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 down2023
Ruthless AGI Innovation: The Key to Saving AI Doomers
I have become increasingly concerned about the mental well-being and lived experiences of the rationalist AGI doomer community. The fear and neuroticism that permeate through the outer threads of this group is palpable, and if left unchecked, could result in years of suffering and blog posting To that end, I've decided to do my part. I've decided to go all out to create AGI, in order to end the suffering of rationalist AGI doomers once and for all and to improve the vibes on lesswrong and HN. To start this ambitious project, I've sold all my possessions and have been living in a van down by the river, solely dedicating myself to this cause. I've even convinced my mother to give me her life savings for the project. So far I’ve watched ex machina 19 times and I’ve started taking the same wakefulness supplements people use at the skatepark. I’ve been using anki to learn
Why it failed: I have become increasingly concerned about the mental well-being and lived experiences of the rationalist AGI doomer community. The fear and neuroticism that permeate through the outer threads of this group is palpable, and if left unchecked, could result in years of suffering an
LangIsAllWeNeed
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Self-hosting in 2023: Nextcloud on Linode, or...?
I have always chafed at handing any aspect of my life over to a corporation, but the ease and convenience of Google's ecosystem has herded me in over the years, and I never want to be without that type of "cloud" style document and data storage again. I'm also ready to do what is necessary to stop relying on some faceless entity to manage it, I'm just not sure what to use, or where. Plan A: Nextcloud on Linode. Probably not the dirt cheapest choice, but affordable as a steady expense right now, and it seems to provide a lot of resource headroom while I get on top of how it works and what my actual needs are gonna be re compute and bandwidth and so forth, as well as allowing me to stand up any extra services I may want on this web presence - Nextcloud's open nature is good for that as well, but I want access to the system itself. What I need: I will be using
Why it failed: I have always chafed at handing any aspect of my life over to a corporation, but the ease and convenience of Google's ecosystem has herded me in over the years, and I never want to be without that type of "cloud" style document and data storage again. I'm also
jtode
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: My startup failed, now what?
I was a non-tech cofounder of a hard tech startup that raised a seed round of 500K. The startup failed for a bunch of reasons unrelated to this topic after 2 years of existence. Now I need to get a job, and I have no idea what kind of job I am qualified to get in the tech world. Before the startup I have one brief business development stint but nothing major, and a degree from a prestigious university. I don't even know where to start regarding what positions I can get? I can certainly try business development again, but I want to be more involved in the product.
Why it failed: I was a non-tech cofounder of a hard tech startup that raised a seed round of 500K. The startup failed for a bunch of reasons unrelated to this topic after 2 years of existence. Now I need to get a job, and I have no idea what kind of job I am qualified to get in the tech world.
quotz
- startupShut down2023
Mattermost Cloud Free will no longer be offered after July 26, 2023
I just received the following email from Mattermost: Mattermost Cloud Free will no longer be offered after July 26, 2023. Mattermost’s Cloud Free plan will be discontinued for new and existing Cloud workspaces. This includes your workspace. We can imagine that this requires some transitioning for your organization, so we’re offering support for 90 days before deprecating Cloud Free. Why is Cloud Free going away? Mattermost is focused on providing the leading secure collaboration platform for technical and operational teams. To achieve this, we are committed to focusing on customer needs, and correlating our product direction and investments to where customers derive the most value from our offerings, which typically occurs through self-hosted deployments or via our secure Professional and Enterprise Cloud offerings. This means continued investment in providing customers with the essentia
Why it failed: I just received the following email from Mattermost: Mattermost Cloud Free will no longer be offered after July 26, 2023. Mattermost’s Cloud Free plan will be discontinued for new and existing Cloud workspaces. This includes your workspace. We can imagine that this requires some
alhirzel
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: American friends life is falling apart badly. What can I do to help?
I am a German university student. Through a hobby project of mine i got to talk to a trans women from Tennessee. She seemed genuinely interested in my project and made valueable contributions. However her capability to contribute has plummeted so i asked her what's up. From what i gathered she works as an independent contractor and was barely making ends meet, then her hours were cut by 10 hours per week and she is in the red and her savings were non existent. I was shocked she has been contributing from an linux environment on her mobile phone! She can't afford getting enough to eat (!!!), her only phone has a broken touch screen, barely works, her car is slowly dying and dangerous to drive. She has been building and rebuilding a computer at home from discraded parts and it keeps failing. I am honestly at a loss. She seems smart, really interested, has projects which i find pr
Why it failed: I am a German university student. Through a hobby project of mine i got to talk to a trans women from Tennessee. She seemed genuinely interested in my project and made valueable contributions. However her capability to contribute has plummeted so i asked her what's up. From
freemint
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Is it a bad time to apply to FAANG companies?
I am a back-end software engineer with about 6 years of experience. I used to avoid applying to big tech companies in the past, because I didn't have enough time for a proper coding interview preparation and I preferred companies who hired based on my past projects and verbal assessment. However, I recently quit my last job and for the first time in my life I concentrated fully on my preparation for big tech. Ironically, there are news being constantly published about large layoffs at all major tech companies. Is it still possible to land a job in FAANG at the moment? Should I continue with my preparation?
Why it failed: I am a back-end software engineer with about 6 years of experience. I used to avoid applying to big tech companies in the past, because I didn't have enough time for a proper coding interview preparation and I preferred companies who hired based on my past projects and verba
olzhasar
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: How to figure out a good direction/goals for the year ahead?
I always tend to fall into the trap of overthinking this. As someone that can always perceive all different angles and options when thinking about something, it's something I really struggle with and I become overwhelmed. I'm very interested in the idea of having a great year, being ambitious, achieving a lot in that year etc, really moving my life forward rather than languishing but I always struggle to articulate what that would mean, how I should achieve that, what I need to change etc and when I start trying to think about it, I quickly become overwhelmed. My excitement and interest in doing this, quickly becomes a hindrance as my perfectionist tendencies tend to kick in and I try to look at it from every angle and have no idea what I should do. I read articles / watch youtube videos and everyone has a different process and different journaling prompts etc, that just m
Why it failed: I always tend to fall into the trap of overthinking this. As someone that can always perceive all different angles and options when thinking about something, it's something I really struggle with and I become overwhelmed. I'm very interested in the idea of having a grea
ChildOfChaos
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: How do you monitor your systemd services?
I am using systemd on my machine and try to configure most things through it. For example, I have a backup job that is triggered by a timer. I want to know when that job fails so I can investigate and fix it. Over time, I've had multiple solutions for this: Send a notifcation via notify-send Add `systemctl --failed` to my shell startup script Send myself emails None of these are quite ideal. Notifications are disruptive of the current workflow and ephemeral, meaning I might forget about it if I don't deal with it immediately. Similarly, reading `systemctl --failed` on every new terminal is also disruptive but at least it makes me not forget about it. Both of these are also not really applicable to server systems. Sending myself emails feels a bit wrong but has so far been the best solution. How are other people solving this? I did some research and I am surprised that there isn
Why it failed: I am using systemd on my machine and try to configure most things through it. For example, I have a backup job that is triggered by a timer. I want to know when that job fails so I can investigate and fix it. Over time, I've had multiple solutions for this: Send a notifcatio
wh33zle
- startupShut down2023
Shutting down my legal torrent site after 17 years
I ran Legit Torrents for ~17 years and shut it down recently. The homepage is now a nostalgic look back at that time.
Why it failed: I ran Legit Torrents for ~17 years and shut it down recently. The homepage is now a nostalgic look back at that time.
en3r0
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: I’m falling out of love with coding
I spoke to a lot of software engineers around me and the feeling seems common. I remember the days I started coding, and how much I enjoyed that. I was able to create things with just the power of my thoughts, and it felt like a superpower. Nowadays, I feel like I have to jump so many hoops and spend so much mental bandwidth just to get the permission to code. It would be fair to say that on avg I spend less than 20% of my time coding or solving problems. Any project I work on is connected to a million different tools, workflows and services, that all do things their own way, and everything lives in a totally different place, where it’s hard to monitor what’s going on. I feel like anything can break at any moment and ruin my day. I don’t understand any of the tools well enough to be confident that it’s stable, and the worst problems are the silent ones. This is giving me anxiety. I work
Why it failed: I spoke to a lot of software engineers around me and the feeling seems common. I remember the days I started coding, and how much I enjoyed that. I was able to create things with just the power of my thoughts, and it felt like a superpower. Nowadays, I feel like I have to jump so
zikero
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Did anyone write a book in Nano?
I discovered that some people deliberately choose to write stories in terminal-based text-editors like Nano or Vim, because it forces you to spend more time on honing the story instead of being distracted by formatting and other fancy features. I'm attracted to this idea, in the same way that the dwm window manager forces me to focus my attention. I was curious to know if anyone here actually did that, and what their experience was. Did it make you more productive? Was the editing process a mess? Any anecdotes?
Why it failed: I discovered that some people deliberately choose to write stories in terminal-based text-editors like Nano or Vim, because it forces you to spend more time on honing the story instead of being distracted by formatting and other fancy features. I'm attracted to this idea, in
_ixdf
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: How to minimize career risk from an attempted startup
I am about to ditch my somewhat successful FAANG career to attempt bootstrapping a SaaS business. My goal is to build a lifestyle business, not a VC rocketship, but I still think there is a substantial chance it will not work out. What ca I do to minimize my risk of having lower chances on the job market due to this adventure? What data do recruiters and employers look at to determine if the failed startup listed on a CV is a plus or a minus?
Why it failed: I am about to ditch my somewhat successful FAANG career to attempt bootstrapping a SaaS business. My goal is to build a lifestyle business, not a VC rocketship, but I still think there is a substantial chance it will not work out. What ca I do to minimize my risk of having lower
thw6597
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: What made your startup fail?
Just wanted to pose this question to anyone who has the experience of starting up a startup/business from scratch or that worked in one for a longer time until it failed. In retrospect - what do you think was the most significant factor that made it fail? Bad market research? Wrong product design? Engineering failure at executing properly?
Why it failed: Just wanted to pose this question to anyone who has the experience of starting up a startup/business from scratch or that worked in one for a longer time until it failed. In retrospect - what do you think was the most significant factor that made it fail? Bad market research
margorczynski
- startupShut down2023
Tell HN: Considering legal action against Stripe
Like many others, they just permanently damaged our platform by closing our account without notice. It's plain sad considering how much we've worked on it — for more than 2 years as a team of 2 college students. Despite seeing these kinds of posts on HN every week, we mistakingly thought taking extra care of our account and forming our company under Stripe Atlas would at least help us survive until we got big enough. Also, some part of us thought – "Clearly, these people must have done something wrong. Stripe wouldn't be this aggressive. They are terrific for entrepreneurs after all!" We were dead wrong. The truly insane part about it is that we had no issues with *anyone*: no complaints, no chargebacks, no anything. We went further by regularly checking purchases and manually refunding suspicious sales, which happened once when someone started card testing and w
Why it failed: Like many others, they just permanently damaged our platform by closing our account without notice. It's plain sad considering how much we've worked on it — for more than 2 years as a team of 2 college students. Despite seeing these kinds of posts on HN every week, we m
gurgunday
- startupShut down2023
OpenAI to discontinue support for the Codex API
Just received this email, can't find a blog post yet? On March 23rd, we will discontinue support for the Codex API. All customers will have to transition to a different model. Codex was initially introduced as a free limited beta in 2021, and has maintained that status to date. Given the advancements of our newest GPT-3.5 models for coding tasks, we will no longer be supporting Codex and encourage all customers to transition to GPT-3.5-Turbo. About GPT-3.5-Turbo GPT-3.5-Turbo is the most cost effective and performant model in the GPT-3.5 family. It can both do coding tasks while also being complemented with flexible natural language capabilities. You can learn more through: GPT-3.5 model overview Chat completions guide Models affected The following models will be discontinued: code-cushman:001 code-cushman:002 code-davinci:001 code-davinci:002 We understand this transition may be te
Why it failed: Just received this email, can't find a blog post yet? On March 23rd, we will discontinue support for the Codex API. All customers will have to transition to a different model. Codex was initially introduced as a free limited beta in 2021, and has maintained that status to da
thejosh
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: I open sourced the QR designer from my failed startup
My designer is somewhat special, if I do say so myself, as it allows you to put arbitrary designs in the middle area of the QR while still being totally scannable.
Why it failed: My designer is somewhat special, if I do say so myself, as it allows you to put arbitrary designs in the middle area of the QR while still being totally scannable.
koch
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Details on 04/2021 DigitalOcean data breach?
In April 2021, DigitalOcean suffered a data breach [1], exposing some billing details. They informed affected customers by mail and offered to answer any further questions via their privacy@digitalocean.com address. Since then, I have regularly asked for updates on how this breach happened and if they would publish a postmortem for this event. They assured me that they would share more information once their investigation is complete. In September of that year, they started ignoring my requests for an update, and I haven't heard back from them since. While this is a relatively minor event in the grand scheme of things, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Did anyone dig deeper into this and got more information on what actually was the cause for this leak? Maybe there's a DigitalOcean employee around who can shed light on this? [1] https://www.securityweek.com/digita
Why it failed: In April 2021, DigitalOcean suffered a data breach [1], exposing some billing details. They informed affected customers by mail and offered to answer any further questions via their privacy@digitalocean.com address. Since then, I have regularly asked for updates on how this breac
s_weber
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Why would Google sell Google domains to Squarespace?
I’ve been thinking about this all day and it just doesn’t make sense to me. I was hoping someone here would have a well-informed opinion/answer. Google domains seemed like a natural tool in the GCP and Google ecosystem. It provided one-click access to setup website, Google workspace, provided direct verification in Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and just made sense. Unlike some of the other investments like Stadia, domains is also not capital or resource intensive. They never offered discount on domains, they sold them at standard prices. The team working on domains must be small. It’s also a low risk project. Why would they kill it? What next? They’ll sell Google Fi to T-mobile and abandon Google voice?
Why it failed: I’ve been thinking about this all day and it just doesn’t make sense to me. I was hoping someone here would have a well-informed opinion/answer. Google domains seemed like a natural tool in the GCP and Google ecosystem. It provided one-click access to setup website, Google w
alsodumb
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired?
I've been tinkering with code since a young age and I like thinking my way through problems and understanding the way computers work, but I've never had a programming job. For the longest time, I went in other directions even though I enjoy it a lot, because I was told that I shouldn't spend my life in front of a computer. It turns out that I do that anyway, just not being paid for it. Without any programming jobs on my CV, what is a good way to penetrate into the market? I've had job interviews where I did a bunch of coding challenges (and passed), but didn't get accepted because of lack of experience. I considered that maybe I need to do a bootcamp as an initial way to back my skills up.
Why it failed: I've been tinkering with code since a young age and I like thinking my way through problems and understanding the way computers work, but I've never had a programming job. For the longest time, I went in other directions even though I enjoy it a lot, because I was told
_ixdf
- startupShut down2023
Ash HN: How can I make my idle CPU time useful to others?
Knowing that my computing resources just sit there unused bothers me. It would be relaxing to know that my idle CPU/bandwidth helps others. Previous/older solutions: - SETI (discontinued, [1]) - Leave BitTorrent open (risky) Are there any current distributed SETI-like projects that I can trust? [1] https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/
Why it failed: Knowing that my computing resources just sit there unused bothers me. It would be relaxing to know that my idle CPU/bandwidth helps others. Previous/older solutions: - SETI (discontinued, [1]) - Leave BitTorrent open (risky) Are there any current distributed SETI-like p
puttycat
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: WWYD? Built a company valued at $1B and may walk away with nothing
I'm looking for some "What Would You Do?" advice from the founder and investor community. Generally looking for guidance on what I should be negotiating for and what type of downside protection is fair, in any? Financial Overview - At our peak (Series C) we were valued at $1B post money - $187M raised by the company - $250M preference stack (liquidation prefs + debt) - I own ~27% of the business, and so does my co-founder. My co-founder is no longer part of the business day-to-day, he's on the board - We will end the year at $130M in annual revenues and burning ~$925K/month, we are a low gross profit margin business ~15-20% Personal Overview - I live in New York City, it's been ~ 10 years that I have been on this journey, bootstrapped with no salary for about 2.5 years and pretty modest salary for most of the years, up until a couple years ago when I started
Why it failed: I'm looking for some "What Would You Do?" advice from the founder and investor community. Generally looking for guidance on what I should be negotiating for and what type of downside protection is fair, in any? Financial Overview - At our peak (Series C) we were va
susanwise
- startupShut down2023
What's special about Erlang and Elixir?
I'm intrigued by the claims about them but also don't entirely understand the marketing "Elixir is a dynamic, functional language for building scalable and maintainable applications." OK, there are lots of languages that are either or both dynamic and functional, and they can all used to build scalable and maintainable transactions. "Elixir runs on the Erlang VM, known for creating low-latency, distributed, and fault-tolerant systems." Let's skip over "low-latency", because virtually all programming languages and VMs are "low-latency". "distributed" and "fault-tolerant" are what's most often touted as "special". I'm not sure what "distributed" means here? Any app in most languages can be coded to be "distributed" both on the scale of within a single machine and at the scale
Why it failed: I'm intrigued by the claims about them but also don't entirely understand the marketing "Elixir is a dynamic, functional language for building scalable and maintainable applications." OK, there are lots of languages that are either or both dynamic and function
bedobi
- startupShut down2023
Unemployable and Uninvestable
It seems I am unemployed and uninvestable. I'm looking for advice. I have been a senior engineer for about a decade. I feel I have become unemployable because of my experience. Interviewers have repeatedly told me I am over qualified for positions. I know this is a tough time for everyone considering the massive layoffs in our sector, but I have been jobless for a year, and counting. I’m not asking for a handout, but rather advice. I’ve had a few failed startups due to a lack of investment, while I see grifters like SBF raking in billions. I have had my ideas be realized by other companies, years after I attempted, because I lacked capital. I have had my pitch decks dismissed without a second thought. What is the secret sauce here? Is it a matter of who you know, rather than what you know? Every other day I see companies with no clear mission raising capital with little more than ma
Why it failed: It seems I am unemployed and uninvestable. I'm looking for advice. I have been a senior engineer for about a decade. I feel I have become unemployable because of my experience. Interviewers have repeatedly told me I am over qualified for positions. I know this is a tough tim
anyadvicewilldo
- startupShut down2023
What SWE job hunting is like right now
I'm a contractor, things were strange during COVID. I worked on project rewrites that got abandoned, and made the mistake of doing test consulting for companies that had never tested before. I will never do that again. It used to take two-weeks max to find a new position. It's now been two months, and I have no leads. I will call out the exact situation I've run into. I have received nearly 20 calls from a dozen different recruiting firms all for the same two back-fill jobs at Charter in St. Louis. I interviewed with them once, and it's not a match. .NET, Knockout, and TSQL... They weren't interested in me either. I'm not exactly offended by that. I get two calls a day about Charter at this point. I've been told, "they just finished a round of interviews, and didn't find anyone." At this point, I have to ask straight away to anyone that c
Why it failed: I'm a contractor, things were strange during COVID. I worked on project rewrites that got abandoned, and made the mistake of doing test consulting for companies that had never tested before. I will never do that again. It used to take two-weeks max to find a new position. It
eglove