7 ms·

Ask HN: What keeps you up at night?

5 points by shotti 14y ago

I just found this question on the application form of Techstars. I have no idea what they want to see through this question...

kaolinite 14y ago
My pet cat.
- shotti 14y ago
  Envy...I wanna have a cat.
  - kaolinite 14y ago
    I've only had him for a week. He's great but he keeps waking me up in the night so in the morning I'm really tired :-(
mrhyperpenguin 14y ago
I think the question may be asking what do you despise (you despise this thing so much it keeps you up at night.)
- shotti 14y ago
  I love your logic. Then, it will be this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr-qewC-4gY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr-qewC-4gY
mooism2 14y ago
Insomnia. The urge to code. Next door singing karaoke. Bad colds.
- shotti 14y ago
  Next door singing karaoke haha:)
  - mooism2 14y ago
    Product/app idea: it works out which song your neighbours are murdering, and plays you the proper version in tune.
DanBC 14y ago
Sometimes people worry about general "stuff". They can worry about this stuff so much that they stay awake at night. Here's an example of that type of usage: (http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6380000/newsid_6388800/6388841.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6380000/newsid_6388...) > Loads of kids in the UK can't sleep at night because of worrying about the environment, according to a new report. Fears about global warming and its effects on people's health and animals are some of their biggest concerns. But what keeps you awake at night? Sometimes the usage is more specific, about the jobs that people actually have. Here's an example of that usage: (http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/news/what-keeps-you-awake-at-night http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/news/what-keeps-you-awake-a...) > Moore, who deals with the rest of the astrophysics portfolio, said his worry is how to implement the missions called for in the 2010 NRC Decadal Survey for astronomy and astrophysics with NASA's existing budget, and how to work with the Europeans on achieving science objectives. He also is worried about the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism (GEMS) small Explorer mission that he said has technical and cost challenges. "We hope we can thread that needle," he said, and "be honest and straightforward about cost." There's a subtly different form of this. People identify challenging aspects of their work, and they key important aspects of their work. These are framed in a positive way. Here's a video of some of this type of use. Note the small difference, the NASA quote is a bit brutal ("We have really tight budgets and we hope we can meet budgets") while the AskTheExperts video is more aspirational ("Progress is difficult but exciting possibilities exist"). (http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/video/awake-at-night-en http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/video/a...)
- shotti 14y ago
  Wow, they are interesting and I'm about to grasp what techstars wants to see now!
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
sidchilling 14y ago
Nothing. I sleep peacefully.
- shotti 14y ago
  So do I.
mbpp 14y ago
A post by one of TechStars mentors: http://casnocha.com/2009/06/understanding-what-keeps-a-person-up-at-night.html http://casnocha.com/2009/06/understanding-what-keeps-a-perso...
- shotti 14y ago
  Thanks!!
DaveChild 14y ago
Fear that they'll find the bodies.
debacle 14y ago
Computing is too hard. We haven't come as far in the last ten years as we should have in terms of software, and we're hardly making good use of the crazy advances in technology that we've seen in the last few decades. It's still too difficult for a non-programmer to do anything useful and it's hours and hours of menial work for a programmer to do things which he can instantly visualize in his head, all because our devices are still relatively dumb. Almost every programming language in use today is over fifteen years old, and we still have to deal with stupid things like character sets and the like. Writing a program isn't about being smart, it's about knowing a predefined set of rules that keep the computer from puking all over the brand new carpet. And my wife snores.
dschmidt11 14y ago
funny post..as I sit here in class staring at my rockstar '2x the crack'. My teacher keeps looking at me like he wants to ask me a question. I'm a non-techie trying to launch a startup, I bet you can guess why I went to bed at 3am.

5 points by shotti 14y ago

I just found this question on the application form of Techstars. I have no idea what they want to see through this question...

kaolinite 14y ago

My pet cat.

shotti 14y ago
Envy...I wanna have a cat.
- kaolinite 14y ago
  I've only had him for a week. He's great but he keeps waking me up in the night so in the morning I'm really tired :-(

mrhyperpenguin 14y ago

I think the question may be asking what do you despise (you despise this thing so much it keeps you up at night.)

shotti 14y ago
I love your logic. Then, it will be this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr-qewC-4gY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr-qewC-4gY

mooism2 14y ago

Insomnia. The urge to code. Next door singing karaoke. Bad colds.

shotti 14y ago
Next door singing karaoke haha:)
- mooism2 14y ago
  Product/app idea: it works out which song your neighbours are murdering, and plays you the proper version in tune.

DanBC 14y ago

Sometimes people worry about general "stuff". They can worry about this stuff so much that they stay awake at night. Here's an example of that type of usage: (http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6380000/newsid_6388800/6388841.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6380000/newsid_6388...) > Loads of kids in the UK can't sleep at night because of worrying about the environment, according to a new report. Fears about global warming and its effects on people's health and animals are some of their biggest concerns. But what keeps you awake at night? Sometimes the usage is more specific, about the jobs that people actually have. Here's an example of that usage: (http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/news/what-keeps-you-awake-at-night http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/news/what-keeps-you-awake-a...) > Moore, who deals with the rest of the astrophysics portfolio, said his worry is how to implement the missions called for in the 2010 NRC Decadal Survey for astronomy and astrophysics with NASA's existing budget, and how to work with the Europeans on achieving science objectives. He also is worried about the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism (GEMS) small Explorer mission that he said has technical and cost challenges. "We hope we can thread that needle," he said, and "be honest and straightforward about cost." There's a subtly different form of this. People identify challenging aspects of their work, and they key important aspects of their work. These are framed in a positive way. Here's a video of some of this type of use. Note the small difference, the NASA quote is a bit brutal ("We have really tight budgets and we hope we can meet budgets") while the AskTheExperts video is more aspirational ("Progress is difficult but exciting possibilities exist"). (http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/video/awake-at-night-en http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/video/a...)

shotti 14y ago
Wow, they are interesting and I'm about to grasp what techstars wants to see now!

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

sidchilling 14y ago

Nothing. I sleep peacefully.

shotti 14y ago
So do I.

mbpp 14y ago

A post by one of TechStars mentors: http://casnocha.com/2009/06/understanding-what-keeps-a-person-up-at-night.html http://casnocha.com/2009/06/understanding-what-keeps-a-perso...

shotti 14y ago
Thanks!!

DaveChild 14y ago

Fear that they'll find the bodies.

debacle 14y ago

Computing is too hard. We haven't come as far in the last ten years as we should have in terms of software, and we're hardly making good use of the crazy advances in technology that we've seen in the last few decades. It's still too difficult for a non-programmer to do anything useful and it's hours and hours of menial work for a programmer to do things which he can instantly visualize in his head, all because our devices are still relatively dumb. Almost every programming language in use today is over fifteen years old, and we still have to deal with stupid things like character sets and the like. Writing a program isn't about being smart, it's about knowing a predefined set of rules that keep the computer from puking all over the brand new carpet. And my wife snores.

dschmidt11 14y ago

funny post..as I sit here in class staring at my rockstar '2x the crack'. My teacher keeps looking at me like he wants to ask me a question. I'm a non-techie trying to launch a startup, I bet you can guess why I went to bed at 3am.