Might change it then. My original vision was just Vajra and Gnosis, but then I started feeling like maybe they're both too loud so I added the Simple style. But yeah, Vajra is the one I personally use.
Probably it is harder to scale startups in Europe vs the US. But is that something nations should optimize for?
And if so, what priority should be given to "ease of rapid growth for startups" vs many other issues that determine economic growth and a population's well being?
Also, how much of the problem is due to the issues you raise vs other factors such amount of money spent in R&D? The US has a huge amount of "defense spending" but in fact a lot of that is dedicated to funding research in Universities and direct job creation. Maybe Europe just needs more research Universities, more labs and more state investment into technology. The recent Moderna breakthrough was in part due to a $25 million DARPA investment into the RNA vaccine idea.
As for the issues you mention; solving bureaucratic issues would make things more efficient, and it is definitely desirable. However, I would argue that a heterogeneous market (in terms of language and culture) is more of an advantage than a liability.
Having many cultures and languages could be akin to having biodiversity. Different outlooks in life, different ways of expressing ideas, different ways of thinking can contribute to the development of culture and technology. Look at the Galapago effect that languages had in early computing. The Japanese were able to develop their own vision of "computing" and came up with their own innovations due in part that early western computers couldn't handle Japanese.
Languages and cultures can serve as natural protectionist barriers that allow for each region to develop their own home industries, allowing them to catch up to the world while retaining significant chunks of new wealth creation for their own. Yes, wealth creation is good, but its also important to look at how wealth is distributed. Very unequal societies can break down and lose their cohesion. Cohesion and trust are important features of rich countries. Perhaps many of the issues the US dealing with is because of the huge level of inequalities it has.
Finally, is translation and localization really that hard? Is it that expensive to hire some sales & marketing staff in new markets where you could be making tons of money? I bet translation costs and such are less than a percentage of what Google spent expanding its search engine.
> Finally, is translation and localization really that hard? Is it that expensive to hire some sales & marketing staff in new markets where you could be making tons of money?
Generally, successful technology businesses have low marginal cost to serve new customers. You pay some amount X, to setup in a market and then can scale out relatively cheaply.
The US is great because you pay X once, and then scale quite a lot. Each European country requires that you pay X (or maybe X/4), but it essentially acts as a tax which reduces margins.
I wouldn't agree that people choose products based on what their friends are using. At least for me it doesn't work.
While the second part is true, I agree.
It's really hard to overcome existing players, on the other hand there are some advantages: existing players are kind of slow in terms of changing (adding new features) and in terms of support.
Among these 170 alternatives, more than half of them were built in 2010 I guess, and they do not evolve.
Regarding paid ads. This year I was watching how other guys do with their side projects and I literally haven't seen anyone who tried paid ads. They did SEO though, but not google ads or something like that. Because they are good at reaching the right audience in the right place, I guess.
This is a quick and dirty MVP I put together. I would appreciate any feedback. Would you use it? Do you think there is a market for it? What is your biggest concern?
I like this. I would use it. I can remember situations in the past in which I would have loved to use it.
The "I'll solve your problem" market is one to be explored, I think. I don't want people doing everything for me for a huge price, but sometimes it would be better to pay to get a small problem solved instead of navigating for many hours through documentation, chats and help threads around the internet to get that solved.
No, I can not say that confidently about everybody. But for the target audience, developers and founders of small businesses, I can confidently say their time is worth a lot.
It is project based, not time based. It is a flat fee!
Reddit/HN like forum as an API. I want a forum for my site, using my own templates and integrated into my app, but without having to code the forum myself. What buttercms does for blogs, but for forums.
I totally agree with you on context. Something that has worked for me is to add the Core10k(http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/Core_10k and the Core6k decks to Anki and then when I bump into a new word I want to learn, I search for it on these decks and move the corresponding cards to my main study deck. These decks have the words in the context of one whole sentence including audio and images. Also, I only add words to my main study deck that I have seen in a real Japanese text.
That is not enough though and that problem you are describing is the reason I am developing Koipun Reader(https://www.koipun.com/reader/). My goal for Koipun Reader is to help intermediate level learners go through any arbitrary Japanese text and give them the ability to save words they want to learn, so that they can review them later within the same context of the text they read. I only have preview version of the app right now, but I will release an MVP in a month.
I am quite happy to see this. Although I am saddened by the death of the Ubuntu phone, this means that GNOME will get a lot more development and will receive the love and care of Canonical's excellent design teams. Gnome 3 is already shaping up to be quite a marvel, I am very excited about what will come next.
Furthermore, even if the dream of a free as in freedom Linux phone is pushed down a bit down the future, I think that a joint community/Canonical/Red Hat effort will eventually materialize.
P.S. I hope for a return to the brown and orange theme too!
