I didn't launch, unless you count making it available on the internet a launch.
As several others have mentioned here, I was not focused on "launching the product". I was persistent about creating a solid and valuable product, and making it available for the entire world. I researched everything I could about building websites, particularly performance and SEO. The project was a learning project for me - it was technically "launched" since the moment I bought the domain. I continually iterated after learning new things about the web, and after coming up with new ideas. The growth came from a steadily increasing SEO presence and Social Network presence. I never once saw a code or feature iteration cause an immediate flood of attention, even when I gave them a little nudge on social networks. I will admit though, that I never attempted an all out launch of anything.
The project is mainly a fun site, but it has become one of the best tools for creating animated GIFs and memes on the internet. There have been a few big spikes from various press events, or Reddit frontpagers, but the true value has come from continually making the product better and slowly gaining the trust of the internet.
I'm certainly much newer to this than many people here, but my first big project now makes enough profit to support me fulltime, if I were to choose that (I work at another company as well). The site is imgflip.com if you're wondering.
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In this case you cannot really look at current practices and predict the future. For many of us in the "new programmer" category now, we will see an exponentially increasing lifespan as well as several other improved aspects of health and intelligence. In the limit, this may lead to age having almost no meaning.
Besides, English Majors?! I dare say that english shouldn't even be a major. A great academic in any field should be articulate in expressing ideas, in at least one language.
"A great academic in any field should be articulate in expressing ideas, in at least one language."
The idea that English departments exist primarily to produce skilled writers is a misconception. 'English' as an academic field is the study of English-language literature, and it's as serious and rigorous as any other field in the humanities.
The quote is a metaphor. It is clearly not about going the other way on lined paper, but rather the basic principle that one should not blindly follow instructions because someone else says they are right. If what you are told to do is wrong, don't do it.
Actually it's even stronger than that. There was no instruction to follow the line, it's just an assumption something that comes naturally which is why it is such a pernicious thing. The quote is a warning against having your thoughts and actions guided in a predetermined direction even without you being aware of it.
Data is great, it lets you make your own conclusions. There still remains an element of trust though, in the provider of the data. It's certainly a step above bloat-filled news articles though.
Agreed. And I like the concept as well, but (even in just briefly poking around the few topics on the site) I also felt a lack of trust. This has less to do with anything particular to the site and is more so related to the fact that with pure data, and with little-to-no context, it is impossible to discern any potential biases that one could otherwise pick-up on. Furthermore there is no information on how data is selected (two guys sitting in a room copying Wikipedia? I’m not saying that’s the case here, but how would one know? And even if it were from absolutely reputable sources, any human intervention in selecting and deciding which data to include/not include makes it hard to claim real objectivity).
I think an interesting (though much harder to develop) implementation of this concept would be to have it powered by a complex algorithm that combs the web for sources and pulls consistent data from them. Such a system would essentially verify data accuracy through identifying consistency across a massive number of sources and prevent any selection bias. Just a thought..
As several others have mentioned here, I was not focused on "launching the product". I was persistent about creating a solid and valuable product, and making it available for the entire world. I researched everything I could about building websites, particularly performance and SEO. The project was a learning project for me - it was technically "launched" since the moment I bought the domain. I continually iterated after learning new things about the web, and after coming up with new ideas. The growth came from a steadily increasing SEO presence and Social Network presence. I never once saw a code or feature iteration cause an immediate flood of attention, even when I gave them a little nudge on social networks. I will admit though, that I never attempted an all out launch of anything.
The project is mainly a fun site, but it has become one of the best tools for creating animated GIFs and memes on the internet. There have been a few big spikes from various press events, or Reddit frontpagers, but the true value has come from continually making the product better and slowly gaining the trust of the internet.
I'm certainly much newer to this than many people here, but my first big project now makes enough profit to support me fulltime, if I were to choose that (I work at another company as well). The site is imgflip.com if you're wondering.