HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

I think what he put in the "what I can do" category is exactly what a startup should be looking for to fill in the gaps. What he can't do doesn't seem to be the key roles of an investor (like getting your startup PR or managing the people in your company).

Here's an interview with him on This Week in Startups: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWJAkjF9qnY

here is the full clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWJAkjF9qnY#t=1h14m44s

link to a more verbose opinion before and after the cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWJAkjF9qnY#t=1h14m44s

Had a great discussion of Gabriel, the founder of DuckDuckGo Friday... podcast is up.<p>Gabriel is a great entrepreneur... really enjoyed having him on the show.<p>show notes here: http://thisweekin.com/thisweekin-startups/this-week-in-startups-72-with-gabriel-weinberg/

⬐ AlexBlom

I did not use DuckDuckGo before. Now I'm trying it. Say all you want, the interview worked.

⬐ barmstrong

Wow, Gabriel Weinberg came across really brilliant in that interview. Had never seen him speak, but I like how measured and thoughtful he is with his responses. Free of hyperbole, and solid ideas.

⬐ hackerbob

In the video Jason also states why future Ycombinator startups participating the facebook socializing of your product is a bad idea. You can watch it here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWJAkjF9qnY#t=1h14m43s

Jason main point is that its a bad idea because facebook has a history stealing good ideas.

I disagree, not that they haven't done that or that there aren't other concerns, like facebook or twitter changing there platform policies. But worrying about any competitor stealing your idea is often a premature concern when you have other things to think about like whether you have a good idea, can you execute well on that idea, how will you get distribution and will people use it.

As Steve blank would say, "You should be so lucky to get to a size that you have a competitor thinking about you".

You should watch this clip Jason. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6USgPkfsVJM#t=25m55s

and thanks for TWiST, I enjoy it alot.

⬐ ryanb

Did anything come up regarding DDG not really showing Mahalo pages in results?

⬐ vaksel

no reason why he would...according to Jason Mahalo is a search engine

⬐ bjonathan

So much irony during that interview!

⬐ rumpelstiltskin

I get flamed on HN 3 times a day, I don't know why

news.ycombinator.com, the incubator, has this site where people, nerds, talk about stuff

Your tone over the word 'nerds' (and the entire 30 seconds around it) is exactly why you get flamed. Maybe if you chill with the irrelevant bullshit, maintain your objectivity and do your job (in this case, focus on the interview), ppl would respect you.

P.S. Great guest this week.

⬐ SebMortelmans

Great guest indeed.

Jason is a true salesman. He knows how to get people's attention. Controversy is great in helping him just do that. But see through that (obvious) persona; he has incredible insight to share based on his years of experience as entrepreneur. He loves what he does, although he is not directly a hacker, he still is an entrepreneur. One that is willing to share everything he knows and is actively helping the community. He can call me a nerd all day for that.

⬐ znt

That's exactly where I stopped watching the video. No matter how much value a person provides, if he is doing it in an unpleasant manner I tend to walk away instead of putting up with his BS. Worked out pretty well for me so far.

⬐ rpledge

Pfft, do you really only watch people you 100% agree with? Do you really believe you see all sides of any issue when you shut out people you disagree with on principle? I find it sad that critical thinking is a lost art today.....

⬐ mkr-hn

Who said anything about issues? They're talking about manner.

The way you present your ideas is as important as the ideas themselves if you want to reach an audience.

⬐ spudlyo

You might want to rethink that strategy just for this episode. As much as Jason annoys me (and he does) I have to give him credit for asking smart, interesting questions of Gabriel Weinberg. I didn't know much about DDG going in, and felt like I got a great overview of how it works and why I might want to use it.

⬐ jasonmcalacanis

ummm..... thanks? :-p

⬐ phjohnst

Agreed. I cant handle anything with Calcanis, but a chance to listen to Gabriel Weinberg is always worthwhile.

⬐ jasonmcalacanis

i consider myself a nerd as well if that helps :-)

⬐ petercooper

The prevailing wind, though, has somewhat shifted toward "geek" as a more acceptable collective term in the last few years (and "nerd" as having more negative qualities of social ineptitude). Only one survey of many but Wired's (2878 votes) swung very strongly to the favor of "geek": http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/07/great-geek-debates-geek... .. my own on Twitter was a 6:1 ratio pro-geek.

(A rather uncool admission, I've been doing some research and polling on this lately for non-disclosable reasons. An interesting and rather ambivalent discussion of nerd vs geek is given in the preface of Rands' "Being Geek" - for those who are interested. Given your significant audience, though, it'd be interesting if you could poll them on it too ;-))

⬐ birken

If there was no irrelevant "bullshit" the show would be incredibly boring. I also find that the random tangents Jason goes on are the most interesting parts of the show.

And as far as respect goes, I think the fact that Jason speaks his mind so freely and offends people (like you!) all the time makes him more worthy of respect.

⬐ knightinblue

makes him more worthy of respect

From people like you perhaps. In which case, knock yourself out.

I do agree that TWIST maintains a high quality of guests tho.