I have a different experience. I don't know a single person who used to send life updates with email, or engage in mailing lists. At least to this individual, it was very obvious why Facebook was going to be a success when it arrived, it had all the basic 'tools' you needed to communicate and stay in contact with family and friends.

I think this is a very good example of why Facebook succeeded. Everything Facebook does was done (oftentimes better) by a niche tool with a niche audience of early adopters before. Facebook managed to cross the chasm with all of them and unify them together into a single social networking experience. It brought all these tools that were in use by small populations to the mainstream audience.

This is what I find strange with "hacker news". Like, ok, what's the topic? What's the point here?

The copyright on the site suggests that citycreator goes back to 2002. If that's so, then why is it being posted now in 2015?

It's a neat site. And yay for no flash.

Historical posts rock!

We'll add 2002 to the title—thanks.

What does "some traction" mean? What's your profit? What's the growth rate like and how big is the market?

Right, is there a point to this or is it just a very out of context thought experiment?

So, you fall inside something and your body will be stretched and destroyed because of the gravity of the... something, something black hole, OR, you fall in and.. well, no one has a clue what we're talking about really :)

Wow... as a swede, this was a bit surreal to read. Wonderful piece, what a story.

Is Sweden really unconditionally giving asylum to everyone who is from syria?

This will explain things for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_QrIapiNOw

Could you post it on pastebin?

Risky business, literally.

Let's write the manifesto!

"Dear Humans, for the last several centuries you have used many different mental strategies to try and make decisions. These seem to have produced a generally optimal outcome (ignoring the genocides) with globally increasing standards of living and increases in freedom for humans generally. We are here today to proclaim that you have been wrong all these years. You could have been so much better off if you had only migrated towards where there were more burritos. Ignoring the blatantly counterfactual spin this argument carries, the data is in. Burritos are king. Sincerely, BBD Evangelists"

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Burritos over processes and tools

Burritos over comprehensive documentation

Burritos over contract negotiation

Burritos over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value burritos.