Author Topic: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff  (Read 8008 times)

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Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« on: August 21, 2013, 08:03:19 am »
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/where-s-my-stuff

Oh dear, an example of Stanford's Start-up Engineering Course FAIL  :palm:

A lot of uni's seem to have these startup/entrepreneurial courses these days, which is of course a good thing, until you get results like this and every man and his dog thinking they can come up with a good idea and execute it well.
 

Offline AxelDominatoR

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #1 on: August 21, 2013, 01:41:58 pm »
Well, I can think of at least one person who might need something like this. Desperately.
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Oli

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2013, 05:46:04 pm »
Hard to believe how bad that video is. Seriously, what were they thinking? It stinks of vapourware - in the description it sounds like they have made something (possibly working) using words like "finalising",  however the video shows nothing to back it up.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2013, 05:48:56 pm by Oli »
 

Offline Orpheus

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #3 on: August 25, 2013, 03:19:59 am »
I'm taking that course. It's actually a quite nice coverage of today's online tools and methods.

Unfortunately, it's completely contaminated by what I call the "Stanford School of Startups": Make it all software, grow exponentially fast (they insist on a metric of percent/week), never make a profit, but have an "exit strategy": who will buy you out because they are afraid of you, are afraid of some competitor acquiring you, etc. Ironically, the professor is currently a founding principal at a biomedical HARDWARE startup, but he's completely drunk the Koolaid.

You should expect to see a lot of these in the coming weeks. The main course project is to build a Selfstarter site for a product, and try to raise as much Bitcoin as one can from ones classmates.

I decided early on that I wouldn't take it 'for credit', because I wasn't interested in this approach, but it covered so many technologies/services that I'd never gotten around to learning that I stayed in, just to get the lectures -- which unfortunately the professor doesn't consider very important. They were often posted up to 4 weeks behind the initial syllabus (and homework deadlines) and halfway through he seems to have completely given up on lectures altogether, figuring we'd just read the notes (which were informative when finally posted, with good practical exercises -- but if I wanted to learn that way, I'd have learned it from the web long ago)

All that notwithstanding, I WOULD recommend that course, now that he's finally written the lecture notes [well, we're still waiting for the last set] and recorded some lectures. It was valuable

BTW, completely avoid James Green's entrepreneur course out of UMD. It was dreadful (the only MOOC out of the 30+ that I've taken that I'd call dreadful). I wrote him detailed notes on how to improve it, but even then, it would only be decent. Try Steve Blank's Udacity course instead. It's very clear, very good, and coincidentally elucidates the principles of this week's Amp Hour guest
« Last Edit: August 25, 2013, 03:30:07 am by Orpheus »
 

Offline Bored@Work

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2013, 06:34:51 am »
Unfortunately, it's completely contaminated by what I call the "Stanford School of Startups"

The now old "New Economy" way. Found it, bring it up, sell it, run away.

So your professor is effectively teaching how to become a conman. Sad to see that you no longer have to have dodgy friends, be a member of the organized crime or in prison to get that kind of "education". Today signing up for a course at Stanford does the trick.
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Offline Orpheus

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #5 on: August 25, 2013, 10:40:10 am »
Yup, he said up front that he'd alternate between parallel tracks on tools/methods and "philosophy".

He's officially openly dismissive of anything that isn't "get rich quick" (or Apple, for that matter)
 

Offline Stonent

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2013, 06:01:21 am »
At 1:18 in the video you can see the tag for the keys in his hand. Typical iPhone user.

Give me 75k and I'll figure out how to make it work.

Does anyone remember in the 1980s you could buy those key rings that when you whistled, they'd beep so you could find your missing keys?
« Last Edit: August 28, 2013, 06:06:59 am by Stonent »
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CompElitePC

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #7 on: August 28, 2013, 07:21:50 am »
i remember this guy from "shark tank"     I dont think he got anything from them either.   

what happens when you lose your phone!  I think he has it backwards.  I would lose my phone before I lose my keys.

EDIT:

Possibly a credit card like device that goes in your wallet and you'll know if you lose either one.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2013, 07:25:50 am by CompElitePC »
 

Offline Phaedrus

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2013, 02:17:50 pm »
What if you lose your wallet?
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Offline Hypernova

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #9 on: August 29, 2013, 05:00:34 am »
What if you lose your wallet?

Or your pants! Food for thought.
 

Offline Stonent

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #10 on: August 29, 2013, 06:09:39 am »
Could you imagine the embarrassment of losing your pants in a brothel?  :-// :-DD
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Offline Bored@Work

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #11 on: August 29, 2013, 04:35:27 pm »
Could you imagine the embarrassment of losing your pants in a brothel?  :-// :-DD

Text on a T-Shirt: I lost my pants in a brothel and all I got was this lousy T-shirt

Anyone interested in crowdfunding that :)
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Offline mrflibble

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #12 on: August 29, 2013, 07:45:12 pm »
Could you imagine the embarrassment of losing your pants in a brothel?  :-// :-DD

Or if said brothel gets raided by the Underpants Gnomes.  :scared:
 

Offline zapta

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #13 on: October 05, 2013, 06:10:10 pm »
Could you imagine the embarrassment of losing your pants in a brothel?  :-// :-DD

Brothel? It's embarrassing enough even if you don't loose your pants.
 

Offline madshaman

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Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #14 on: October 05, 2013, 06:56:14 pm »
Whatever happened to building something because you have a passion for it and strive for greatness?

I'm sorry, I wouldn't be excited over the idea of choosing some niche/fad/gimmick you believe will get hot so you can dream of being bought out.

If that's your plan, might as well go work for a big corporation, they'll handle all the shilling for you and you can make the big bucks.
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Offline Dave

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #15 on: October 07, 2013, 01:04:12 am »
Brothel? It's embarrassing enough even if you don't loose your pants.
You don't just loosen your pants in a brothel, you lose them all together.

Speaking of whores prostitutes, I just remembered this song.


Hey, this thread derailed 5 posts ago, might as well go along with it. ;D
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<fellbuendel> if you knew, you wouldn't be using it
 

Offline Greyersting

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #16 on: October 07, 2013, 11:22:42 pm »
They couldn't even have a real person talking?
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Offline VintageHenk

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #17 on: October 08, 2013, 09:31:41 am »
 :palm:
 

Offline mikec

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Re: Start-up Engineering Course FAIL - Where's My Stuff
« Reply #18 on: October 17, 2013, 05:16:01 pm »
 :palm: he forgot his magazine...

 


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