mybbor

Joined 16 years ago

Karma
37
Submissions
63
Member since
Sep 23
Co-founded Beaver Builder (WordPress page builder, FastLine Media). Currently heads-down on AI and how it changes the way people build for the web. Occasional writing at robbymccullough.com; side projects include Art Direction Daily. Photography, travel, and disc golf otherwise.
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Recent submissions

Comment · 3 months ago
Em dashes really came on my radar, and I started using and appreciating them after reading Barack Obama's AMA on Reddit. His responses there felt very personal, genuine, and conversational and I think a lot of it had to do with the way he used em dashes (although, looking back at it now, they weren't "proper" em dashes).
Comment · 3 months ago
Comment · 4 months ago
Yeah! I meant impressive more in the “big sturdy woodwork” sense, not lightweight. They had to hold a heavy mirror and still move smoothly enough to aim by hand. The Dobsonian design, plus Teflon on Formica bearings, made big aperture amateur telescopes way more accessible to hobbyists. From what I gathered it was definitely a “bigger is better” kind of thing, and weight seemed pretty secondary.
Comment · 4 months ago
Love this. Thanks for sharing. My friend and I pulled an old Dobsonian telescope of my Dad's from the garage when we were teenagers. We spent hours and hours out with it under the stars, and on cloudy nights I would read a book about telescope construction. Back then, cabinet makers were building the most impressive wood frames. Interesting to see how the technology has changed.
Comment · 4 months ago
I tend to wake up before my partner, and I can only imagine the look on her face when the ritualistic grinder noise gets joined by a noisy brewer.

In all seriousness, people tend to have a routine around coffee, but I think the Aeropress showed that people will change if the result is meaningfully better.

Comment · 4 months ago
That's relatable. Sometimes I feel like my short attention span is well-tuned for this kind of workflow, bouncing between the different projects I'm working on and swapping between one or the other while waiting for an AI to complete a task. I also worry that it's exacerbating a bad habit and only going to further impede my ability to actually concentrate.
Comment · 4 months ago
I think one of my favorite workflow hacks is to instruct the various harnesses to use the same format for writing handoffs, instructions, and context for me and for the next agent.

Instead of a Claude.md file, I have all my agents look for and use a generic, agents.md, file and a create/update a humans.md file throughout projects. Regardless of whether I'm using the CLI or a harness app, I almost always create a new folder for new projects, and I'll use subfolders for subprojects.

The humans.md file is for me so I can look at it and remember which harness I was using last. If this was a Claude project, a Codex project, or an OpenClaw project, etc. It also includes some human-readable details to bring me up to speed with the project context. I found this makes it a lot easier to switch models mid-project.

Comment · 4 months ago
Comment · 4 months ago
Hi! Love it. The sound effects are a great touch. :)
Comment · 4 months ago
Comment · 5 months ago
Comment · 4 years ago
YC has been an invaluable resource for me.

An acquaintance was in the 3rd batch of founders and turned me on to the ecosystem and community here. Around that time, I was a few years out of high school and working for minimum wage at a pizza shop.

I was experimenting with web design, making a few extra dollars running google ads on phpBB forums, and learning to code in the process. I never realized my geeky side could translate into something entrepreneurial until I started spending time here. Tracking the progress of my friend and this community planted a seed that turned into a dream of someday being a founder.

Today, my two business partners and I have been running a successful software business for almost a decade. We were distributed before it was mainstream. We're in the WordPress space and have a team of 20+ people all over the globe. I've had the opportunity to travel, meet investors, smoke cigars with business heroes, sleep in if I want to, and enjoy an exciting and fulfilling life.

I still find myself regularly googling about issues that arise in my company with "hacker news" appended to the end of the query. The stories here helped us navigate a very stressful M&A process and countless other "business stuff" hurdles that we encountered over the years (ie business insurance "hacker news").

YC provided me with direction and inspiration when I was floundering around in my early years. The simple ideas that you don't need an MBA to start a business and being an odd duck is a valuable entrepreneurial trait were life-changing. The community and discussions here are where I come to learn and be inspired. I sincerely hope it continues to be that for myself and others for many more years to come.

Thanks YC!

Comment · 12 years ago
I can't help but wonder if this is a devastating headline for anyone who has had to take a loved one off of life support.

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