Yeah, me too. I'm not interested in the opinions of people who really just seem be saying the same vague shit over and over again. What's the deal with these venture capitalists giving us advice? We're just normal people trying to start off companies and ideas, if you want to tell us shit, tell us shit that we can use. Tell us how to market, how to sell, how to get good feedback from users.

Don't keep telling us how to talk to venture capitalists and what not. It's depressing. This place is a graveyard of hope - everyone here seems to be trying, and everyone seems to be advising - but nobody seems to be succeeding. And those companies that do succeed, hell, you never see them here.

This is a collection of dreamers and people hoping for that big million payout. If I'm going to fail, I'll fail with dignity trying to sell things that people want to buy.

"And those companies that do succeed, hell, you never see them here."

Well...whaddaya expect? They're too busy coding their startups to post on a glorified message board. That's probably also behind the dropoff in activity - many of the top posters here got into the SFP, so they're now hard at work on their projects.

I'll probably stick around here as long as I still have my day job. Can't really work on the startup at work without jeopardizing the IP, so I might as well at least learn about startups in my downtime. But there's eventually a time when you've learned everything you're gonna get off the web and just have to go for it and try...

That's very true, I used to read and post here much more when I had to be at work all day. Since I quit to work on my startup I don't have nearly to same amount of time. There is a essay I've been meaning to write about taking the plunge and quitting the day job but I don't really have time to sit down and do it.

"Can't really work on the startup at work without jeopardizing the IP"

1. Take the first word of that sentence out of your vocabulary. 2. Work at night. Forget about what might go wrong and imagine the possibilities.

There. You just won half the battle. Just my 2 cents.

Agree with point 2 (I'm all about coding all night), but 1 isn't a good idea..

If your IP agreement doesnt already claim ownership over your work inside and outside work, it definitely will at least claim what you do during work hours.

Thats a quick way to lose your job, get blacklisted from other companies, and lose legal ownership over your startup..

Agreed. My solution: don't EVER sign ANY agreement that dictates who owns what you do on your own time. Not sure? Get a lawyer. Still not sure? Take another job.

(Aside: didn't Lincoln outlaw this in 1863?)

And that, my friend, is why you want to live in California, where the law preempts the employer from claiming ownership of work done on your own time.

California Labor Code Section 2870: http://www.unixguru.com/california_law.html

I actually asked this question a while back and got some good responses if you're interested:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7298

Speak for yourself. The users of this site include the founders of 3 startups from YC alone who've been acquired for multiple millions. Plus a number of more famous founders I don't want to out, but whom you can often recognize from their usernames.

I didn't take my laptop with me to this year's SXSW interactive (http://2007.sxsw.com/interactive/) and I think it greatly enhanced my experience.

Ironically, I think that tech conferences such as this would actually be enhanced--for (almost) everybody--if computers were generally prohibited at computer event venues. (Flame me not.) :)

If nothing else, it would increase f2f interaction..would it not??

(Wouldn't this be a rather stunning exercise/experiment...if only for a day or 2 at a major conference?!)

Taking a periodic breaks from any online forum you frequent is generally a good idea in my experience. It helps keep new ideas flowing and helps break bad habits.

I agree in general about open-mindedness and exploring a variety of subjects. My favorite articles are almost never from valleywag or techcrunch. But I do think news.yc should stay as startup-focused as possible.

You're probably familiar with it, but I'd recommend programming.reddit.com. You'll get a much better variety of computer science and programming articles than you will here.

Wait, a site called "Startup News" that is focused on startups?! Surely not!

(That said, more submissions on CS and the technology behind many startups wouldn't be unwelcome, at least to me.)

Yeah I'd like that too. It could have more about learning how to build software and different technologies.

Seems like you aren't alone, but might be a couple weeks late. Traffic's dropped tremendously, it feels like (then again, so has the amount of startup-related news). Care to corroborate, PG?

I have noticed the drop off too, I has associating it with the end of the application period for YC... That said, the dreary pace does allow us to slow down and focus. I think this would be a great time for us to start some broader discussions and actually have the discussion carry on for a couple days instead of hours.

That said, as someone else pointed out, what really matters is doing things, not talking about em :)

It's the beginning of summer. People are off doing summer things.

I've often seen a forum's traffic pick up during the summer, as students have more time to slack off.

For dating sites probably.

For "work" sites like this, I'd say no.

It's good to take a break every once in a while. If you make yourself not check in for a week or two YC will be very interesting when you come back.

In fact, it's an amazing experience to avoid the Internet for 3 days. Try it.

Haha, 3 days off internet, i havent done that for like a year. its prob a good idea. I like what the guy said earlier. You can read forver on the internet, you just have to do it. After reading the four hour work week, i realised how much time i spend reading stuff i dont need. Pointless reading "how to scale to a million users a day" when you havent even gone live yet. good idea, no yc-news for a week, how about that!

Try 3 weeks off the Internet. It rocks.

When I make it big I am going to not use the internet for a whole year.

interesting. I apparently took an 18 day break. It doesn't require a news flash, I think, just do it.