Some old fella I knew who was a young professional as woman joined the ranks in the 60s & 70s had this useful saying: "toilet excuses" which was the whole laundry list of nonsense reasons why women couldn't be building inspectors or firemen or whatnot. "Every building site would need another toilet block and the costs would be tremendous, all to allow one dipshit 21 year old to work for 1 year, get pregnant then leave."
There is something about Kickstarter that makes HN irritable, hoping for failure. I'm not sure what it is exactly and its out of character. I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt but I can smell toilet excuses.
I'm sure that kickstarter has issues and maybe its not a big thing in the long term. But, its a nice idea. It seems to be working. Why is this mob so cranky?
I agree. Something about Kickstarter seems to inspire a lot of negativity here on HN. Perhaps because it's an alternative to the VC funding model that's such a part of the HN identity?
Personally, I love Kickstarter. I've funded a project with it myself. It's has great potential for an individual or small team with "1000 true fans" to make a living, and I think we'll see a lot of success stories come out of it.
And some notable failures, of course. But I don't see that as an indictment of the Kickstarter model. Personally, I wouldn't back Lifx. It's expensive, I'm skeptical of its ability to ship, and I don't need color-changing light bulbs. But if someone wants to spend $70 to take a flyer on something cool, more power to them.
Entrepreneurs using Kickstarter are pitching an idea and often getting money before they've executed more than a video and description.
The typical entrepreneurs of Hacker News are consistently told that an idea has little value and that actual execution is so much more. You must almost always build out at least a basic product before you have a hope of money trickling in or gaining investment.
There is something about Kickstarter that makes HN irritable, hoping for failure. I'm not sure what it is exactly and its out of character. I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt but I can smell toilet excuses.
I'm sure that kickstarter has issues and maybe its not a big thing in the long term. But, its a nice idea. It seems to be working. Why is this mob so cranky?