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
Tell HN: A disabled 40-year-old person founded a startup and makes a living
I am Michael Cao. I am from Viet Nam. I suffered the polio disease and became disabled when i was one year old. When covid 19 pandemic hit the world. All people has suffered a lot. I and my friend, Canadian guy, decided to cofound 2HAC Studio because we thought that we need to do something to help people. We don't want to hire any employees to keep the cost at minimum (only spend 9.99$ per year for domain). I keep my job at American company in Viet Nam and my cofounder also still worked at a Bank of Canada. We spent our free time to implement and marketing our products We have been developing the Google workspace addons. Out technology stack are App Script, VueJS for addons. Hugo for our website. We hosted our website in Google Cloud. Paypal is our payment system. Tawk for customer support. All of them are free. At 2020, we had a pain point in Viet Nam because health official requir
Why it failed: I am Michael Cao. I am from Viet Nam. I suffered the polio disease and became disabled when i was one year old. When covid 19 pandemic hit the world. All people has suffered a lot. I and my friend, Canadian guy, decided to cofound 2HAC Studio because we thought that we need to do
michaelcao
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Have You Burned Out?
I am looking to discuss / talk to people who have burned out, whether or not you feel you've recovered. I just got turned down for another job and I am at the end of my mental and emotional rope. Tomorrow I have a second interview at a local retail store. I've been a web developer or software engineer for a decade but increasingly painful failures have ruined me as a person and I am lost and without purpose in life. I think I just need to give up on software, I no longer feel welcome or wanted. I have read that burnout can take up to five years to be resolved, I'm about in year three at this point. It's kinda like a recession you can't see it coming but looking back its easier to see when it started and its root causes. Even with resources (supportive wife, limited family, therapist) recovery is slow, difficult, confusing and not a straight path. I need a jo
Why it failed: I am looking to discuss / talk to people who have burned out, whether or not you feel you've recovered. I just got turned down for another job and I am at the end of my mental and emotional rope. Tomorrow I have a second interview at a local retail store. I've been
dirtybirdnj
- startupShut down2022
Thank HN: Five months ago, I was feeling like a loser, now I am opposite
I posted this a few months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29709273 I thought I hated programming and was ready to quit or even divorce my wife. I was not able to have a normal conversation with anyone. I was burned out but I thought I was having midlife crisis. My wife wanted to buy a big house and I kept blaming her for the stress. My job was easy and I had a lot of control over my time, work location, etc. I didn't think it could be the job that was causing me feel depressed. What I didn't realize while my work gave me freedom on work schedule, it didn't give me any real freedom to make important decisions. We were checkmark driven company. I was forced to do a lot of compliance and security related tasks which added zero benefit to our service. After my post, I decided that I either move into management at my last company or get a new job. I wo
Why it failed: I posted this a few months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29709273 I thought I hated programming and was ready to quit or even divorce my wife. I was not able to have a normal conversation with anyone. I was burned out but I thought I was having midlife
ac2022
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: How do you deal with getting old and feeling lost?
I am turning 35 years soon and I feel like I haven't achieved much, both personally and professionally. I have held jobs in small and big companies for mostly for 1-2 years each, traveled and lived in different countries, had 2 failed startups, and have about $500k in savings. I am single and haven't had a serious relationship for many years now. As time went on, I started feeling less excited about everything, personal or work related. I used to be excited about new technologies, but not these days. I feel like I've seen most things before, and it's all just different iterations of the same. I increasingly wish I could go back to my 20s. Now I feel too old to go to festivals, bars and clubs and make new friends that way. This has been a recent change for me. When I was ~30 I still considered myself young and able to do anything I could do when I was in my 20s. But no
Why it failed: I am turning 35 years soon and I feel like I haven't achieved much, both personally and professionally. I have held jobs in small and big companies for mostly for 1-2 years each, traveled and lived in different countries, had 2 failed startups, and have about $500k in saving
trendingwaifu
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: Have fun betting virtual (not real) money on predictions from HN users
I wanted to see how difficult it would be to build a web app using a sub-$300 android smartphone. Decided to build a fun predictions website where you could bet virtual (not real) money on predictions made by others, and also make predictions of your own. Building it turned out to be considerably easier and more fun than I anticipated. Primary tools used were: # QuickEdit as the mobile code editor (Note: the free version of the QuickEdit app is riddled with ads, it shows an advert each time you close a tab, but it unfortunately had the best UI of the 3 or so Android code editors I tested. Ended up using NetGuard to block it from retrieving & displaying ads), # PHP for the Backend ( custom PHP microframework I've used and built on over the past few years ). # jQuery for the frontend js ( cringing ) - it appears I'm simply too lazy to learn React/Vue/et al. Every on
Why it failed: I wanted to see how difficult it would be to build a web app using a sub-$300 android smartphone. Decided to build a fun predictions website where you could bet virtual (not real) money on predictions made by others, and also make predictions of your own. Building it turned out t
rose_ann_
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Will consumers ever have a use for 10Gbit internet
I had this discussion with a friend. While 10Gbit Ethernet seems to be slowly dripping in to consumer hardware, it seems much less clear if users will ever actually have a use for 10Gbit networking. If we look at the biggest network uses for consumers right now, its mostly video streaming and games. A 1 Gbit connection can already stream video at well above the maximum desired quality we will likely ever want. And better codecs are coming out which reduce the networking requirements even more. For video games it seems that large games would go with an asset streaming model like microsoft flight sim which can easily be done with 1 Gbit. Are there any future developments that might make 10Gbit desirable in the consumer space?
Why it failed: I had this discussion with a friend. While 10Gbit Ethernet seems to be slowly dripping in to consumer hardware, it seems much less clear if users will ever actually have a use for 10Gbit networking. If we look at the biggest network uses for consumers right now, its mostly video
Gigachad
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: RSS Brain
I wrote an RSS reader called RSS Brain recently. The motivate is the current RSS readers either don't sort articles by priority, which makes it hard to read posts from HackerNews and Reddit, or sort it with some "smart" algorithm which I don't trust. I also like the Google News feature that can show related story from different source, but the sources are not configurable and the algorithm is not transparent either. So with RSS Brain, I implemented these features: * Recommend related articles from the feeds of your choice. It's backed by ElasticSearch and the algorithm is described on RSS Brain's website. * Option to sort articles by upvotes and time. The algorithm is similar to the old Reddit and you can find it on the website as well. * Save search terms into folders so you can filter the articles. I've been using it for a while and found these featur
Why it failed: I wrote an RSS reader called RSS Brain recently. The motivate is the current RSS readers either don't sort articles by priority, which makes it hard to read posts from HackerNews and Reddit, or sort it with some "smart" algorithm which I don't trust. I also li
wb14123
- 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: Why XMPP failed and SMTP didn't?
I was born too late to witness popularity of XMPP as a decentralized instant messaging protocol. When I started to be a "conscious" user of the Internet, such services already became centralized, so I don't really remember those times. As I follow the development of projects like Matrix, I wonder what has made SMTP such a stable protocol that has stood the test of time and what is the real reason we don't use XMPP (I mean, we do using Whatsapp, but as a part of closed ecosystem). Is it only that XMPP was overcomplicated and if managed better it would survive? Or is it something else?
Why it failed: I was born too late to witness popularity of XMPP as a decentralized instant messaging protocol. When I started to be a "conscious" user of the Internet, such services already became centralized, so I don't really remember those times. As I follow the development o
kertoip_1
- 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
Show HN: Sqwok – A social chat alternative to Twitter and Reddit
I previously did a Show HN late Dec 2020: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25470672 That was a great experience and in the past year I continued to develop the site to bring it to a level of stability and maturity that I felt necessary for it to have a chance to succeed. Sqwok is all about answering the question: Can we have better open conversations on the internet? I wasn’t satisfied with the existing means of discussing topics such as culture, history, politics, and technology through threaded comments, and was simultaneously impressed with Slack bringing the IRC experience to the browser for a more general but enterprise focused audience. I wondered why not create an open Slack-like chat app for general discussion? Not gamers or enterprise but rather for people to have open, kitchen-table discussion on the matters of the day (or just for fun!). I set out to build t
Why it failed: I previously did a Show HN late Dec 2020: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25470672 That was a great experience and in the past year I continued to develop the site to bring it to a level of stability and maturity that I felt necessary for it to have a chance t
holler
- 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: How to overcome regret by missing out on opportunities to get rich?
I definitely had some character flaws that I didn't fully overcome until my late 20's. Basically, I was incredibly insecure and this led me to always try to do things on my own. This didn't really change until I started jiu-jistu. Anyways, I was able to get my first job out of college at a top university. I met some amazing people there. But really held back from socializing much, because I wanted to do well at my very menial job. A couple times colleagues tried to include me on projects, but I politely just focused on my work. Now many of them are leading very successful startups that I could've likely been an early employee at. I ended up working at 2 failed startups (I got from cold applying), and have failed about 20 times building a side hustle of my own. I feel like I needed to go through some struggle, but I can't help but regret my choices. I need a win b
Why it failed: I definitely had some character flaws that I didn't fully overcome until my late 20's. Basically, I was incredibly insecure and this led me to always try to do things on my own. This didn't really change until I started jiu-jistu. Anyways, I was able to get my firs
highwayman47
- 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
Warning – Google suspended GCP services for 'verification', lost my business
I operate multiple apps which were providing my entire livelihood, and I wake up one day to realize it's all gone. Long story short, Google froze my Google Pay account which is used to pay for anything related to Google services, including GCP. This was done as they need to temporarily suspend me to 'verify' me. The GCP team couldn't help me since it was an issue with Google Pay. Not to mention their chat support is useless and doesn't have any power to look into cases. Now I login to find out my Google Pay account is 'temporarily suspended' since I need to verify my account. I go ahead and add my drivers license and fill out their form, but while they verify details they suspend your ability to pay for any Google services. So now I can't pay for GCP usage (firebase) and all my authentication, database, cloud functions, are all not usable since the
Why it failed: I operate multiple apps which were providing my entire livelihood, and I wake up one day to realize it's all gone. Long story short, Google froze my Google Pay account which is used to pay for anything related to Google services, including GCP. This was done as they need to
alirsgp
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Have anxiety, need help with live coding interviews (funny hat dance)
I don't have the live coding problems skill (funny hat dance). I've failed 4 live coding interviews so far, which has been my wake-up call that I need to learn this skill. I do question funny hat dances value in the real world... I learned a different funny hat dance 8 years ago called white boarding. I questioned its real world value back then too, but had no choice, it's what people wanted to see. I'm not saying I'm the best engineer in the world. I'm saying I've provided tons of value for the companies I've worked at and my salary reflects that. I've had an above market rate salary for the last 3 years. No, the company I work for isn't dumb, in fact, it's often seen as tackling some of the hardest problems in computer science (decentralized cloud storage). I know I provide value and I know I'm a good engineer. However, I also
Why it failed: I don't have the live coding problems skill (funny hat dance). I've failed 4 live coding interviews so far, which has been my wake-up call that I need to learn this skill. I do question funny hat dances value in the real world... I learned a different funny hat dance 8
amozoss
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Is there any “PBS Kids” alternatives these days?
I think that was the only channel that had the perfect mix of education and being attractive for children, that got discontinued. Any other alternative’s?
Why it failed: I think that was the only channel that had the perfect mix of education and being attractive for children, that got discontinued. Any other alternative’s?
DaniDaniel5005
- 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
Stripe updates pricing on cross-border fees between UK and EU
I just got an email from Stripe: --- Hello, We’re writing to let you know that we’re making some changes to cross-border fees in Europe and the UK starting 1st July 2022. Based on your Stripe transaction history, this change won’t impact [Company], and all other pricing will remain the same. You can review the most up to date fees for international transactions on our pricing page. You can contact us, and find more details about this pricing update, managing or closing your account, or any other next steps, on our dedicated support page. - The Stripe team --- Of course they don't actually mention what the changes are, but looking at the pricing page [0], it seems like there is now an additional 1.1% (making it 2.5% in total) for EU companies taking UK payments and for UK companies taking EU payments. I imagine this is related to Visa and Mastercard price increases post-Brexit? [1] [
Why it failed: I just got an email from Stripe: --- Hello, We’re writing to let you know that we’re making some changes to cross-border fees in Europe and the UK starting 1st July 2022. Based on your Stripe transaction history, this change won’t impact [Company], and all other pricing will rema
aosaigh
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: What's the best way to monetize actual programming?
I feel that I was lucky early in my career. I got a job at an early-stage startup which bootstrapped with agency-style work. I got a generous share in the company, so pumping out high quality work products very much directly contributed to my own interests. I worked a lot, but at the end I was rewarded very well for this when we had an exit. Since then I have failed to find an incentive structure which actually rewards programming. I've worked inside of standard agile teams, and typically I can handle the tasks which management can prepare for work within a matter of a couple days if not a number of hours. I'm not incentivized to excel in these environments, since I'm not rewarded more for producing output faster than the rest of the team, and there's social consequences for making other programmers "look bad" and increasing management expectations. In princ
Why it failed: I feel that I was lucky early in my career. I got a job at an early-stage startup which bootstrapped with agency-style work. I got a generous share in the company, so pumping out high quality work products very much directly contributed to my own interests. I worked a lot, but at
throwaway34135
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Why has the quality of discourse on HN gone downhill?
I know - this is probably the thousandth time you have heard this complaint, but please hear me out. I have been lurking and reading on HN since 2016 (I never actively commented til 2019), and the spirit of discussion was outstanding then (2016-2020). The amount of high quality posts and discussions about the technical and operational sides of technology and the tech industry was astounding! Yet, something seems to have changed with the culture on this site since 2020 - it feels as if the site has become a parody of itself, with “edgy” hot takes, cargo culting around supposedly conventional knowledge, and the insane amount of “stanning” of certain figures gossip and a handful of companies. The increase in political content as well has been a massive change on this site as well, and as this is a discussion board it is fair game for everyone to have a say assuming civility. Yet this civili
Why it failed: I know - this is probably the thousandth time you have heard this complaint, but please hear me out. I have been lurking and reading on HN since 2016 (I never actively commented til 2019), and the spirit of discussion was outstanding then (2016-2020). The amount of high quality p
alephnerd
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: How do you overcome feeling completely lost in life?
I feel a bit ambivalent posting this on HN. On one hand, I keep coming back here because it's one of the only places on the internet that I trust and that makes sense to me. On the other hand, most people on here seem to have their sh* together, so to speak, and in that respect I feel like an outsider. Admittedly, these days I come to HN more for self-help than tech news. Reading through the recent threads on loneliness have given me some courage to reach out and be vulnerable, so here goes. I'm a software developer quickly approaching 30 with no direction in life, no hobbies, no friends, no family, and no idea what I even want to change. I've somehow floated through 30 years of life like this. I've had a few highs and a few more lows, but what's been constant is just this deep sense of emptiness. Like a longing for something I don't have and maybe never wil
Why it failed: I feel a bit ambivalent posting this on HN. On one hand, I keep coming back here because it's one of the only places on the internet that I trust and that makes sense to me. On the other hand, most people on here seem to have their sh* together, so to speak, and in that resp
adantical
- 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 can I work less?
I leetcoded to get a big boy job and now I’m paying the price. My team runs lean and the work is complicated. As a result, I’ve been working long hours and supplementing my days with stimulants to maintain interest and focus to keep up. Not only do I end each day with extreme exhaustion, but I do this in a cyclic fashion each day leading to cycles of apathy, depression and excitement. Problematically, I now live like this habitually and sort of forgot how to be a human. I need to figure out how to feel comfortable working less in ways that don’t mentally feel like it’s impacting my work while also figuring out how to live my life outside of a screen. Additionally, this makes me very boring at parties.
Why it failed: I leetcoded to get a big boy job and now I’m paying the price. My team runs lean and the work is complicated. As a result, I’ve been working long hours and supplementing my days with stimulants to maintain interest and focus to keep up. Not only do I end each day with extreme exh
renaissance_tea