is "fully-remote": 75% of the new headcount is out of US. Total compensation offered in foreign countries is much c
RestlessMind
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
I realize this is somewhat of a taboo topic but I feel like if there is anywhere we can have a real discussion on mental health it's going to be HN. I have been struggling with depression for as long as I can remember. Life has taken me on ups and downs but as far as I can can tell I'm fairly lucky, well-off and have every reason to be happy. Unfortunately I'm not. I wake up with a pit in my stomach that I carry around all day and no matter how hard I try I just can't shake it. It also gets really bad in waves to the point where I nearly can't function but most of all it makes me procrastinate on almost everything. I usually end up using all my effort just to be a functional member of my team at work. The sad part is that I know that if I didn't have this condition and I was able to sleep when I wanted to I could be many times more productive, not only at wo
Why it failed: I realize this is somewhat of a taboo topic but I feel like if there is anywhere we can have a real discussion on mental health it's going to be HN. I have been struggling with depression for as long as I can remember. Life has taken me on ups and downs but as far as I can c
jpgvm
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Should I move to California or Germany as a SWE with 2 small kids? (pt2)
I asked this same question a week ago[1]. I got lots of really great perspectives which I very much appreciated. Overwhelmingly, people suggested we move to Bavaria. A couple of responders pointed out (I think rightfully) that the answers may have be skewed slightly due to my having posted around 2pm CET. Most of CA was still waking up. I'd like to ask one last time in a more CA-friendly time. Sorry if posting again is noisy. This will be the last time I ask. I'm at a crossroads in my life. My wife and I are trying to figure out if we should move back to California or move to Germany to be closer to her parents. A bit of background: We're in our mid-30s. Both in tech. I'm a software engineer. She's a product manager. I'm American and she's German. We met in SF in 2014 and left together in 2017. We traveled for a while, then moved to Amsterdam where we l
Why it failed: I asked this same question a week ago[1]. I got lots of really great perspectives which I very much appreciated. Overwhelmingly, people suggested we move to Bavaria. A couple of responders pointed out (I think rightfully) that the answers may have be skewed slightly due to my hav
de_or_ca
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Has anyone here worked on the Windows kernel?
Or any other kernel, professionally? I've been offered a position at Microsoft to do kernel development work. This would be a big transition to me, coming from a services background (backend only). The job's main draw to me is doing low-level work. I did some in my very first job, but for the past 10+ years, due to a number of circumstances, I've been in the services world. I really liked being a C programmer and I've kept an eye on things over the years, and did some hobby projects (on x86 and some embedded stuff as well). There's a lot about my current job that I treasure, despite the work itself not being interesting to me about 99% of the time. It's a remote job, the work-life balance is stellar, and I get 25 days of vacation a year (this is in the US), which allows me to spend a lot of quality time with my wife. However, I'm considering leaving bec
Why it failed: Or any other kernel, professionally? I've been offered a position at Microsoft to do kernel development work. This would be a big transition to me, coming from a services background (backend only). The job's main draw to me is doing low-level work. I did some in my very
maybekerneldev
- startupShut down2022
Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job
I'm in a situation where my boss really doesn't get me or understand what I specifically bring to the table. She simply needs something different. I've tried to fit myself into what she needs like a square peg in a round hole. I have a very different vision for my role, and a specific understanding of how my strengths contribute to our team. After a year of trying, coaching, assuming I’m the problem, talking to my skip level, hard convos with my boss, and much more etc I'm finally realizing trying to force myself into something that's simply not going to fit. With all humility I admit it may be me that failed. But life is short, it’s time to move on. Cool story bro, why are you telling me? Well I just want to say, the industry has an obsession with "growth" in performance reviews. But the reality is that growth only works when you build on someone'
Why it failed: I'm in a situation where my boss really doesn't get me or understand what I specifically bring to the table. She simply needs something different. I've tried to fit myself into what she needs like a square peg in a round hole. I have a very different vision for my
throwarayes
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: What happened with Zas Editor?
Just a few months back this was on frontpage of HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30952084. It looked like a promising new text editor but the website https://www.zeditor.app doesn't exist anymore. Did anyone purchase it? I am curious if the project got abandoned because it did not get much traction or if it was some sort of scam.
Why it failed: Just a few months back this was on frontpage of HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30952084. It looked like a promising new text editor but the website https://www.zeditor.app doesn't exist anymore. Did anyone purchase it? I am curious if the p
jatins
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Am I an arrogant or am I surrounded by incompetent people?
I've generally stuck to the mantra in life that "If it smells like shit everywhere you walk, check your shoes". I'm currently a Junior in college - I've had an internship at Amazon last summer and now, for my final summer I have an internship at Google. I go to a state school not really known for CS, although we have a huge CS undergraduate body. A lot of classes in CS require group work - which for the most part, I think is really helpful since most engineering in industry is done in teams. I've had 3 classes where the majority of the grade is made up by projects, and many classes where we do many projects. In each class, I've had to carry the bulk (~90%?) of the workload - half the groups don't know how to code (mostly webapps), and the other half don't care to try. I've tried many approaches - I find that if I recommend tech stacks tha
Why it failed: I've generally stuck to the mantra in life that "If it smells like shit everywhere you walk, check your shoes". I'm currently a Junior in college - I've had an internship at Amazon last summer and now, for my final summer I have an internship at Google. I
AmIAnElitist
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Only person assigned to certain task, and I'm alone and tired
I've been tasked with creating marketing videos for my B2C corp on YouTube, since - I'm the only one who knows how to make videos - No one else is interested The videos include content like: - How-tos - Comedy sketches - Interviews with biz partners Here are the issues I face: - Alone This assignment placed me in a single-person department (myself only), and I've been churning out videos ever since. However, since there's no one to bounce around ideas with (or get inspired by), I find myself alone in a tedium. Working alone puts me in a creative rut, so I've been asking for new ideas from my colleagues, but they don't contribute. They still enjoy watching my new video whenever it comes out. Their reaction makes me both happy and leeched. - No collaborators when needed Furthermore, I produce comedy sketches at the request of my boss, who likes SNL and thinks
Why it failed: I've been tasked with creating marketing videos for my B2C corp on YouTube, since - I'm the only one who knows how to make videos - No one else is interested The videos include content like: - How-tos - Comedy sketches - Interviews with biz partners Here are the issues
tiredthrowaway
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Is RSS dying? Or coming back?
Is RSS still actively developed as a protocol? If not, why not? Are there any viable alternatives on the horizon? I find it really troubling that we seem to have resigned ourselves to web content discovery and distribution belonging to corporations like Google and Meta. Also grateful for any reading recommendations on this subject, both on RSS specifically and on the question of web content discovery/distribution broadly. (I’ve read through most of the stories/posts pronouncing RSS dead or resurrecting it and I’m not convinced either way.)
Why it failed: Is RSS still actively developed as a protocol? If not, why not? Are there any viable alternatives on the horizon? I find it really troubling that we seem to have resigned ourselves to web content discovery and distribution belonging to corporations like Google and Meta. Also grat
bundleunbundle
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: Download Twitter data without API keys
In April last year I started thinking about using Twitter in a smarter way. I wanted to do analytics on my tweets and find out more about people following me on Twitter. What kinds of things do people who follow me like and retweet? I decided to dig into the data and find out. When I went to try and download Twitter data in raw form I found I quickly got bogged down writing API wrangling code and fiddling with API keys. I just wanted to crunch some data but here I was wrangling Twitter's API. This was such a frustrating experience it suddenly looked like an opportunity to me. Was there room for a product here? A product which does one simple thing: help people extract Twitter data painlessly without writing any code. I did some research and discovered some tools that purported to do this, but none of them worked well for my use-case and all were badly designed and/or expensive.
Why it failed: In April last year I started thinking about using Twitter in a smarter way. I wanted to do analytics on my tweets and find out more about people following me on Twitter. What kinds of things do people who follow me like and retweet? I decided to dig into the data and find out. Wh
chr15m
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: How do you create learning plans for skills development
In this dynamic world and specially tech space, there are numerous things coming up and evolving. To stay competitive, we have to improving our skills on technical, business, and other soft skills. As there is a wide variety of things to learn, how do you create learning plans (specific path towards a direction)? Also how do you avoid participating in the sessions which offer beginner-friendly content? How do you find good quality in learning materials? I find most of them offering just basic introductory lessons. But I find them overly repetitive, and want to focus on practical use cases more than theoritical aspects.
Why it failed: In this dynamic world and specially tech space, there are numerous things coming up and evolving. To stay competitive, we have to improving our skills on technical, business, and other soft skills. As there is a wide variety of things to learn, how do you create learning plans (s
adityam582y
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?
I'm a mid 30s male, software developer, married without children. I started playing a video game at the end of 2019, and played every time I could when my wife was not home. Then came 2020, covid lockdowns, also I started getting better at the game (the ladder systems are so addictive) and played more. In 2021 I just didn't care anymore whether my wife was home or not or even if I was supposed to be working and started playing all the time. I'd wake up early to play and would go to bed late to catch up with work I had not done during the day. According to Steam I played over 2.000 hours during 2020 and 2021. Finally I decided I was seriously addicted and uninstalled the game, unsubscribed from everyone related to the game in youtube, quit all discord communities, and it worked. I have been now "clean" for 4 months. But sometimes I crave to go back and play. I wat
Why it failed: I'm a mid 30s male, software developer, married without children. I started playing a video game at the end of 2019, and played every time I could when my wife was not home. Then came 2020, covid lockdowns, also I started getting better at the game (the ladder systems are so
Volrath89
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: To have (system) design sessions or not?
In my team, I suggest that before starting coding/implementing any middle-size/big feature (e.g., an HTTP endpoint that, supposedly, needs a new db table) the engineers involved (which usually involves all the backend engineers) should have a "design" session where: - potential high-level solutions are discussed - potential implementations are discussed (not low-level details, but at least the important/risky ones) - and once a "final" decision is made, whoever is in charge of pushing the feature live to production can start with the implementation. The rest of the team can review the implmentation later on knowing that it should follow the final decision the team agreed on The team doesn't like the approach that much because: - it takes time ("Omg, yet another meeting?") - "review of the design can be done at PR code review time&quo
Why it failed: In my team, I suggest that before starting coding/implementing any middle-size/big feature (e.g., an HTTP endpoint that, supposedly, needs a new db table) the engineers involved (which usually involves all the backend engineers) should have a "design" session
danwee
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around
I've been programming on and off since the age of 16. Unfortunately, I have never been a rockstar programmer. I've always pieced code together from multiple sources to create programs but I've always failed to come up with a solution from scratch of my own and provide any value. I've always wondered how other smart people are able to come up with libraries, services and various solutions from scratch. I've devised countless ideas only to never execute them for various reasons or get started with them only to never fully complete them and see it all the way through. I've already wasted my entire teens and 20s, current 28 years old, working as a software engineer (Full-Stack) at a startup for ~4 years. I've been feeling like a loser and not good enough for this career even though I am a sole developer for Mobile and Web platforms at this startup in a very
Why it failed: I've been programming on and off since the age of 16. Unfortunately, I have never been a rockstar programmer. I've always pieced code together from multiple sources to create programs but I've always failed to come up with a solution from scratch of my own and prov
RoseBuckler
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: How do a prepare mentally for war?
I've seen some posts here about preparing for a nuclear attack, but I don't think I'm prepared mentally for war of any kind. I grew up in the UK during the 90s so I've obviously had a very sheltered life. The two most difficult things I've ever gone through is losing a job and having my heart broken. If nuclear war happened, assuming I survived I'm not sure I'd be able to cope with the real suffering that would follow. I'm also not sure how I'd cope if I was drafted into a more conventional war. The idea of being cold, dump, tried and hungry for weeks on end seems unbearable to me. I also have no idea how I'd cope without seeing my partner for what could be months not knowing if she's safe, or even still alive. I'm terrified that the world I was raised for will not be my future. I am scared and I've not been able to focus o
Why it failed: I've seen some posts here about preparing for a nuclear attack, but I don't think I'm prepared mentally for war of any kind. I grew up in the UK during the 90s so I've obviously had a very sheltered life. The two most difficult things I've ever gone throu
kypro
- startupShut down2022
Tell HN: I was tired of being a perfectionist so I built an app within 24 hours
Like probably many of you, I'm kind of a perfectionist coder/creator. Recently I'd been bookmarking interesting dark mode sites just because I liked their aesthetic, and because for some of the SaaS I want to make, I wanted to make it dark mode first rather than light mode like most sites, so I was looking for inspiration. I'd amassed around 20-30 and I told my friends about these cool sites yesterday. They mentioned that me linking to each one was kind of annoying and they wanted to see all of them at once, similar to how Awwwards and other web design inspiration directories worked. I thought a making a dark mode directory was a great idea as I could just link one site to my friends rather than bombarding them with links. I'd previously worked on other projects but I always spent too long nitpicking every detail. It always took so long that I lost interest after
Why it failed: Like probably many of you, I'm kind of a perfectionist coder/creator. Recently I'd been bookmarking interesting dark mode sites just because I liked their aesthetic, and because for some of the SaaS I want to make, I wanted to make it dark mode first rather than li
satvikpendem
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Has GitHub stars become a gamed metric?
It seems that FOSS and “open core” has become a hard requirement to gain street cred, especially for dev tools. Businesses and VC-backed projects are doing it, but they need to monetize, somehow. For established businesses, they have lots of resources and sharing a wide range of tools that are orthogonal to their core business, and low risk. For startups, they go with the open core model for their flagship product. I’ve noticed some VC backed startups having thousands of GitHub stars but very little online presence, sometimes with zero references on HackerNews. Also, merge requests go abandoned or closed when you dig deeper. Has fraud detection proof bots for GitHub become more prevalent and accessible?
Why it failed: It seems that FOSS and “open core” has become a hard requirement to gain street cred, especially for dev tools. Businesses and VC-backed projects are doing it, but they need to monetize, somehow. For established businesses, they have lots of resources and sharing a wide range of
diceduckmonk
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: Infisical – open-source secrets manager
Last month, we open-sourced Infisical ( https://github.com/Infisical/infisical ) - a simple, end-to-end encrypted tool to sync environment variables across your team and infrastructure. You can use it to store environment variables and inject them into your applications locally or into CI/CD and production infrastructure. It can be used with any language/framework and is platform independent with a super easy setup. We know secret managers exist but, in our experience, they’re too complicated, not comprehensive, not user-friendly, or a mix of all three — other nicer ones are closed-source and don’t have self-hosted options available. That’s why we’re on a mission to make secret management more accessible to every developer — not just security teams. We’ve launched this repo under the MIT license so any developer can use the tool. The goal is to not charge in
Why it failed: Last month, we open-sourced Infisical ( https://github.com/Infisical/infisical ) - a simple, end-to-end encrypted tool to sync environment variables across your team and infrastructure. You can use it to store environment variables and inject them into your ap
vmatsiiako
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: As someone living in Russia, how can I prepare for Internet shutdowns?
I'm currently living in Moscow. It looks like the government will soon very heavily crack down on any uncontrolled ways to get information. This might include blocking of websites, shutdowns of VPNs and outright Internet shutdown. What can I do to prepare for this and still have access to the Internet? If you have any relevant experience from similar situations, please share!
Why it failed: I'm currently living in Moscow. It looks like the government will soon very heavily crack down on any uncontrolled ways to get information. This might include blocking of websites, shutdowns of VPNs and outright Internet shutdown. What can I do to prepare for this and still
exizt88