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.
2,800 solutions
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Are you a “lifer”? If so why?
I started at a mid-cap household name company at the start of the pandemic and don't see myself leaving of my own accord until I retire for a few reasons: 1. Work is fully remote 2. We have excellent work / life balance 3. Company's stock has weathered this years storm 4. Interviewing is a horror show best avoided, besides... 5. Job market is weakening with no recovery in sight 6. I'm in my early 40s 7. Startup success (which I've had previously as an early employee) is going to be rare in the coming years
Why it failed: I started at a mid-cap household name company at the start of the pandemic and don't see myself leaving of my own accord until I retire for a few reasons: 1. Work is fully remote 2. We have excellent work / life balance 3. Company's stock has weathered this years s
leet_thow
- 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
Tell HN: Current WFH trend (part 2)
I wanted to follow up on my previous post - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27696235 My latest observation at my current company which is "fully-remote": 75% of the new headcount is out of US. Total compensation offered in foreign countries is much cheaper (35-60% lower depending on Canada vs EU vs LatAm vs Asia) than even the lowest pay-tier US regions. Bulk of the gains are flowing to the company's revenue bottomline, and thus to the biggest shareholders (Capital class). A small fraction of those gains is coming to the rank-and-file's pocket via the increased value of their meagre RSUs. To address a big point raised in the previous thread about outsourcing, when we have been trying that since 2000's and why is it a big deal now - with previous rounds of outsourcing, entire project was shipped to a different country. There were neither any &q
Why it failed: I wanted to follow up on my previous post - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27696235 My latest observation at my current company which is "fully-remote": 75% of the new headcount is out of US. Total compensation offered in foreign countries is much c
RestlessMind
- startupShut down2022
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: 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
Ask HN: HNers with multiple sclerosis, can we get in touch?
I was diagnosed with MS 15 years ago, and was doing pretty well for a long time, but with the pandemic experienced a tremendous amount of stress that has left me with my first major flare-up since diagnosis and, more importantly, developing over the past 3 years, a feeling in my brain that feels like having been lobotomized, and symptoms like "mild" dementia. Difficulty multitasking, make silly mistakes, mentally tired easily, emotional issues, etc. The MS was so far outside my concerns for all these years that I didn't know about the cognitive effects of MS (though I retrospect I realize I had some milder form of these symptoms all along), but I now understand MS causes brain atrophy and damage irrespective of flare-ups and lesions. I've tried many things to make it better over this past year especially, but it's getting worse. It's quite evidently differen
Why it failed: I was diagnosed with MS 15 years ago, and was doing pretty well for a long time, but with the pandemic experienced a tremendous amount of stress that has left me with my first major flare-up since diagnosis and, more importantly, developing over the past 3 years, a feeling in my
mush_room
- 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
Ask HN: What are your thoughts about the looming EU energy crisis?
I am a EU citizen living in the EU. The futures for gas an electricity for the next few years are eye-watering: https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1562821466198278153. A Belgian PM said the next 5-10 years are going to be tough: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/belgium-pm-next-5-10-winters-will-be-difficult-as-energy-crisis-persists-1031704120. In this context, lots of SMEs will no longer be viable. The butcher in my neighbourhood is already shutting down as they are no longer profitable. As an entrepreneur, how are you preparing for this? Have you considered relocating elsewhere?
Why it failed: I am a EU citizen living in the EU. The futures for gas an electricity for the next few years are eye-watering: https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1562821466198278153. A Belgian PM said the next 5-10 years are going to be tough: https://marke
throwaway294ab
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: What was life like before and after a baby
My first is due 3 days ago. I'm told that I'm going to have no time any more and good sleep is a thing of the past. I'm worried, I don't work well when tired. I'm just starting to get in the habit of investing in myself as a developer and am reading a lot, practicing a lot. This has made me, in my estimation, a much better programmer. Does this end when you have kids? What was it like for you out there that have gone through this change in life?
Why it failed: My first is due 3 days ago. I'm told that I'm going to have no time any more and good sleep is a thing of the past. I'm worried, I don't work well when tired. I'm just starting to get in the habit of investing in myself as a developer and am reading a lot
xupybd
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: I Built a Gaming GeoGuessr
My friend and I made a fully featured gaming geoguessr - complete with 360 degree panoramas, movement, leaderboards, and multiplayer. We had made a Fortnite geoguessr a while back, and although this was well received, our goal always was to bring the worlds of all games to the browser. A much harder task considering the scale and scope of many open world games. We had to make a bunch of tools to be able to achieve this. World of Warcraft alone took us roughly 3,000,000 images to do (and will likely need another 1,000,000 for Dragonflight once it releases). We are finally at a point where we are happy to release this into the wild and let people try it, although we are still working hard on adding all the games that are listed as coming soon. If you're ever bored, and would like to test your gaming map knowledge - or would just like to explore the world in your browser akin to Google
Why it failed: My friend and I made a fully featured gaming geoguessr - complete with 360 degree panoramas, movement, leaderboards, and multiplayer. We had made a Fortnite geoguessr a while back, and although this was well received, our goal always was to bring the worlds of all games to the br
lewisedc
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: My startup is running out of fund. What should I do?
My startup is running out of fund soon. We have no revenue and failed to raise external capital. Our product development is almost done, but we need a lot of money to launch our product to market (we are in fintech business). We don't have that amount of money, and it is not even close. So the real question is what to do after the company die? If I keep working on this, the company can stay in zombie mode for years. I honestly think we should shut the company down. My cofounder is telling me if I don't keep working on this startup (using the money out of my cofounder & me's pocket after the company die), then I am being guilty to him, guilty to current investors and guilty to employees, because I am not all in. What are your guys thought?
Why it failed: My startup is running out of fund soon. We have no revenue and failed to raise external capital. Our product development is almost done, but we need a lot of money to launch our product to market (we are in fintech business). We don't have that amount of money, and it is not
whentojoin
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Am I an arrogant or am I surrounded by incompetent people?
I've generally stuck to the mantra in life that "If it smells like shit everywhere you walk, check your shoes". I'm currently a Junior in college - I've had an internship at Amazon last summer and now, for my final summer I have an internship at Google. I go to a state school not really known for CS, although we have a huge CS undergraduate body. A lot of classes in CS require group work - which for the most part, I think is really helpful since most engineering in industry is done in teams. I've had 3 classes where the majority of the grade is made up by projects, and many classes where we do many projects. In each class, I've had to carry the bulk (~90%?) of the workload - half the groups don't know how to code (mostly webapps), and the other half don't care to try. I've tried many approaches - I find that if I recommend tech stacks tha
Why it failed: I've generally stuck to the mantra in life that "If it smells like shit everywhere you walk, check your shoes". I'm currently a Junior in college - I've had an internship at Amazon last summer and now, for my final summer I have an internship at Google. I
AmIAnElitist
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?
I'm a mid 30s male, software developer, married without children. I started playing a video game at the end of 2019, and played every time I could when my wife was not home. Then came 2020, covid lockdowns, also I started getting better at the game (the ladder systems are so addictive) and played more. In 2021 I just didn't care anymore whether my wife was home or not or even if I was supposed to be working and started playing all the time. I'd wake up early to play and would go to bed late to catch up with work I had not done during the day. According to Steam I played over 2.000 hours during 2020 and 2021. Finally I decided I was seriously addicted and uninstalled the game, unsubscribed from everyone related to the game in youtube, quit all discord communities, and it worked. I have been now "clean" for 4 months. But sometimes I crave to go back and play. I wat
Why it failed: I'm a mid 30s male, software developer, married without children. I started playing a video game at the end of 2019, and played every time I could when my wife was not home. Then came 2020, covid lockdowns, also I started getting better at the game (the ladder systems are so
Volrath89
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: Infisical – open-source secrets manager
Last month, we open-sourced Infisical ( https://github.com/Infisical/infisical ) - a simple, end-to-end encrypted tool to sync environment variables across your team and infrastructure. You can use it to store environment variables and inject them into your applications locally or into CI/CD and production infrastructure. It can be used with any language/framework and is platform independent with a super easy setup. We know secret managers exist but, in our experience, they’re too complicated, not comprehensive, not user-friendly, or a mix of all three — other nicer ones are closed-source and don’t have self-hosted options available. That’s why we’re on a mission to make secret management more accessible to every developer — not just security teams. We’ve launched this repo under the MIT license so any developer can use the tool. The goal is to not charge in
Why it failed: Last month, we open-sourced Infisical ( https://github.com/Infisical/infisical ) - a simple, end-to-end encrypted tool to sync environment variables across your team and infrastructure. You can use it to store environment variables and inject them into your ap
vmatsiiako
- startupShut down2022
Tell HN: Runops YC W21 scraped my email from Git and keeps spamming me
Last month I got an unsolicited email from Runops founder @andriosr. After receiving a follow-up email, I asked him to stop. Unfortunately, the emails keep coming. This is unethical and annoying. I have no relationship with this company and they must have extracted my email from a repo on GitHub. I get that you're a scrappy startup trying to growth hack into some traction, but spam is just spam. It's not that big of a deal, but this is the kind of behavior I expect from a shady company. As a small tech startup hoping to serve technical customers, I expect you to be better. One spam I'll ignore, two, I'll ask you to stop. Continuing after that is worth calling you out within the community that we share. On August 01, 2022 07:58, Andrios Robert <andrios@t****s.com> wrote: Hi, saw you forked redis on Github and wanted to ask for a quick help. I'm the founder o
Why it failed: Last month I got an unsolicited email from Runops founder @andriosr. After receiving a follow-up email, I asked him to stop. Unfortunately, the emails keep coming. This is unethical and annoying. I have no relationship with this company and they must have extracted my email from
eloisius
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Why are there no easy-to-use highly-available open source databases?
I'm a single engineer who wants to run a database by myself, no cloud vendors involved. I don't really care about scalability to a point, I don't really care about the API to interact with the database. I just want something that I can set up on multiple machines with minimal effort and have the loss of one of those nodes not cause catastrophic failures. I want the experience of something like etcd without being limited to a few gigabytes of data in the cluster (a Terabyte or maybe a couple hundred Gigabytes as a limit would probably be fine). I've spent a lot of time looking through the various options and wrote up my thoughts on why each of them wasn't a good fit. Postgres: A great database but HA options either have far too many moving parts, require manual intervention, are proprietary, or are Fake Open Source. Seems like there's lack of interest in addr
Why it failed: I'm a single engineer who wants to run a database by myself, no cloud vendors involved. I don't really care about scalability to a point, I don't really care about the API to interact with the database. I just want something that I can set up on multiple machines w
database_guy
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Should I move to California or Germany as a SWE with 2 small kids?
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 live now. We have a 1 year old daughter with another on the way in October. We don't plan on having more kids after that. We'd like to leave the Netherlands soon, but haven't decided yet if we should move back to California or move close to her parents in Germany. There's tons of variables to consider, but the 2 main ones I'm focused on right now is the tradeoff between family support vs career prospects. In short: if we move to Bavaria, my
Why it failed: 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 manage
de_or_ca
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Has anyone here worked on the Windows kernel?
Or any other kernel, professionally? I've been offered a position at Microsoft to do kernel development work. This would be a big transition to me, coming from a services background (backend only). The job's main draw to me is doing low-level work. I did some in my very first job, but for the past 10+ years, due to a number of circumstances, I've been in the services world. I really liked being a C programmer and I've kept an eye on things over the years, and did some hobby projects (on x86 and some embedded stuff as well). There's a lot about my current job that I treasure, despite the work itself not being interesting to me about 99% of the time. It's a remote job, the work-life balance is stellar, and I get 25 days of vacation a year (this is in the US), which allows me to spend a lot of quality time with my wife. However, I'm considering leaving bec
Why it failed: Or any other kernel, professionally? I've been offered a position at Microsoft to do kernel development work. This would be a big transition to me, coming from a services background (backend only). The job's main draw to me is doing low-level work. I did some in my very
maybekerneldev
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: What is your failed/cancelled project story?
I'm curious to hear about instances of ambitious projects that failed for technical reasons or were cancelled because development was taking too long. We get a lot of insight into the internal dynamics of companies like Theranos where the failure of the core technology wasn't accepted by the leadership. I haven't heard much from the inside about examples of failed startups that went down quietly (ex: TransAtomic power[0]). [0]https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/09/25/240126/nuclear-startup-to-fold-after-failing-to-deliver-reactor-that-ran-on-spent-fuel/
Why it failed: I'm curious to hear about instances of ambitious projects that failed for technical reasons or were cancelled because development was taking too long. We get a lot of insight into the internal dynamics of companies like Theranos where the failure of the core technology wasn&
lambdatronics
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: As someone living in Russia, how can I prepare for Internet shutdowns?
I'm currently living in Moscow. It looks like the government will soon very heavily crack down on any uncontrolled ways to get information. This might include blocking of websites, shutdowns of VPNs and outright Internet shutdown. What can I do to prepare for this and still have access to the Internet? If you have any relevant experience from similar situations, please share!
Why it failed: I'm currently living in Moscow. It looks like the government will soon very heavily crack down on any uncontrolled ways to get information. This might include blocking of websites, shutdowns of VPNs and outright Internet shutdown. What can I do to prepare for this and still
exizt88
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: What happened with Zas Editor?
Just a few months back this was on frontpage of HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30952084. It looked like a promising new text editor but the website https://www.zeditor.app doesn't exist anymore. Did anyone purchase it? I am curious if the project got abandoned because it did not get much traction or if it was some sort of scam.
Why it failed: Just a few months back this was on frontpage of HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30952084. It looked like a promising new text editor but the website https://www.zeditor.app doesn't exist anymore. Did anyone purchase it? I am curious if the p
jatins
- startupShut down2022
Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job
I'm in a situation where my boss really doesn't get me or understand what I specifically bring to the table. She simply needs something different. I've tried to fit myself into what she needs like a square peg in a round hole. I have a very different vision for my role, and a specific understanding of how my strengths contribute to our team. After a year of trying, coaching, assuming I’m the problem, talking to my skip level, hard convos with my boss, and much more etc I'm finally realizing trying to force myself into something that's simply not going to fit. With all humility I admit it may be me that failed. But life is short, it’s time to move on. Cool story bro, why are you telling me? Well I just want to say, the industry has an obsession with "growth" in performance reviews. But the reality is that growth only works when you build on someone'
Why it failed: I'm in a situation where my boss really doesn't get me or understand what I specifically bring to the table. She simply needs something different. I've tried to fit myself into what she needs like a square peg in a round hole. I have a very different vision for my
throwarayes
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: To have (system) design sessions or not?
In my team, I suggest that before starting coding/implementing any middle-size/big feature (e.g., an HTTP endpoint that, supposedly, needs a new db table) the engineers involved (which usually involves all the backend engineers) should have a "design" session where: - potential high-level solutions are discussed - potential implementations are discussed (not low-level details, but at least the important/risky ones) - and once a "final" decision is made, whoever is in charge of pushing the feature live to production can start with the implementation. The rest of the team can review the implmentation later on knowing that it should follow the final decision the team agreed on The team doesn't like the approach that much because: - it takes time ("Omg, yet another meeting?") - "review of the design can be done at PR code review time&quo
Why it failed: In my team, I suggest that before starting coding/implementing any middle-size/big feature (e.g., an HTTP endpoint that, supposedly, needs a new db table) the engineers involved (which usually involves all the backend engineers) should have a "design" session
danwee
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of information?
In the pre-Internet era, when you were curious about tech X, you'd walk to a store, skim through a bunch of books, pick the one you liked the most, and take it home. The whole process of searching took less than an hour, and then you were committed, because back at home, it was the only material about X you had physically available. If something wasn't mentioned in the book, you couldn't Google it, tough luck. And reading that book was genuinely exciting, because with TV and offline games being the only alternatives, it was your strongest source of dopamine. You'd be picking it up instinctly, just like today you pick up a smartphone, because it was the most mysterious thing to explore within your reach. These days, you type X into Google, and you get hit with an avalanche of tutorials, ebooks, video series, paid courses, online lectures, all available constantly and i
Why it failed: In the pre-Internet era, when you were curious about tech X, you'd walk to a store, skim through a bunch of books, pick the one you liked the most, and take it home. The whole process of searching took less than an hour, and then you were committed, because back at home, it
johnny_castaway