I’m currently thinking about SaaS pricing for solo users.
Most tools charge a flat monthly fee, but I’m considering not charging users in months they don’t actually use the product.
The idea is to avoid the cancel / resubscribe dance and make things feel fairer for people with tighter budgets.
Not sure if this is naive or practical — has anyone tried something similar?
I come from a non-English-speaking country, and I admit that I use translation tools to communicate here, but I’m not a bot. I was introduced to Hacker News by a friend a few months ago to learn, because the quality of discussion here is consistently high. I want to clarify that every post I make reflects my own thoughts after carefully reading the content. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
Despite the fact that China's one-party system has its own issues, it is undeniable that this political structure allows China to relatively "concentrate forces to accomplish major tasks." Since the launch of ChatGPT, China has essentially sparked a nationwide "war of a thousand models." In addition to providing enterprises with favorable policies and subsidies, the government has encouraged civil servants at nearly every level of administration to learn about and understand AIGC. Leaders at all levels of government are required to dedicate a certain amount of time to specialized training courses on the subject.
Respect to those unsung engineers who made such lasting contributions, and to the author as well. This kind of work is not easy, but truly meaningful.
I do have a question, though: shouldn’t the creation of industry standards also allow individual attribution, similar to how patents credit inventors?
Because of the EU’s strict regulations, many internet products have simply given up on the European market. In some ways, this makes Europe seem a bit “behind the times.” Of course, the world still needs some conservatives to keep things in balance.
A serious issue is that in recent years, graduates in some majors may find it extremely difficult to secure jobs. I've noticed that many companies have replaced positions related to visual design with AI tools.
Graduating only to be unemployed is really miserable.
I think using large language models really accelerates mental atrophy. It's like when you use an input method for a long time, it automatically completes words for you, and then one day when you pick up a pen to write, you find you can't remember how to spell the words. However, the main point in the article is that we need to feed high-quality data to large language models. This view is actually a consensus, isn't it? Many agent startups are striving to feed high-quality domain-specific knowledge and workflows to large models.
Just to add,many people tend to overestimate the power of AI. At least for now, vibe coding doesn’t play a significant role in building complex software.
I recently read a Stack Overflow research report showing that:“Most respondents are not vibe coding (72%), and an additional 5% are emphatic it not being part of their development workflow.”It also noted that in a future with advanced AI, the #1 reason developers would still ask another human for help is “When I don’t trust AI’s answers” (75%).This clearly shows that human developers remain the ultimate
I don’t think AI is anywhere near the point of replacing humans yet. The main issue here is whether the use of these tools is forced or voluntary. I’ve seen quite a few companies where the boss tries to fully adopt AI productivity tools, but faces strong resistance during implementation.From the employees’ perspective, the boss might be moving too aggressively without considering the practical realities. From the boss’s perspective, it’s frustrating to see the pushback.This tension seems to be a common challenge at the current stage of AI adoption.
Gotta thank AI — it’s keeping my portfolio from collapsing, at least for now . But yeah, I totally see the point: AI investment might be one of the few things holding up the U.S. economy, and it doesn’t even have to fail spectacularly to cause trouble. Even a “slightly disappointing” AI wave could ripple across markets and policy.
Interesting read — and honestly, this isn’t unique to the U.S. or Mexico. Bureaucratic inefficiency and siloed systems seem to be universal in government operations. What’s missing isn’t just “digitization,” but true digital transformation — interoperable systems, shared data standards, and accountability built into the process.With AI advancing so fast, I wonder if we’ll see tools or frameworks that can actually help governments move past legacy workflows instead of just automating the same inefficiencies.
I strongly agree with your point. I came across an article that tracked SaaS projects launched on PH between January and June 2024. As of now, 91.2% have fewer than 100 active users, and 84.6% haven’t been updated since the month they launched.