Top all-time · #7829
Maximise
Personal blog · maximise.dk/blog · on HN as mixmaxstartupseconomics
Maximise is a personal blog at maximise.dk about startups and economics. Since 2008, 9 different Hacker News readers have linked it 66 times, most often “Moving a Boat - a story about what it takes to start a company.”. The last post was in 2016, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Maximise for posts on Danish programming culture and on intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, including a story about a moving boat. Comments cite the posts as support for their own points.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Moving a Boat - a story about what it takes to start a company.3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-04-27
- The worst case scenario happening when starting a company2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2009-06-11
- Dreamers vs. doers2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-08-10
- Getting product pricing right2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-11-13
What Hacker News says?
Back to the topic, here's an explanation http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2005/04/why-danish-programmers-a...
Comment linking /blog/2005/04/why-danish-programmers-are-best-in.html
on “Peter Naur has died”Submitted Tesla's ingenious strategy as a story · 185 points
HN discussionIt proves, once again, that extrinsic motivation does not work. If you help someone achieve a goal, they will owe you some of their success, lessening their own merit. On the opposite, as this story shows, the intrinsic motivation can make you do stuff that you thought impossible: http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2009/04/moving-boat.html So maybe to help people achieve their dream, you have to tell them that it can't be…
Comment linking /blog/2009/04/moving-boat.html
on “The Million Dollar Question”Submitted The madness of the bailout in Cyprus as a story · 172 points
HN discussionI think you might be misunderstanding the post - or at least interpreting it differently than me. I dont' think it's so much about success as it's about being different. Once you step over the cliff into the unknown there aren't that many people that will follow you. You become a loner, a misfit and a stranger to many people. Your desires, goals and interests drift away from normality, and thus you will eventually f…
Comment linking /blog/2009/04/moving-boat.html
on “The Million Dollar Question”Submitted Show HN: A high-tech floating Christmas tree with more than 2000 RGB LED's as a story · 94 points
HN discussionI work from my boat, currently at anchor off the coast of Copenhagen right here: http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll... An old IBM R40, some Philips monitor I got for free and a great view. Pic of workspace: http://maximise.dk/workspace.JPG
Comment linking /workspace.JPG
on “HN Members' Workspaces”Submitted Why the Euro will ultimately fail as a story · 43 points
HN discussionI wrote a blogpost about price elasticity a long time ago that you might find interesting: http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2009/01/getting-product-pricing-...
Comment linking /blog/2009/01/getting-product-pricing-right.html
on “Why charging $12/year converts higher than $9.99”Submitted Let the engineers rule as a story · 30 points
HN discussionPersonally I think it's one of those predictions. I explain why here: http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2008/11/why-singularity-may-neve...
Comment linking /blog/2008/11/why-singularity-may-never-arrive.html
on “Trailer now available for Ray Kurzweil's movie, "Transcendent Man"”Submitted Why the singularity may never arrive as a story · 29 points
HN discussionI think there's a better way if you're doing webapps. Since you can change the price for each customer in the backend code you can actually start doing statistics and find out at which pricepoint you maximise your profit. More info here: http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2009/01/getting-product-pricing-... (Full disclosure: it's my own rarely updated blog)
Comment linking /blog/2009/01/getting-product-pricing-right.html
on “How To Price Software Without Just Rolling The Dice”Submitted The worst case scenario happening when starting a company as a story · 27 points
HN discussionAll exponential growth comes to an end eventually. In the real world there are no "hockey-stick" curves, only S-shaped curves because the real world doesn't deal with infinity. I wrote a better explanation here: http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2008/11/why-singularity-may-neve...
Comment linking /blog/2008/11/why-singularity-may-never-arrive.html
on “Vernor Vinge predicts singularity by 2030”Submitted Moving a Boat - a story about what it takes to start a company. as a story · 23 points
HN discussionThey helped get funding for two companies I started :-) I've found that it's really hard to write business plans for other people, and for companies you aren't directly involved in. It's probably a bit like when biz types ask a programmer to write what it says in their business plan - they haven't really thought about a lot of the underlying assumptions and how much work it is to do right. It works the other way aro…
Comment linking /blog/2009/01/business-plans-for-hackers.html
on “Ask HN: How to write a business plan for an Internet startup?”Submitted Why you should fail early and fail often - the numbers as a story · 21 points
HN discussionSAAS works very well for a lot of companies, besides it's bound to get a lot bigger in the years ahead. I wrote a bit about SAAS and the design decisions you should take into account here: http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2007/01/moving-applications-to-w...
Comment linking /blog/2007/01/moving-applications-to-web.html
on “Ask HN: Does the SaaS model really work? Really?”Submitted Why Google is making an operating system as a story · 20 points
HN discussionSome time ago I wrote a short story about a guy moving a boat. Really it was a story about overcoming entrenched thinking, and how small nimble companies can change the status quo. It was pretty well received, so I've thought about writing a book in the same setting where the young man that moves into the entrenched and old fashioned fishing harbour gradually overcomes the old by using his wit and outlook and eventu…
Comment linking /moving-a-boat/
on “What's the use of stories that aren't even true?”Submitted The European advantage: product design as a story · 15 points
HN discussionHere's a true story involving theft, pregnancy, heart-attacks and ruined friendships. Definitely my worst failure... http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2009/06/worst-case-scenario.html
Comment linking /blog/2009/06/worst-case-scenario.html
on “Ask HN: What are your failures?”Submitted Why SAAS will win as a story · 7 points
HN discussionIn denmark all access to thepiratebay has been blocked by the major internet providers. When you go to any piratebay page you get this: http://www.maximise.dk/temp/STOP.htm (translated: http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=_t&hl=en&... ) It's based on a court decision where IFPI (association of record companies) sued Danish Internet providers, claiming that since illegal content could be downloaded from thepir…
Comment linking /temp/STOP.htm
on “The Pirate Bay Trial - A Spectrial”Submitted How a true statesman would deal with a terror attack as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThe newspaper industry has gotten itself into an interesting predicament. The reason nobody wants to pay for news online is that they are used to it being free, and that it is so easy to go to a competing newssite if one starts charging. But history shows that people are willing to pay for news - millions have done so for many years via subscriptions and newsstand sales. If all online newssources cost money I'm cert…
Comment linking /blog/2009/03/online-news-and-prisoners-dilemma.html
on “Rupert to Internet: It's War”Submitted Either there are no terrorists, or they are incredibly incompetent as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThe singularity won't happen: http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2008/11/why-singularity-may-neve...
Comment linking /blog/2008/11/why-singularity-may-never-arrive.html
on “Yehuda Yudkowsky, 1985-2004”Submitted Dreamers vs. doers as a story · 4 points
HN discussion
