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 down2018
Ask HN: Are my technical interview questions too hard?
We just finished hiring our first 2 JS developers in a while and I was surprised how many seemingly perfect candidates completely failed my technical interview. Our funnel was 150 applications -> 75 potentially viable applicants -> 20 interviews -> 8 finalists. I thought all 8 finalists would breeze through my technical interview but, in reality, 6 of them completely failed it. I'm trying to determine if I'm just horrible at sniffing out bad programmers or if my questions were too hard, bad, or both. The format was a 1 hour in-person interview using a pre-setup JSFiddle to perform the following tasks. (I made it clear that asking me questions, using Google, using libraries like jQuery, or whatever else you'd do during a real-world scenario was perfectly fine). In the comments below I added details about why I asked certain questions and what I was looking for. 1)
Why it failed: We just finished hiring our first 2 JS developers in a while and I was surprised how many seemingly perfect candidates completely failed my technical interview. Our funnel was 150 applications -> 75 potentially viable applicants -> 20 interviews -> 8 finalists. I thought
yeldarb
- startupShut down2018
Show HN: Intercept.rest – Faster API debugging
Sharing an internal tool that accelerated my development work 10-fold, especially with API debugging. Thought fellow developers here might find it useful. As a developer, I often have trouble reproducing errors at the client end. https://intercept.rest lets me debug and monitor API requests and responses. It is similar to the Network tab in Chrome Developer Tools but works for any API: mobile apps, webhooks, frontend etc. After I shared it with a close circle of friends, they found it incredibly useful and even found new use cases, I never imagined. Been a long time lurker here and have found several such tools that made my life easier. So, wanted to share this here and keen to hear if you folks find it useful too. Some of the Use cases (Look forward to other use cases for this tool): - Reproduce error requests at client side, helps to debug faster. – Easily switch between mock
Why it failed: Sharing an internal tool that accelerated my development work 10-fold, especially with API debugging. Thought fellow developers here might find it useful. As a developer, I often have trouble reproducing errors at the client end. https://intercept.rest lets me debug and
saleeh
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: What is your 'end game'? What kind of life are you striving to live?
Something that's been on my mind lately. I enjoy the depth of thought on HN, I always learn the most here.
Why it failed: Something that's been on my mind lately. I enjoy the depth of thought on HN, I always learn the most here.
rblion
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: Reached rock-bottom low point in my life – how to get back up?
This is the 2nd time in my life that I turn to HN for help. The first time, I already thought I was kind of in a bad shape. But tonight, I reached a new low point. I have been out of a job for a long time. Currently, my only income is from a small remote job that requires no special skills. I can only survive on it, because I moved to a developing country in Southeast Asia. But this is a dead-end. I need to change - everything. I know the best way would be through a job that would allow me to gradually learn new skills. I don't really care that much about pay. I can survive on a few hundred dollars a month. Although I would like to say that I'm willing to do almost anything, I also know my limitations. I previously created some websites on my own using Ruby on Rails. But I'm probably quite far from a 'real' hacker who enjoys coding so much, they do it in their fr
Why it failed: This is the 2nd time in my life that I turn to HN for help. The first time, I already thought I was kind of in a bad shape. But tonight, I reached a new low point. I have been out of a job for a long time. Currently, my only income is from a small remote job that requires no spec
whysine
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: YC Research Cities Now Listed as a Past Project. Is There a Post-Mortem?
See on https://ycr.org/ Same with HARC - any post mortem? I'm really glad that YC is ambitious and tried to do these things. Of course, failure is a natural part of ambitious bets. I'd also love to hear what they learned and why they didn't end up being overwhelming successes.
Why it failed: See on https://ycr.org/ Same with HARC - any post mortem? I'm really glad that YC is ambitious and tried to do these things. Of course, failure is a natural part of ambitious bets. I'd also love to hear what they learned and why they didn't end up be
arikr
- startupShut down2018
Tell HN: Goo.gl (Google link Shortener) is shutting down
When you visit the goo.gl homepage, this message appears: > Starting March 30, 2018, we will be turning down support for goo.gl URL shortener. From April 13, 2018 only existing users will be able to create short links on the goo.gl console. You will be able to view your analytics data and download your short link information in csv format for up to one year, until March 30, 2019, when we will discontinue goo.gl. Previously created links will continue to redirect to their intended destination. Please see this blog post[1] for more details. [1]: https://developers.googleblog.com/2018/03/transitioning-google-url-shortener.html?m=1
Why it failed: When you visit the goo.gl homepage, this message appears: > Starting March 30, 2018, we will be turning down support for goo.gl URL shortener. From April 13, 2018 only existing users will be able to create short links on the goo.gl console. You will be able to view your analyt
illustrioussuit
- startupShut down2017
Launch HN: Thematic (YC S17) Customer Feedback Analysis via NLP
Hi! I’m the CEO of Thematic, http://www.getthematic.com . We analyse customer feedback to tell companies how to increase customer satisfaction and reduce churn. We are one of the handful of companies that got into YC through the Startup School, and (I have to say) the only company that signed YC itself as a customer! I have a PhD in NLP and ML and was consulting when two large media companies came to me with a problem: They collect tons of customer feedback in free text as part of their NPS surveys, but don’t have the time to sift through the responses. This turned out to be common. Most companies collect feedback but, especially in large companies, nobody reads this data, and definitely not people who are in charge of strategy. Customers are screaming what’s wrong and what they want, but nobody is listening. I tried a few open-source packages but found that none worked well. D
Why it failed: Hi! I’m the CEO of Thematic, http://www.getthematic.com . We analyse customer feedback to tell companies how to increase customer satisfaction and reduce churn. We are one of the handful of companies that got into YC through the Startup School, and (I have to say) the o
zelandiya
- startupShut down2017
Launch HN: Bitrise (YC W17) – Continuous Integration and Delivery for Mobile Apps
Hi, we’re the founders of Bitrise ( https://www.bitrise.io/ ) in the YC W17 batch — YC's first-ever Hungarian startup! Bitrise is a Continuous Integration and Delivery platform specifically for mobile apps. We started working on Bitrise when we were running our dev agency, building apps for clients. It was frustrating to go through all the manual tasks when somebody needed a fresh build, or when all the bugs piled up before releases. We wanted to automate all the manual aspects of app development so we could get back to coding, because that’s what we loved to do. We’ve started with iOS CI/CD, because that seemed to be the hardest and that’s what we had the most experience in. For starters we had to build up a scalable Mac infrastructure, since iOS apps can only be compiled on a Mac machine. That was tough. We also wanted to make setting up and maintaining CI way
Why it failed: Hi, we’re the founders of Bitrise ( https://www.bitrise.io/ ) in the YC W17 batch — YC's first-ever Hungarian startup! Bitrise is a Continuous Integration and Delivery platform specifically for mobile apps. We started working on Bitrise when we were running ou
thebloodrabbit
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: How to get a job when you suck at coding?
I have a strong feeling I suck at coding. I have a B.S. degree in CS from an average school in the USA. 1) I have a bunch of projects, but they're terribly boring and have ugly looking code. For example, I spent a year working on an ecommerce site. It does what it needs to do, but there were no smart decisions behind the back end. I never had to use design patterns nor data structures. I just pieced it together. 2) I have a lot of trouble with "HackerRank" style problems. I just finished one, an hour ago, called Codility. Even though I passed all the shown test cases, the final results showed that I got the following scores 13%/95%/0%. The 0% was a debugging problem that required a max of 2 line changes. I have absolutely no clue how I got a 0% there. I've been trying to get a job anywhere, doing some programming, but all the rejections have destroyed me. As
Why it failed: I have a strong feeling I suck at coding. I have a B.S. degree in CS from an average school in the USA. 1) I have a bunch of projects, but they're terribly boring and have ugly looking code. For example, I spent a year working on an ecommerce site. It does what it needs to d
anon23422
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?
I founded an vertical-focused enterprise startup. We signed a few huge customers in the space on a build-and-beta basis, and that led to industry awards and a full pipeline of leads and signed contracts for installation (SaaS pricing with small implementation fee). We've done it with a ridiculously small team, however. And it's become impossible to handle the dev and deployment, support and training, security reviews, feature requests, etc. So we are looking at options. We've been approached by a few large companies in the industry regarding acquisition. It looks like we could sell for $12-14M. Kind of exciting, but also well under the value that's possible (which would probably be something north of $400M in our industry alone, with the possibility to move laterally). The alternative is to raise money. We've put together a solid deck and model (I think), but the
Why it failed: I founded an vertical-focused enterprise startup. We signed a few huge customers in the space on a build-and-beta basis, and that led to industry awards and a full pipeline of leads and signed contracts for installation (SaaS pricing with small implementation fee). We've don
thisanonguy
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Good place to get help on / learn WebAssembly? (beginner level)
I started to get some interest in WebAssembly after seeing the possible applications and decided to take the leap this week-end. I managed to get past the hello world stage on my own with some help from stackoverflow but I'm now stuck while trying to re-implement my js game of life in wasm. The IRC #webassembly does not seem active. Any good place you know for some practical advice ? The webassembly, emscripten, mozilla docs are a bit overwhelming and not that much example oriented and the tutorials I found are probably out of date on many aspects considering the moving target that WebAssembly is...
Why it failed: I started to get some interest in WebAssembly after seeing the possible applications and decided to take the leap this week-end. I managed to get past the hello world stage on my own with some help from stackoverflow but I'm now stuck while trying to re-implement my js game
blaze33
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Ways to deal with ADHD?
I really value here the interesting and intelligent perspectives of the HN readers which taught me a lot, maybe even now for dealing with ADHD. About me: Had a huge crisis doing my bachelor degree was almost dropping out (same in high school), was also dealing with anxiety and feeling depressed and thus tried a lot of experimental things to "cure" me. In the end I just barely managed to pass my bachelor degree in CS (with an extension-semester) and doing now my masters. The experimental things that I did so far: -Doing 3 10-day meditation retreats to make me feel less stressed and overwhelmed. -Meditating at home(although it's often difficult to maintain this habit) -2-3 times a year LSD to have a mental reset if I feel stuck(cleaning my turmoil, refocus on the important). Recently also two times mircodosed LSD on days where I'm stressed or depressed to have more ener
Why it failed: I really value here the interesting and intelligent perspectives of the HN readers which taught me a lot, maybe even now for dealing with ADHD. About me: Had a huge crisis doing my bachelor degree was almost dropping out (same in high school), was also dealing with anxiety and fe
throwaway_adhd
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: How do you close your side projects?
I have worked on various side projects involving design, development, music, etc. over time and generally kept the remnants living on somewhere (DropBox folders, word docs, random repositories). I like to have reference for nostalgia or to reflect on the lessons learned before my next pursuit. Recently, I have been considering creating a blog or documenting the key parts like screenshots along with a write up recap in an Archive folder somewhere and then purging the content such as code, mockups, assets, etc. I would partially like to write a post-mortem about a side startup but the rest are not as valued. I was just curious if you have any personal examples or practices for closing out your cancelled or completed projects (Archive - Purge - Blog Post - Open Source - viking send-off)?
Why it failed: I have worked on various side projects involving design, development, music, etc. over time and generally kept the remnants living on somewhere (DropBox folders, word docs, random repositories). I like to have reference for nostalgia or to reflect on the lessons learned before my
andrewgrossi
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Are you doing what you want to do or what you have to?
I have recently started watching the new National Geographic show 'Genius' about Albert Einstein. The way Einstein was obsessed with Physics took me to my childhood days when I used to ponder over why everything is the way it is. I always wanted to become a physicist. But being an Indian, I was repeatedly bombarded with the idea how essential it is to make a living. As such, I strayed from what I wanted to do and got into engineering (CS). It's now the end of my engineering and I am now occupied with the thoughts of what my life had been if I would have chosen the road not taken. It's not that I don't have a good job, but the thought of losing a chance to do something I love that keeps me awake these days. Personally, I think that the advancement in technology is also responsible for this. The internet, though providing us the means to access a vast amount of inf
Why it failed: I have recently started watching the new National Geographic show 'Genius' about Albert Einstein. The way Einstein was obsessed with Physics took me to my childhood days when I used to ponder over why everything is the way it is. I always wanted to become a physicist. B
rochak
- startupShut down2017
Considering leaving job because of SCRUM
I am a software developer and I love software development. I love coming up with clever solutions to problems, I love refactoring parts of a codebase - reduing the number of lines of code and making things more understandable, I even love the boring bits - fixing bugs etc. However I feel that the practice of SCRUM in my current job is preventing me from doing that. Anytime an interesting problem comes up to solve we reduce it into ridiculously small cards like "research how to connect to this API", "Evaluate if we can use this library", "Write a proposal on how to do X" etc. So a problem which would take 1-2 months for a couple developers working together to solve now takes 6 months. Because we break it into unrealistically small steps and as soon as you finish one step you have to wait for the end of the sprint (2 weeks) and present it, then groom/plan
Why it failed: I am a software developer and I love software development. I love coming up with clever solutions to problems, I love refactoring parts of a codebase - reduing the number of lines of code and making things more understandable, I even love the boring bits - fixing bugs etc. Howeve
chuck4932
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Best budget Linux laptop for a developer?
I am looking for a laptop to use for Linux development. There have been a number of "Ask HN" topics about this, but this one is a little different - I am not looking for a brand-new, top-end machine, but rather something to use alongside my MacBook Pro (which runs macOS and Windows via Boot Camp). My budget for this machine is only around $300. If I spend the money on another MacBook (Air or 13" Pro) I am probably looking at a machine of 2011/2012 vintage. Unfortunately I'm not sure the Air machines will be sufficiently powerful for my needs (low-voltage CPUs, only 4GB non-upgradable RAM). Also, all of the the pre-retina MacBooks seem to be let down by their screens: glossy, TN panels with (except for the 13" Air) at most 800 vertical pixels. Another option is a Lenovo ThinkPad, again probably from around 2012 (with the traditional 7-row ThinkPad keyboard).
Why it failed: I am looking for a laptop to use for Linux development. There have been a number of "Ask HN" topics about this, but this one is a little different - I am not looking for a brand-new, top-end machine, but rather something to use alongside my MacBook Pro (which runs macOS
gustuy
- startupShut down2017
Cameroon Government shutdown social networks. Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter cutoff
I woke up this morning and discovered Internet Services in Cameroon have somehow been limited. I am suspected the regime of Paul Biya have tampered with the internet service and Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, VPNs, Vcontact aren't working. I am sure many other social media have been cut off as well. I am sure you guys are aware of the ongoing crisis that have rocked the "English speaking regions" ( Former Southern Cameroons) of Cameroons since November 2016. There have been plans to celebrate the symbolic independence of this region " The Former British Southern Cameroons" on the 1st of October 2017. That is on Sunday and the region have been heavily militarized by the Biya regime, Homes of people invaded, beaten , some killed, many kidnapped and with this shutdown to major social media to which it is where most of these crimes are exposed, many have been fearing a
Why it failed: I woke up this morning and discovered Internet Services in Cameroon have somehow been limited. I am suspected the regime of Paul Biya have tampered with the internet service and Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, VPNs, Vcontact aren't working. I am sure many other social media hav
ndifor
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: How can we stop the plan to end net neutrality?
In the following week the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to roll out their plan to end net neutrality. It appears that the public at large and even some internet stalwarts have become apathetic to the coming changes, which threaten to alter the internet as we know it going forward. If this happens without massive public outrage it may indicate to other democratic nations that treating all traffic equally is no longer the norm, and they are free to enact their own "play-to-play" schemes in addition to those imposed by the U.S. What can be done to reverse this course of action?
Why it failed: In the following week the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to roll out their plan to end net neutrality. It appears that the public at large and even some internet stalwarts have become apathetic to the coming changes, which threaten to alter the internet
Dangeranger
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: How to answer properly “Why we should hire you” question?
I've ask somewhere on the internet about this question. But, never receive good response and also the answer is not related on my field. This question, has make me failed on interview process on one of antivirus company, despite, it was long a ago, sometimes I cannot move on and still wondering what is the best answer for this typical question. Since, this site a lot of IT guys, it might be related and I hope I will received very good advice and answers. Thanks.
Why it failed: I've ask somewhere on the internet about this question. But, never receive good response and also the answer is not related on my field. This question, has make me failed on interview process on one of antivirus company, despite, it was long a ago, sometimes I cannot move on
neurobot
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Will we ever have affordable and attractive urban housing for all?
It seems every area of our lives has been improved through technology except for the cost of housing. Food and produce has reduced in price to the point where the average minimum wage provides a decent standard of living but the prospect of house ownership is a 25 to 30 year loan repayment (if you are able to get a loan). I know world populations are increasing causing scarcity and that we are also improving our transportation technology but human accommodation needs have not changed and we still seem unable to "hack" urban housing at scale. Do you see any changes coming down the line that will improve this situation?
Why it failed: It seems every area of our lives has been improved through technology except for the cost of housing. Food and produce has reduced in price to the point where the average minimum wage provides a decent standard of living but the prospect of house ownership is a 25 to 30 year loan
drcross
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Why don't developers unionize?
I'm not talking about your Dad or Grandma's union of yesteryear but a new type of union focused on collective bargaining for issues that matter and taking decisive action. Our new style of union would: - Encourage corporations to take security and privacy seriously - Advocate for those affected by automation - Aide in the creation of standards - Support free and open source software communities - Strengthen the efforts of organizations like EFF, Archive.org, Tor, etc - Advocate for a free and open internet - Counterbalance corporate interests Once upon a time, unions did a lot of good for working and middle class people and they failed ultimately in the end. It seems we as developers have the power to create a new type of union. A new model that disrupts old ideas for collective bargaining and actually does some good in the world. What will our legacy be? Some things in life ar
Why it failed: I'm not talking about your Dad or Grandma's union of yesteryear but a new type of union focused on collective bargaining for issues that matter and taking decisive action. Our new style of union would: - Encourage corporations to take security and privacy seriously - Ad
quinequine
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Can we find out why a specific ad appears in our Facebook feed?
Last week I went to a restaurant with some friends and while checking the menu we saw that there was a cocktail with Campari (alcoholic liqueur) - this triggered a 30 sec conversation about the drink. Following day I open my FB feed and something weird happened - there was a Campari ad just in front of me! In the last months of my online life I didn't search for Campari, cocktails, beverages or anything related so I think it would be great if there was a way of finding why that ad end up there!
Why it failed: Last week I went to a restaurant with some friends and while checking the menu we saw that there was a cocktail with Campari (alcoholic liqueur) - this triggered a 30 sec conversation about the drink. Following day I open my FB feed and something weird happened - there was a Camp
lampzzy
- startupShut down2017
Show HN: LiveCoder
LiveCoder is a fun tool I built almost a year ago to simulate live coding Frontend technologies for my presentations. You actually don't have to live-code, but just prepare beforehand the program, snippets of HTML, CSS and Javascript and you feed the tool with it, so you can just focus on explaining what's being coded. Simple :-) I never really shared this tool, but I used it in a few presentations quite succesfully, so I think it could be an interesting tool to use. You have full control of the speed. You can pause and resume... An entire app can be live-coded with this. It's quite fun to watch ;-) There is a Demo in the repo, a bit slow at the beginning but wait until the end, gets better. Hope you enjoy it and please, feedback would be very much appreciated. Repo: https://github.com/jscriptcoder/live-coder Fran
Why it failed: LiveCoder is a fun tool I built almost a year ago to simulate live coding Frontend technologies for my presentations. You actually don't have to live-code, but just prepare beforehand the program, snippets of HTML, CSS and Javascript and you feed the tool with it, so you can
jscriptcoder
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: How do I program with more discipline and less emotion?
I'm used to being a hacker. I like doing 48 hour programming "binges". These were incredibly effective and I could often build more in those 48 hours than most people would build in a month. It worked great when panicked, but as I get more senior and used to the heavy pressure, it doesn't work any more. I have a more comfortable life now and failing projects is not as bad as they used to be. So it's hard to dig up the emotion I used to hack long hours. Now I just end up staring at the code for 2 hours at 2 AM. Besides, exhaustion kicks in and makes me less effective in the long run. And it doesn't scale as well with a team. I find disciplined techniques like Scrum and XP appealing. I know I should start adopting them. But a part of me worries that my hacker spirit would die out. So how would I go from being a code berserker to being a more organized, discipl
Why it failed: I'm used to being a hacker. I like doing 48 hour programming "binges". These were incredibly effective and I could often build more in those 48 hours than most people would build in a month. It worked great when panicked, but as I get more senior and used to the he
muzani