_akhe · HackerTrans

Expo was amazing for my first foray into React Native (https://github.com/bennyschmidt/daily-tarot)

I eventually ran into some limitations (accessing Camera Roll back then, also in-app purchases back then) that forced me to have to use more native stuff. I bet it's come a long way though since then.

_akhe

2년 전discuss

I didn't know, thanks for letting me know! Just found this: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@callstack/react-native-vision...

> This is a full fork of [React Native] with changes needed to support visionOS.

Awesome.

_akhe

2년 전discuss

Agree with you there! I don't particularly love Facebook and haven't even used it since 2009, but I can't deny how world-changing React has been for not only front-end (in terms of state management etc.) but also for building cross-platform native UIs on various platforms like TVs and mobile devices - and being able to do it with a (mostly) common codebase.

I probably would have never built for iOS if I had to use Xcode and their entire ecosystem, luckily in RN you usually just need to install their command line tools and never open the software.

_akhe

2년 전discuss

Lol "Sunset your product today on... Horizon"

_akhe

2년 전discuss

Long plane rides and TV before bed - 2 things it would be better at than what we have now. Imagine watching a 27" screen from across the room in the dark vs a screen that moves with your vision... No more awkward pillow adjusting to make a makeshift couch etc. your neck can finally just relax and you can stare at the screen however you're laying. In these cases you're not doing anything else anyway.

But yeah, the Tesla Airpod people who talk to themselves all loud outside will no doubt have a full UI of the world 24/7, gesturing like maniacs in the middle of stores, in crosswalks - just a news and stock ticker streaming across the top of their field of vision at all times. And there will of course be junkies in the streets, with - instead of smartphones - goggles on their faces, crumbled up in a brick corner just like the dystopian art showed us.

For Pareto's 20%, it's an Apple Watch, or Airpods++.

_akhe

2년 전discuss

Meta is smartly capturing the MR developer market like they captured the web developer market with React.

In terms of Vision vs Quest - I wonder if there will be a "React Native" parallel that allows developers to write React for both Vision and Quest apps. A lot of the developer market comes down to languages: Python for AI/ML, Obj-C (Swift) for iOS, Java (Kotlin) for Android - but JavaScript always seems to weasle its way into these native platforms and a lot of companies end up just writing React for anything front-end.

_akhe

2년 전discuss

It's all going to end up in JavaScript anyway.

I say this as a joke, yet: https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-unity-webgl

  Simply rendering your Unity Application within your React Application is just the beginning! The Unity Context exposes a lot more fun functions and properties to play around with such as two way communication or requesting fullscreen or a pointerlock. The possibilities are endless, what's next is up to you!

Love it or hate it. Everything ends up in JavaScript!

_akhe

2년 전discuss

Very good points, especially about timing / stage of life.

> track record of success

This is another factor - I didn't work at Facebook or Google and am not a member of the Bank of Mom & Dad, so if I got into investing I'd want to have enough extra time and money built up that I could participate in (or lead) the round and get a number of others involved, rather than being a candidate/applicant asking for funds and help - I'd want to be active in it.

Great points, thanks for sharing!

_akhe

2년 전discuss

Thanks, and very cool, thanks for breaking it down! I appreciate you sharing numbers.

A bank seems like a much better option if you just need the capital but you don't want to give up too much (or any) equity. That's likely the route we'd go if we ever wanted to tap into funding.

Both private equity and venture funding seem more like you have to give up the company and go work for the investor. Investors bring some value sure, network and what-not, but I wonder how valuable their "advice" and network really is.

_akhe

2년 전discuss

My partner wants nothing to do with a VC or even a loan - basically because what you're saying here.

The other side to it, as rfrey said, is it would enable a hyper growth mode and let us make moves earlier.

But stable growth mode is working fine, and overall there's not a huge reason to take out a loan or raise money, it doesn't feel like we're racing against a clock on some trend or any other reason to rush things.

_akhe

2년 전discuss

> That’s essentially how the whole world operates

What if regarding slavery or horses as transportation people were like "that's essentially how the world operates", not that investing has anything to do with those, but that this excuse doesn't add a ton of insight if you think about it.

There are a lot of ways the world has operated that are not fair or optimal. It would be a logical fallacy - an appeal to tradition - to use that as an argument against the way things could be, or according to OP the way things should be (are intended to be).

Investing is a regulated activity that affects the economy and individuals, so I think it's at least worth exploring things like nepotism and exclusivity when it comes to the flow of capital. And it's obviously important to notice when the same relatively tiny group of people keep receiving the majority of "acceptance" (investment) while the vast majority outside that circle are totally ignored and/or marginalized.

_akhe

2년 전discuss

You too!

_akhe

2년 전discuss

> VC industry

Well said, and you reminded me to be more careful about what I share haha

_akhe

2년 전discuss

I meant $100M in annual revenues :) Your point is taken though, I think a lot of VCs would scoff at our present-day numbers despite our growth and outlook. It's very much still a small business, yet by far the most impressive thing either of us have ever done and the hardest we've ever worked. Been at it since July of last year pretty much non-stop.

_akhe

2년 전discuss

> the smartest people happen to go to Stanford

There's no way this is even possible, let alone true.

This might be a hot take but if you're under the age of 25, it's likely that you know very few things total. And the things you do know, you're just not going to have a master level of understanding of in your 20s yet nor the drive to focus on it the way it needs, especially with other social pressures at play. What is extremely high in your 20s is your ambition - your loftiness of ideas and goals and your expectations of yourself - these can land you exceptional jobs, opportunities, and get you to a great starting point, but that's not the same as intelligence and ability.

For manual labor work, there's a definite peak - college age and the years just after. But for knowledge work, math, programming, business, politics, etc. being older is almost always an asset - you get better at things, you get smarter, your networks grow, you become an adult among the children and are far more aware of timing and can predict and speak on things with more accuracy. You simply know more.

Besides that, I don't think raw intelligence is selection criteria for a good founder anyway. It has a lot more to do with your particular situation - how well you're situated to pull it off, which can mean many things. In terms of personal qualities it probably has more to do with determination and obsession (work ethic) than intelligence, especially these days where information is so cheap and available.

_akhe

2년 전discuss

I really appreciate this comment. Service offered / payment received is irreplaceably wholesome and satisfying :) especially when they come back as repeat customers or become regular clients. Repeat business and gradual growth gives us both an exciting feeling about the future that I never quite felt at a startup. I've found too often a venture-backed startup is really a lifestyle business in disguise for the founders, not really about serving customers, so it's hard to truly get excited about them anymore. Where running a business that solves a problem for paying customers feels more like changing the world:

> we're making a difference in their lives, and they in turn pay us money

We've felt this too in our community, it's the real meaning of "Make something people want" (and why we haven't had a day off in like 62 days or something lol). It's strange to refer to our business as a "startup", but it is one, moreso than most VC-funded ones and I bet we have more customers, higher revenues, and a better growth outlook than the average local seed-funded startup. For us, a loan or VC route would just let us expand nationally right now to other major cities, instead of focusing first on the Bay Area and expanding nationally over the next several years which feels inevitable.

The amount a VC might pressure us to go in the wrong direction is another worry, and because it's just capital we'd need (not advice), they might just get in the way and throw off timing or team structure.

Thanks for your comment! I needed the reminder of how rewarding it is compared to conventional employment as today has been exceptionally hectic!

_akhe

2년 전discuss

Bookish, yeah, the look has aged well.

My intuition was that there are more overly-confident types who think they want to be a founder rather than those not confident enough to do it, but after reading some comments here maybe my intuition was off. Then there's people like me who became a founder out of survival lol I'm a founder whether or not I want to be, need a cohort for that! xD

Thanks for sharing the motivating insights!

_akhe

2년 전discuss

One of the reasons I like this site is that it feels slightly academic in a way that a competing site like Reddit does not.

And being a somewhat exclusive post-academic institution is not a bad image or message IMO. Maybe there are more pros than cons in terms of curation (of content, of founders).

Really didn't see it as a "everyone should apply!" kinda place, thought the messaging was intentionally "here's the latest out of Stanford" which I'm fine with.

_akhe

2년 전discuss

Re: "won't get in"

How do I balance this encouraging advice with everything I've heard online about YC basically being a post-Ivy League thing? Seems like there's basically a 0% chance a random person would get into YC. And often those who did get in went to Stanford, Harvard, etc. and don't even have a product - sometimes they don't even know what they're going to build yet.

I wrote the idea of VC stuff off long ago. My wife and I have a profitable business here in SF that would be perfect as a startup, but the concept of raising funds to expand literally hasn't even crossed our minds because it seems so geared toward post-grads - like something only Stanford and Harvard people get access to after they graduate.

Not only that, we're profitable, and can even articulate a realistic vision about how it becomes the next $100M household name, but the numbers I've read online that most VCs want to see are not realistic - or if we were hitting those numbers I wouldn't even need a VC, we would be able to fund our own expansion.

So we're just doing it on our own.

_akhe

2년 전discuss

Would it change anything if Hacker News was redesigned to look exactly like Reddit's UI? Because a lot of people would not want that. Behind the scenes, there are a lot of similarities between the two sites - but doesn't the fact that they look so different actually make them different?

If you're saying design doesn't matter at all then changing the look of Hacker News to be like Reddit should have no effect on user satisfaction, signups, or usage.

I sense a bias toward minimalism (that I share) but that's still intentional design.