Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

Really enjoying the author's prose. This had me rolling:<p>&#62;&#62;<i>It’s like watching some sadist work over a baby lamb with a rusty crowbar and a broken gin bottle. The names of these startups sound like the products of an aggressive brain tumor on the frontal lobe. Crowdegy, Placeling, Kouply, QuoteRobot, Appthwack, Makegood, Onthego, Nickler, Kahal, Tanzio, Taskk. They’re all whimsical and unique in exactly the same way.</i>

"These women and men have come together to do brutal violence to the English language, to leave the spoken and written word bloodied and victimized on a cold cement floor, wishing for the sweet relief of death."<p>I will read anything this author writes. Thanks for spotlighting this blog.<p>Tip: if you want your blog READ instead of skimmed for buzzwords and facts, make sweet love to the English language. Then worry about your content.

"Hell, as I check my e-mail, I notice with a resigned shame that my coworkers—smart people I consider to be excellent writers—are unironically using the word “spearhead” as a verb in an e-mail thread."<p>Aaaaand this is where I dismiss the author as simply looking for things to complain about.<p>Complaining about names (as if that even matters). Complaining about the way they dress. Complaining about the way they talk.<p>Might as well end it with "get off my lawn!"

"The women have it tougher. Their business casual is neither business-minded nor all that casual, a confusing melange of sundresses and sensible slacks, gossamer sweaters tossed over spaghetti straps."<p>That seems weirdly sexist to me. I guess I really like working in tech because I can wear generally what I want, and often in the summer, that means sundresses, instead of a stifling business suit. And I guess I always assumed the tech world, particularly the start-up scene, wasn't judging me as less business-like because of it.<p>TLDR: yes, a lot of the startup world is full of shallow business-speak, but don't you dare insult my sundresses.

I bet these dudes were there <a href="http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6507690/hardly-working-start-up-guys" rel="nofollow">http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6507690/hardly-working-sta...</a>

Here's the author's bio and picture if it helps put this article in context: <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/paul-constant/Author?oid=17693" rel="nofollow">http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/paul-constant/Author?oid=...</a>

&#62;"You can do anything you want with an idea. It can be as big as you want. It doesn’t have to solve a minor problem that nobody ever really realized was a problem. It doesn’t have to fit into something the size of a button crammed into a “folder” the size of a button on a screen the size of a playing card. But everywhere I look, I see tiny little ideas,ideas that are almost petty in their inconsequentiality."<p>This. This sums up how I feel about the whole startup scene. The lack of real innovation is incredible.

The Stranger disappoints, as usual. Easier to poke fun at people's clothes and other shallow topics than provide something of substance. Don't get me wrong, I love the occasional quip, but the author has put zero effort into understanding the culture before casually ridiculing it.

A very pleasant surprise seeing The Stranger on HN today.

I was there yesterday, and we actually presented and ended up tied for second place. AppThwack (Not to be confused with a "brain tumor") is a rapid, automated QA service for testing Android apps on real, non-emulated devices in a massively parallel and fast way. I realize it's not a world-changingly noble mission, but I also don't think it's trivial or inconsequential. Regardless, here are my thoughts. I posted a bit more in the article comment, but thought I'd paste part of my comment here.<p>"This article is definitely entertaining. It's vapid and catty and well written, and accurately portrays an event from an outsider's perspective. Of course there are lots of things that look like "bad ideas" on their face. On the other hand, there are lots of ideas that seem dumb at first that grow into interesting companies that end up solving legitimate problems.<p>Overall I think the event was very well run and I met a lot of great people. I was there with the goal of getting something out of it, though, and that something was connections, potential partners/customers, and some more pitch experience. Obviously the author got what he was looking for as well.<p>I think it's important that the "startup community" (I hate that that's a thing people say) gets kicked in the balls every now and then. For example, this look at TechCrunch Disrupt: <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/jackstuef/scenes-from-the-pounding-heart-of-a-tech-bubble" rel="nofollow">http://www.buzzfeed.com/jackstuef/scenes-from-the-pounding-h...</a>

So those names were indeed terrible. But how the hell do you name things well? It's <i>really</i> hard.<p>The second you write some code you have to call it <i>something</i>, and I imagine that's the point where people think up janky cute names, and then it's in the codebase and that's that. I know for me I think up something stupid and then roll with that, presuming that if it ever makes it out of localhost it will be renamed to something sensible.<p>These people are just pitching, no wonder there names are like AwesomeSaucr and CakeBacon and what-not.

Woah. How did this drop from #2? There are articles above this on HN that have less points and were submitted at an earlier time...

I can't say I ever expected to see a Slog post on here. Slog's where I go for my daily dose of adorable animal videos at lunch, sex advice from Dan Savage, and Seattle/Washington state political news.<p>All that said, Paul Constant is a fantastic writer, and I'm glad to see he's found an audience here.

Not to be that guy but it's like the author is writing a novel. What's the tl;dr here?

I was one of the presenters at Startup Riot. Events like Startup Riot give early stage founders the opportunity to showcase their products and it is extremely important to keep this a safe place for newbies and encourage entrepreneurs to keep at it!<p>Two cents from a presenter at the event: <a href="http://www.moonsovermyhammy.com/post/29112090592/if-youre-a-little-person-sharing-a-big-idea-do-it" rel="nofollow">http://www.moonsovermyhammy.com/post/29112090592/if-youre-a-...</a>

Investors are so desperate to find the next homerun that they'll cater to the ridiculous that is speed dating for startup ideas.

When the dust settles, we all will remember those crazy startup euphoria days and this article would be one of it. Pretty soon we might need to ammend the Dictionary with new words or spelling corrections

"tiny little ideas" - for me the best startup ideas are those that start with some small idea, but it is actually a trojan horse to get something into the market that is actually very large.

Some of the photos for 'Stranger Personals' that appear on the right of the article aren't really safe for work.

Anyone else have a bunch of pop-up ads when browsing there?

<i>"When the language you employ to communicate your ideas is small and boring, your ideas are going to be small and boring."</i><p>That's how I felt reading this blog post. A long, pedantic, raging post that does nothing but demonstrate that the author has an inflated sense of his writing prowess. His post is basically one type of Hipster raging against the Hipsterisms of a different type of Hipster.

Two quotes from George Orwell spring to mind:<p>"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink."<p>"If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them."<p>nuff said...?

Great writing, reminds me of David Foster Wallace's work.