cwilson

Joined 17 years ago

Karma
3,695
Submissions
445
Member since
Apr 11
Founding partner at Studiohouse. Previously co-founded Mighty, WPEngine. YC S12.
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Recent submissions

Comment · 7 years ago
Comment · 7 years ago
I have the exact opposite feeling towards this feature. It's completely changed the game at my design studio, made me a better designer, and makes us all more productive. We've gotten to the point where we'd probably turn down work if it meant we couldn't use Figma to do it.

That said, we are all producers at my studio and we also respect each other's space. Everyone designs in some capacity and we're all very comfortable in our skin. We don't really "snoop" on each others work if we know it's not time for feedback or we're not co-designing. The only time I'd pop into someones file or artboard I know they are actively working in is if I need to quickly copy/paste something I know they have (little things like this are amazing). Speaking of co-design, this is my favorite part of Figma. A few days per week we dedicate time to co-design with another person, kind of like pair-programming. Generally we both already have a base level of work complete and we talk through it, then riff on each others ideas and work to come up with something new or solve problems in different ways. Working this way at least a few days per week has really paid off for us and it's quite fun. I also feel like I learn new design tricks or skills I wouldn't have if I wasn't working this way.

I feel like between using this feature in a pre-planned way and also having some unspoken rules/constraints around how we review each others work is all you need to do to make this less of an issue. Honestly I look at it the same as literally standing over someones shoulder. I would never do that unless invited, and even then I'd prefer to sit next to them and it be more collaborative. There is also the trick, which some people do at our studio, of simply working in a private file until you're ready to paste everything into the collaborate projects. It's as simple as a copy/paste and you have complete privacy if that's what you want. We purposely do this with most of our clients so they are not tempted to leave feedback before we're ready.

Comment · 8 years ago
I haven't considered myself a front-end developer in quite some time (at least 7-8 years), but it used to be what I'd put on my business card. Since then I've focused almost entirely on PM and Design. I have a decent front-end background, but I'm by no means pushing production code.

I recently decided to give Webflow a try after a good friend, who does happen to be a front-end dev (and quite good), told me how cool he thought it was.

He wasn't wrong. Yes, you have to pay to really do anything with your creation, but I think it might be worth it (if you're a designer who doesn't want to learn to code). I was extremely impressed with how quickly I could export my assets and various measurements from Sketch and lay everything out in Webflow, especially when it was time to build the various breakpoints and add some animations.

What would have normally taken me a few days (over the course of a few sessions), instead took me 2-3 hours, tops.

More importantly I used flexbox for much of the page, which is something I hadn't touched before. I've of course read about it and have a basic understand of how it works, but I'd have spent A LOT of time getting that aspect of it right had I been coding from scratch.

The best part was, at least from what I could tell and based on their claims, all of this would have exported to clean code worthy of a production site. Pretty cool.

So, as the author mentions, Webflow is very interesting. It's just not exactly practical because of the way it's tied to their CMS and hosting platform. If you're only really building marketing sites for clients who need basic hosting anyway, it might be perfect for you, but outside of that I can't imagine where I'd use it. Certainly not on a product team, but it's still worth playing around with on the free plan.

Comment · 9 years ago
I think you are being down-voted because others have pointed out this is a venture by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, so it will most definitely not be Secular humanism or anything close to it.
Comment · 9 years ago
In what way is Flash still important?

I have had Flash disabled via a browser extension for what feels like years now.

Comment · 9 years ago
Bluetooth is slow and unreliable unless you're using Airpods (due to the W1 chip), which I think is the more subtle move by Apple in this case. I was not a happy camper when I first read about Apple removing the headphone jack, but I won't lie, I'm an Airpod convert. They work flawlessly for me and I haven't traveled with or used normal headphones since I got them (other than a nicer pair of over-the-ears when I'm working on my desktop).

I'm not saying this excuses the removal of the headphone jack, but from a business perspective it does add up.

Comment · 9 years ago
This is very surprising, as last time I did research on this subject I remember seeing that Starbucks alone owned 40%+ of the "single cup" coffee market share. The runner up was the McDonalds/Duncan "lower end" group of coffee sales.

Specialty coffee was great for the margins, but the market-share was not even close to the numbers being reported in this article.

Comment · 9 years ago
I've taken quite a few overnight buses during a 6 month trip through South America. Even when paying for the luxury option (which is literally $10-$15 more, totally worth it) and having fully reclining comfortable seats, it all comes down to one thing, the drivers.

If the drivers are maximizing for time you're not going to sleep very well because they are driving like a maniac. Sudden halts, near misses, and sharp corners make for a particularly terrifying experience when you're attempting to sleep.

The fact that this endeavor is focusing on drivers that go slow is 100% a positive for me and I would now consider trying it.

This is an issue that really just exists with overnight buses, as trains don't make sudden stops and they are not competing with other trains for a lane.

Comment · 9 years ago
This is the part I'm slightly confused by. Obviously it makes more sense to hold in your own wallet (which I do), but what happens to the BTC people decide to keep on Coinbase when a separate fork is created? If those people are not getting the BCC for "free", who is? Coinbase?
Comment · 9 years ago
The title is, of course, misleading. They are offering employees a microchip implant. It's not required.

Still crazy that anyone would opt-in to do this, but a misleading headline all the same.

Comment · 9 years ago
You know it's not really about terrorism when stopping people from viewing pornography is also part of the proposed agenda.
Comment · 9 years ago
Even an established chef, David Chang (of Momofuku fame here in NYC), tried something similar with a startup called Maple. Raised millions. Shut down a few weeks ago for similar reasons.
Comment · 9 years ago
I'm a tad confused by a few things.

Is this meant to be a cool tech demo, or a real product? I noticed the author mentioned adding new features and a premium version in another comment. This leads me to believe it's intended to be a real product.

With that in mind, I have a few questions:

1. If this is inspired by Notational Velocity, a very popular and real product, why is this also named Notational? I understand if you're doing a cool tech demo that it's not a big deal, but if you plan to charge money for this you probably shouldn't copy their name.

2. Was "Notational Velocity but real-time" your hypothesis of what would make this something people want to use/buy? If so, what about all the other very standard features that note-taking and thought storage apps have? Do you plan to hit baseline with those?

3. How do you compete with the larger companies who offer these apps for free to their users? Google Keep, Apple Notes, etc.

4. Is the real-time feature the only way you plan to make this different/better than the others?

I'm not trying to be a downer here, but I feel like I see "X app but real-time" posted to HN on a weekly basis now, like it being real-time is going to be the differentiator that makes it wildly popular. Those products then go on to ignore half the reasons why the others have users. Even if they reach feature parity, their one differentiator is "well, it's real-time". I'm not sure that's enough.

If this is just meant to be a cool demo of Vue.js (with an awesome homepage), well done, ignore my comments =)

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