Ask HN: What keeps you up at night?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3913515

by shotti • 14 years ago

5 17 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

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

kaolinite2• 14 years ago

My pet cat.

shotti6• 14 years ago

Envy...I wanna have a cat.

kaolinite2• 14 years 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• 14 years ago

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

shotti6• 14 years ago

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

mooism22• 14 years ago

Insomnia.

The urge to code.

Next door singing karaoke.

Bad colds.

shotti6• 14 years ago

Next door singing karaoke haha:)

mooism22• 14 years ago

Product/app idea: it works out which song your neighbours are murdering, and plays you the proper version in tune.

DanBC• 14 years 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_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-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/a...)

shotti6• 14 years ago

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

sidchilling• 14 years ago

Nothing. I sleep peacefully.

shotti6• 14 years ago

So do I.

mbpp• 14 years ago

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

shotti6• 14 years ago

Thanks!!

DaveChild• 14 years ago

Fear that they'll find the bodies.

debacle• 14 years 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• 14 years 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.

Ask HN: What keeps you up at night?

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