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 down2019
Ask HN: Is anyone still using Meteor framework?
I remember they made quite a fuzz 5 years ago, but now after I checked it after some years it seems they are done. Anyone knows how MDG the company is doing? It seems this startup have failed. They seemed so promising at the time...
Why it failed: I remember they made quite a fuzz 5 years ago, but now after I checked it after some years it seems they are done. Anyone knows how MDG the company is doing? It seems this startup have failed. They seemed so promising at the time...
natashas
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: How do you stay disciplined in the long run?
My typical cycle of execution is something like this Find out something through HN/Reddit/Other medium --> Get motivated --> Get good knowledge about it through research --> See others succeed, get motivated a bit more --> Execute and get to, say, 25-50% of the journey --> Get bored --> Abandon --> be passive for couple of months --> repeat. Be it creating new websites or new products (probably the reason I have not launched something as a personal project, despite having tried like 10-11 of them with varying degree of success), weight loss journey, running, meditation etc. I have tried breaking things into manageable chunks and then taking them one-by-one, or through methodologies like GTD, or by making others accountable (tough to find someone who takes personal interest in what I would do; also, I have strongly come to perceive myself as being driven
Why it failed: My typical cycle of execution is something like this Find out something through HN/Reddit/Other medium --> Get motivated --> Get good knowledge about it through research --> See others succeed, get motivated a bit more --> Execute and get to, say, 25-50% of
djangovm
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: How do you manage long hours vs. spending time with loved ones?
I've been experiencing a problem over the last few years and am asking for help on how to solve. I work a lot of variable hours/travel (startup) and my spouse works as a nurse so her schedule is all over the place as well. We can't seem to find a way to manage our schedules very well. What ends up happening is we go extended amounts of time without an overlap in free time and then miss out on dates, time with friends, etc. We both love our work so quitting isn't exactly helpful. Some things we've tried: Shared Google Calendar: This works well but we never actually update. Its tedious too. And we don't like sharing exactly what we're doing with our friends to coordinate schedules with. I'd prefer the calendar just said busy 9-9 not 9-11am doctors appointment, 12-3pm taking son to therapy,etc, etc. This is just a simple example Paper/Pen - This
Why it failed: I've been experiencing a problem over the last few years and am asking for help on how to solve. I work a lot of variable hours/travel (startup) and my spouse works as a nurse so her schedule is all over the place as well. We can't seem to find a way to manage our
raleigh_user
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: We are shutting down our startup, I get our code. What now?
I'm a technical co-founder and invested a lot of time building our website, app, backend and CMS over two years. My co-founder recently decided to shut the company down, focusing on what he/she does best rather than being reliant on tech/design loops by making our amazing designer create a Shopify site that he/she can manage him/herself. Without going into details, it is fair but we will need to have serious talk once everything has settled so I can move forward. Anyhow, as my payment for these past years, I get to sell whatever we have created, code wise, and get the dough for it. The problem is that I have no clue how to properly handle a sell like this. There is a bunch of new startups that has recently popped up, doing what we initially did with a caveat; they lack an app for it, currently hustling to make things work. So there might be a pretty good possibil
Why it failed: I'm a technical co-founder and invested a lot of time building our website, app, backend and CMS over two years. My co-founder recently decided to shut the company down, focusing on what he/she does best rather than being reliant on tech/design loops by making our
sad_cofounder
- startupShut down2019
4/7 Engineer
I've been at a new job for about a month. So far it's great, catered meals, WFH days, nice work-life balance and so-on. Yesterday I had my first 1:1 with my manager, in which he told me the company has rated me as a "4 out of 7" in terms of skill. The conversation was pretty friendly, we were laughing etc. but as the day went on I kept thinking "4 out of 7? Based on what metrics?". I asked my manager what the rating is based on over Slack, no response. Later in the day after we had talked about other stuff, asked again briefly, no response. What the job has been like so far: • I worked with design in my 1st week to prototype 3 different design systems in CRA apps – basically todo-list apps using different UI libraries. The goal was to see which React app was easiest for designers or Rails devs (and anyone else who is anti-styled components) to jump in and mo
Why it failed: I've been at a new job for about a month. So far it's great, catered meals, WFH days, nice work-life balance and so-on. Yesterday I had my first 1:1 with my manager, in which he told me the company has rated me as a "4 out of 7" in terms of skill. The conversa
exactchange
- startupShut down2019
Pingdom discontinues free plan
Just got this email "To ensure the best possible product experience for SolarWinds® Pingdom® users, and to focus our resources and investment on this next phase of our product development, we will no longer offer our free plans as of February 6, 2019. To continue enjoying the benefits of Pingdom, all free users will need to sign up for a paid subscription plan option by this date."
Why it failed: Just got this email "To ensure the best possible product experience for SolarWinds® Pingdom® users, and to focus our resources and investment on this next phase of our product development, we will no longer offer our free plans as of February 6, 2019. To continue enjoying th
siquick
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?
I'm at my wits end with big tech platforms. I run a popular photography product company (which was a Kickstarter project in 2014) [0] which gets a lot of love for its ability to help photographers take interesting images. But I'm continually running into walls with BigTechCos. I'm just coming off the end of having had my Instagram account deleted by Facebook because a graffiti artist and his trolls were able to flag my IG account and left me unable to appeal[1]. 20k followers, 4 years of work gone. My entire customer base is primarily on IG and they are shocked to find that I'm not; so I feel the pain every day and the fact that I'm no longer advertising on FB because of it is a loss-loss in my opinion. Can not explain how upsetting it is for me. To add insult to injury Amazon randomly delisted my product. I randomly received an email that they removed me [2]. I
Why it failed: I'm at my wits end with big tech platforms. I run a popular photography product company (which was a Kickstarter project in 2014) [0] which gets a lot of love for its ability to help photographers take interesting images. But I'm continually running into walls with BigT
nikkwong
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Life after corporate job
I’m a guy, late 30s, 20+ years of programming experience. Active developer in C++, C, Python, Java presently (also Perl, Javascript, PostScript, Clojure, PHP, Fortran, build systems, Linux). I’ve been in big corporate (investment bank) environments for 10+ years. Overall, it has been great, I learnt a lot about large-scale systems and governance, traveled the word, all that stuff. I have realized that I’m approaching the end of the road with this line of work, and I want to get back to actual hacking on something more manageable again. I want to be building up something of long-term value (to me) over time. I have had a few little side-projects carved out over the years where I can just work on one well-defined thing, like rewrite an old system with the same interfaces but 10x faster, and I did well with those projects. How can I start, or be involved in, something more rewarding? I did
Why it failed: I’m a guy, late 30s, 20+ years of programming experience. Active developer in C++, C, Python, Java presently (also Perl, Javascript, PostScript, Clojure, PHP, Fortran, build systems, Linux). I’ve been in big corporate (investment bank) environments for 10+ years. Overall, it has
throwawaymlc
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Coping when your client is an asshole?
I'm a project manager for a ~60 person software dev firm. One project I'm on is with a large American enterprise, and the product owner and his direct manager are absolute assholes. I've got 8 developers that I try to shield from accusatory questions and extremely aggressive and borderline abusive behaviour. In the beginning we we all agreed not to take anything personally and to let it just roll off the back. We agreed to tighten up our processes and try to avoid confrontations by being super proactive with all our work, but we're coming close to the launch date, and it's getting worse as more pressure mounts. Ordinarily, we would have dropped the client by now and refused to put up with the end-justifies-the-means tactics, but unfortunately our company could not survive without this and a handful of other projects we have with this client. My company is activel
Why it failed: I'm a project manager for a ~60 person software dev firm. One project I'm on is with a large American enterprise, and the product owner and his direct manager are absolute assholes. I've got 8 developers that I try to shield from accusatory questions and extremely
codinginhell
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Random upper back pain is ruining my life. At wits end. Anyone else?
I'm writing in total desperation. I feel like I can't make it through another day of meaningless, constant back pain. I've had it on and off for 7 years now, since I was 24 (now 31) It's this weird vibrating, tingling, burning, muscle sore combination that moves between the left side of my neck, under my shoulder blade, my left trap, and sort of out to the back of my ribs right below my shoulder blade. The pain moves around and sometimes I'll get a similar feeling on the other side of my body which makes it all the more confusing. I've been to doctor after doctor after doctor and I have absolute no more info then when I started. I'm on the verge of quitting my job because I feel like I can't go through another day tomorrow. The only thing I've ever correlated with more or less pain is how hydrated I am (ie less pain if more hydrated) and even
Why it failed: I'm writing in total desperation. I feel like I can't make it through another day of meaningless, constant back pain. I've had it on and off for 7 years now, since I was 24 (now 31) It's this weird vibrating, tingling, burning, muscle sore combination that mov
anm89
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?
In other words, how do you decide between what you want to work on and what should be worked on? I've been stuck with trying to figure what to do with the rest of my life. I can't decide whether I should be working on what I want to work on (Energy, AI) or whether I should work on what I believe should be worked on (Healthcare). It's a short life, so I want to be careful with this decision, to avoid any future regrets. Because I can't decide on this, I end up not getting anything done. Time continues to march on, while I'm still stuck with not knowing what to do. Has anyone had any experience with this before? If yes, then what and how did you make your decision? What was the outcome? Is there a middle ground or silver lining, where you managed to work on both cases?
Why it failed: In other words, how do you decide between what you want to work on and what should be worked on? I've been stuck with trying to figure what to do with the rest of my life. I can't decide whether I should be working on what I want to work on (Energy, AI) or whether I sho
amadk
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Are there any decent image hosts left?
With mixtape.moe shutting down, I'm not sure where to move to. What do you prefer to use?
Why it failed: With mixtape.moe shutting down, I'm not sure where to move to. What do you prefer to use?
lohszvu
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: How do you deal with atomicity in microservice environments?
We run a small SaaS where users are able to create accounts, submit billing information and upload/call ML artefacts. In order to not reinvent the wheel we use external services where possible: Auth0 for authentication, Stripe for handling billing, etc. For this question, I am considering this a 'microservices' architecture. I am aware that this definition will spark its own discussion, but I believe that the problem generalises to a lot of the other (better, more complete, etc.) microservice definitions. So please, bear with me. Now, in the lifecycle of a customer (createAccount, addBilling, deleteAccount, ...) at various points we expect operations to occur atomically. By which I mean (simplified) that upon creating a new account, I also need to ensure a customer is created in Stripe as well as register the user in Auth0 - but if either of these subtasks fail, the operat
Why it failed: We run a small SaaS where users are able to create accounts, submit billing information and upload/call ML artefacts. In order to not reinvent the wheel we use external services where possible: Auth0 for authentication, Stripe for handling billing, etc. For this question, I
c89X
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Quilt (YC W16) – A versioned data portal for S3
We're Aneesh and Kevin of Quilt ( https://open.quiltdata.com/ ). Quilt is a versioned data portal for S3 that makes it easier to share, discover, model, and decide based on data at scale. It consists of a Python client, web catalog, and lambda functions (all open source), plus a suite of backend containers and CloudFormation templates for businesses to run their own stacks. Public data are free. Private stacks are available for a flat monthly licensing fee. Try searching for anything on https://open.quiltdata.com/ and let us know how search works for you. We kind of surprised ourselves with a Google-like experience that returns primary data instead of links to web pages. We've got over 1M Jupyter notebooks, 100M Amazon reviews, and many more public S3 objects on over a dozen topics indexed in ElasticSearch. The best example, so far, of "S3 buc
Why it failed: We're Aneesh and Kevin of Quilt ( https://open.quiltdata.com/ ). Quilt is a versioned data portal for S3 that makes it easier to share, discover, model, and decide based on data at scale. It consists of a Python client, web catalog, and lambda functions (all o
akarve
- startupShut down2019
The Inquirer reaches end-of-life
The Inquirer is closing the curtains. This is sad, I loved their style. https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3084741/the-inquirer-reaches-end-of-life
Why it failed: The Inquirer is closing the curtains. This is sad, I loved their style. https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3084741/the-inquirer-reaches-end-of-life
FpUser
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Why Services like Facebook ads/stripe are closing Venezuelan accounts?
Services like Facebook ads/stripe are wrongly closing Venezuelan accounts Venezuelan users have been reporting that different services such as facebook/instagram ads [1], heroku services [2], stripe atlas [3], sedo [4], and others, have been blocking venezuelan users and terminating accounts due to sactions that they didn't even care to read, the sactions are pretty explicit at targeting only individuals and officials of the government [5] and there is even licences that allow these services to operate [6] and a faq [7] where this is explained Even kayak.com (and all booking holdings sites) stopped accepting venezuela as a country of origin for flights, (see: https://i.imgur.com/nAouvUB.png) with a learn more link that goes to [5], and it makes no sense at all despite how much we need to buy plane tickets as people is fleeing the country. So, what's the
Why it failed: Services like Facebook ads/stripe are wrongly closing Venezuelan accounts Venezuelan users have been reporting that different services such as facebook/instagram ads [1], heroku services [2], stripe atlas [3], sedo [4], and others, have been blocking venezuelan users an
firekvz
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: How does someone in India access the internet when taken down?
Title is the question. I'm currently living in India, and want to understand what I can do to retain internet access when the government attempts to take it down. Currently, the government run ISP appears to be shutting down, while private ISPs have not yet. I understand systems, networks not so much. - What are terms I should google to get good information? - What technology is useful in this situation? Is there some way to access the internet still? - How do I most easily setup a mesh network for communication? - What books/manuals should I keep at hand?
Why it failed: Title is the question. I'm currently living in India, and want to understand what I can do to retain internet access when the government attempts to take it down. Currently, the government run ISP appears to be shutting down, while private ISPs have not yet. I understand sys
bollu
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: What happens to failed founders?
What happens, longer-term, to the founders that fail? There's many forms of failure, according to PG [1] it's simply a matter of "keep going, don't get demoralized", but from my limited perspective (I've never started a startup) it's more complicated than that, you can also literally run out of money (either personally, or as a company not getting more investment), or you can rationally decide to stop because the value proposition just isn't there in the market (noone needs it, or they need it but aren't willing to pay enough for it to sustain it). So, my conclusion is that startups sometimes fail for "good" reasons. What happens to founders afterwards? Do they start another startup? Do they continue in a "job" (career)? Do they start from scratch or move immediately into a management position? Are investors willing to inve
Why it failed: What happens, longer-term, to the founders that fail? There's many forms of failure, according to PG [1] it's simply a matter of "keep going, don't get demoralized", but from my limited perspective (I've never started a startup) it's more compli
tomp
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?
Using throwaway for obvious reasons... I'm feeling pretty bad. Until now (I'm 45, SE for 20 years) I've been able to be successful by working hard and never quitting but I think that personality trait has been my demise this time. I've worked full-time on a bootstrapped SaaS (niche academic domain) for over 3 years now. Went live on January 1 with 50 or so beta testers (free account and support for a year) which gave me plenty of encouragement, feedback, features, etc. Officially launched in July and everything has gone silent. I don't think I can convert any of the original testers as they've all gone to ground. I've produced some excellent content and tried my best to get it out there but it seems no one is interested (plenty of reads but no sharing, no likes, no backlinks, no conversions, no comments, nothing). I'm 100% sure we offer a way bette
Why it failed: Using throwaway for obvious reasons... I'm feeling pretty bad. Until now (I'm 45, SE for 20 years) I've been able to be successful by working hard and never quitting but I think that personality trait has been my demise this time. I've worked full-time on a bo
throw_your_boat
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Been self-employed for 18 years, am I hirable?
Throwaway account here, but been on HN for a long time. I'm going through a big life change, and this post is going to ramble a bit. But I need your help, HN. I've also been running my own business for a long time, mostly B2B consulting/development/training in the Microsoft/Office world. But I don't want to be pigeon-holed. For my own company, however, I've done a lot. I've written many, many chatbots with various functionalities for many platforms (some incorporating NLP—spacy.io is a particular favorite of mine); developed many non-throwaway, high quality apps/services with NodeJS, Python (Django), and Ruby (Rails); done video post-production and ingestion automation (latter via AWS, including Lambda); created many custom Wordpress plugins and themes; created more back-end mashups (NodeJS/Python/Ruby native, or via NodeRED/Hug
Why it failed: Throwaway account here, but been on HN for a long time. I'm going through a big life change, and this post is going to ramble a bit. But I need your help, HN. I've also been running my own business for a long time, mostly B2B consulting/development/training in
hirable_taway
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Termius (YC W19) – SSH client that works on desktop and mobile
We are Roman and Dmitry, co-founders of Termius ( https://termius.com ). Termius is an SSH client that works on desktop and mobile. The big difference with other SSH clients that Termius syncs data across devices using end-to-end encryption. DevOps, sysadmins, and network engineers benefit from using Termius because they can keep all the information for managing their servers in one secure place, e.g., snippets, connection strings, history, etc. Our product vision is to rebuild the command line experience around an engineer, not around the mainframe where it all started. For example, Termius will help engineers to safely keep information about their servers, shell commands, and terminal logs. This information will be accessible from any device and used to improve productivity, e.g., autocomplete commands in the terminal. Dmitry and I met when we both got our first job in a smal
Why it failed: We are Roman and Dmitry, co-founders of Termius ( https://termius.com ). Termius is an SSH client that works on desktop and mobile. The big difference with other SSH clients that Termius syncs data across devices using end-to-end encryption. DevOps, sysadmins, and netwo
rkudiyarov
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: How do you take care of your hands?
This question may seem like it's coming out of the blue but I realize that we as technology professionals use our hands in unique ways that lead to unique conditions, for example I suffer from hangnails a lot and I know RSI is a deep concern -- What are your ways of helping your hands deal with constant computer use?
Why it failed: This question may seem like it's coming out of the blue but I realize that we as technology professionals use our hands in unique ways that lead to unique conditions, for example I suffer from hangnails a lot and I know RSI is a deep concern -- What are your ways of helping
artsyca
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: Started a new job and their existing code sucks. What to do?
How do you guys deal when you start a new programming job and the company's existing code needs a full refactoring (or to be totally rewritten)? I started this new job and the current code is so spaghetti that it's almost an Italian restaurant. No good practices are being followed, there are no tests, huge components that should be modularized, no organized architecture at all. The current developers working on that code aren't very experienced and, even though they acknowledge that some refactoring is necessary, they don't think that's a priority (and that we should focus on bug fixing). However, the thing is so messy that they've been spending the last few months just bug fixing - while refactoring the code would have solved most of their problems. What would you do? Just don't care and keep doing what you're told to do (bug fixing/closing G
Why it failed: How do you guys deal when you start a new programming job and the company's existing code needs a full refactoring (or to be totally rewritten)? I started this new job and the current code is so spaghetti that it's almost an Italian restaurant. No good practices are bei
riwasabi
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: What front end tools do you find yourself most productive with?
I am poking around for a new tool to learn as a mainly backend developer and coming to the conclusion that HTML, CSS and JS seem to be yesterday's options. I'm left wondering; if you were learning today and wanted to get proficient fast, what would you learn? Typescript? React? Vue? Purescript? Bucklescript? Bulma? Bootstrap 4? (to only name a few) I realize there are categories such as styling kits, frameworks or UI libraries, but are there any that stand out as diamonds in the rough for quality of developer life or productivity rate in their category or overall?
Why it failed: I am poking around for a new tool to learn as a mainly backend developer and coming to the conclusion that HTML, CSS and JS seem to be yesterday's options. I'm left wondering; if you were learning today and wanted to get proficient fast, what would you learn? Typescript
starlingforge