[chistev]

I posted this 23 days ago -

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46100511

I've been enjoying past discussion threads on HN, currently in 2012.

Interesting conversations about how Facebook would fail back then, lol, and about how Bitcoin would not be as valuable as it is today. Who would have known?

Great site, this.

[stackghost]

HN is (in)famous for being bad at predicting success or failure, cf. Dropbox.

Lots of very intelligent people here but, no offense to anyone, this is the last place I'd come to get product advice.

[samyar]

Hn is the place where smart ppl give you feedback. I have benefited in many ways from hn.

[lisbbb]

Except most of them are just book smart (if that) and have little real-world experience.

[samyar]

I think we disagree on a fundamental level. what i have perceived in HN is that most ppl here tries to point out different angles of things. even if you post something totally positive and beneficial there will be someone to point out the weak points and i love it (you can ignore them or not).

[thekevan]

That's selection bias. Most replies in the post were positive.

BrandonM's comment also wasn't that unreasonable in my opinion. Imagine telling someone many years ago that we'd use an app on our phones to get in stranger's car and pay a lot for the privilege as well. His reaction to Dropbox wasn't on point but wasn't tone deaf.

Drew from Dropbox responded to the post at the time and BrandonM responded positively, praising the product.

It was overall a mature and very fair way of saying it wasn't for him.

[wojciii]

Funny you say this.

I noticed that product that succeeded are almost always products that I wouldn't buy.

So I could be used to determine the success of products. If I like it ..forget it. If i wount buy it, the the uneashed masses will and it will be a commercial succes.

I should sell this as a service ..

[ultratalk]

Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/2270/

[wojciii]

Hahah. I'm pretty bad at selecting winning stocks. This could be me.

[lisbbb]

It's because this site is inhabited by redditors who downvote comments such as yours for no other reason except to preserve the paper thin veneer of their superiority.

[chistev]

Lol. It's not just a HN thing. Humans just suck at predicting the future when that future involves the actions of other humans. Too many variables.

If you had read old discussion threads you'd never know Facebook would be the behemoth it is today.