Ask HN: Would you read a blog that detailed the rise and fall of a startup?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2955459

8 6 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

http://lookingbackaretrospective.posterous.com/

Backstory: When the company I worked for years to help succeed suddenly and abruptly crumbled beneath me, I wrote a memoir of the event as a sort of catharsis. I was encouraged to publish it online by some former colleagues, and so we find ourselves here today.

I'm looking to get as much as honest feedback about it as I can, mainly to see if people find the story to be interesting, and if they enjoy the writing style or not.

All Questions, Comments, and Criticisms are welcomed and encouraged

callmeed• 15 years ago

The problem is blogs are in reverse chronological order, but I want to read it chapter-by-chapter like a story.

manuscreationis3• 15 years ago

I agree, I wish i could enforce chronological order on it... Maybe if I add a sidebar widget, it might help, to let people quickly jump to old posts?

Thanks for reading!

Edit: I can reverse the chronological order of things, but I'm not in love with the way they do the side links, rolled up by Year... I'm going to play around with it, and see what I like

michaeldhopkins• 15 years ago

Overall, it's enjoyable. Sometimes your wording can be a little awkward. Keep it up.

manuscreationis3• 15 years ago

Point well taken - That's really just my style, I suppose. I wrote it to reflect how I would tell the story if I were directly talking to someone.

I'll try to be on the lookout for anything that looks too over-done in the future.

Thanks for reading!

anujkk• 15 years ago

Nice blog. I read first two posts and I must say I've been through same experience and I can relate with some of these characters.

It was also around this time I had become something of an “important” figure around my office. For anyone who has been “that guy” in a small team, the guy who gets three emergencies thrown at him from 3 different people in the course of a single minute, the guy who gets assigned the bugs noone else can figure out or reproduce, the guy, who when noone else has an answer, is turned to for help, you’ll know what I mean when i say “important”. - My project manager(non-technical) promised client to deliver the complete project in three days. He didn't consulted us about the expected development time and it was a month work to be true. We two developers worked non stop for 58 hours to develop an untested ugly version and hoped for best. Fortunately, it worked well. Never looked back at that code and it is still being used since last 4 years. Even I don't know how.

manuscreationis3• 15 years ago

Haha, I can relate to that, for sure.

Keep reading, there's a part you'll definitely relate to, near the end of "The New Office". We had a guy who constantly oversold and overpromised, causing us endless pains...

Thanks for reading! Be sure to pass it along if you've enjoyed it.

Ask HN: Would you read a blog that detailed the rise and fall of a startup?

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