Alternatives
Products that do what My first software project – a website to set goals and track progress does
Two years ago, I started building this site that allows people to document their learning and progress in real time. The idea is: as you learn new things, you document your progress piece by piece, creating a collection of failures, breakthroughs, and knowledge. Along the way, your friends can cheer you on, and the community can give you tips and feedback. Over time, we'll create a public collection on how different problems were solved. With each progress, the site prompts you to reflect on questions like, "If you could go back in time, what do you wish you had known?" This was my first web…
- 1FP
A little background. For the last 1.5 years I lost what could be considered an embarrassing amount of money hiring other people to work on a project that I thought had potential, I got some important people involved, had some great coders, but couldn't launch. The failure was depressing, rejection by YC didn't help.. I had to take a job, I didn't enjoy and I had a girlfriend who stood by me despite going into debt. But bouncing back over the last 45 days I've taught myself Rails some Jquery, and Javascript and built this www.hangout.io. It's empowering to build something myself because I'm…
2011
- 2HU
Link here: http://beta.whatispolymath.com Despite all the educational material on the web, I found it pretty hard to learn how to code and design. I had trouble finding high-quality content, figuring out what to learn next, and staying motivated without easy ways to track my progress. So, my co-founder and I built Polymath. Our MVP is pretty simple right now: you can find & submit good content, bookmark & track your progress across different resources, and rate/comment on the material. We’re trying to build a really fun online learning community, and we’ve got some more cool features…
2012
- 3
- 4IB
Hi HN, I've been working on this for a while and it was hard to decide when to stop, either on the way information is presented or when to stop with adding entries. It's not meant as a blog, but rather as a reference that keeps growing. Link: https://thehardparts.dev Currently I've created 4 main section: - Failure Modes: ways project go wrong - Red Flags: early signals that are worth taking seriously - Tech Decisions: common and not so common trade-offs for hard choices - Playbooks - guided approach for situations that repeat I've also focused on creating links between them to…
Apr 2026 · thehardparts.dev
- 5MF
Hey HN. I've just launched my very first webappp and would love your feedback. http://www.7bks.com It's a book list sharing website - kind of like playlists for bookworms. The site is built on pyton/appengine - and I learned to code in under 4 weeks to build the site. There's more details on the background of the site here: http://www.7bks.com/blog/179001 I've also published the full Python code for the site here: https://gist.github.com/670034 Feedback is really important to me and I want to work hard to make the site better so any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated. Contact…
2010
- 6IM
I'm writing a book which teaches Python/Django web app development for non-programmers, and fundraising on Kickstarter (passed minimum funding, 2 days left): http://hellowebapp.com https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1868398473/hello-web-app-intro-to-building-web-apps-with-djan It's basically the process I used to teach myself programming as a web designer a few years back, which I then launched a small web app (infant-version of WeddingInviteLove.com), which has grown into my bootstrapped startup which supports me full-time (WeddingLovely.com). Most…
2014
- 7SL
So a while ago I was thinking it would be neat to build a site that had the most absolute utility. The idea I came up with was a site to store those little protips that are super useful, if you know them ahead of time. I hired a guy to work on it with me, and ClueDB was born: http://cluedb.com/ Please give it a whirl (it uses Twitter auth as login but doesn't tweet anything) and tell me what you think! (Various trivia: My first try at a project coded by someone else and "product managed" by me. Runs on Flask + MongoDB. Also, this is totally unrelated to my startup.)
2011
- 8IW
Hey HN, I wrote a book teaching beginner web app development using Django, launching on May 4th (successfully Kickstarted last year.) Website: http://hellowebapp.com Highlights: - Aimed at people who have previous HTML/building websites experience. - Template-first development: see the web app as a website first, before setting up databases and models. - Generic “collection of things” tutorial. Readers are encouraged to create something using this rubric that means something to them (a blog, a directory of people, etc.) Adding creativity will make the material stick better. -…
2015
- 9T1
Two and a half years ago, Edward, Dylan, and I started this journey to build a new database for an old problem that has long plagued the infrastructure software industry. Today, we are proud to announce that this database, TiDB, is production ready. Abraham Lincoln once said, ‘the best way to predict the future is to create it.’ The future we predicted 771 days ago we now have created, because of the hard work and dedication of not just every member of our team, but also every contributor, user, and partner in our open source community. Today, we celebrate and pay gratitude to the power of…
2017
- 10IM
I am a non-hacker "idea guy" with zero discernible talent. Like most, the story starts with me doing things the hard way. I dreamt of a tool that would save me countless hours. Like most of my ideas, it was supposed to die in a couple of hours, but this one had some legs.... "If I needed this, surely others did too" kept looping in my head. Could I get this built? Could I build it myself? Nah...too lazy to learn how, but before I did anything, I had to promise myself one thing: No more ideas! If ideas were sit-ups, I would have a six pack instead of this tire. It was a constant mental…
2012
- 11LM
http://goalfinch.com I had the idea for Goalfinch while reading an article here on Hacker News about economic incentives and how effective they are. It got me thinking: What if there were an easy way to set up economic incentives for the goals I have in my own life? A few months later, after working on it off and on in my spare hours, it's ready for prime time. With Goalfinch, you define a goal and make a contribution of cash that acts as an incentive for you to complete the goal. Your Facebook friends confirm whether or not you've accomplished it. If you succeed before your deadline, you…
2011
- 12MA
Website: https://targetarchive.com Screen Shot: https://imgur.com/a/qlzuJ I built this website initially for myself since I just wanted an easy way to track my progress as a new shooter. I'm curious if others will find it useful and I would love some feedback. It's pretty simplistic right now but if you sign up and try it out I'll be happy to hear feedback and implement new ideas.
2018
- 13IB
Hey all, I’ve been working on a project that aims to change how we approach learning new skills. The idea is simple — you can master any skill in 30 days using a personalized learning plan powered by AI and Notion. They keys: practice and discipline. How it works: You can fill out a Typeform, and our AI will create a customized 30-day program just for you. Structured learning: Each day, the system provides you with a clear task or lesson based on science-backed learning principles. Track progress: It’s all managed in Notion, so you can stay organized and motivated while learning. Why I built…
2025 · 30daysmethod.com
- 14IV
Hey my name is Ivo and I'm a developer and a startup entusiast. My girlfriend was out of the coutry for the weekend and I decided to do something cool like building a startup. I've done a few startups over the years but that's the first I actually released, I would love to hear your feedback on it.
2024 · craftlynow.com
- 15WB
Introducing my latest project, We Build Landing Pages. https://theredbit.github.io/webuildlandingpages/ Excuse the blatant infancy of the project but I take 'releasing early and often' pretty seriously. The goals of this project are to... 1. Build a solid network of clients who need landing pages while learning how to run a business and to help earn funds to survive while I search for a job. Long story, I'm in a rough spot and I'm trying to get on my feet. 2. Build and release open-source tools and foster the growth of a community based on this work to help developers…
2018
- 16MF
Here is the link: http://www.wikihowtodo.com I know a lot of geeks share the same dream -- build the next kick-ass todo-list/project management system. So do I. However, as I was quite positive that my web development skill is worse than 99% of developers' in this community, I decided to build something simple, useless but unique. So I built this. Basically it's a Wikihow scraper, nothing more. It gives you a place to store interesting Wikihow articles and yes, they are converted into todo lists. I know this site is not that good, but I still need your guys' feedback. For example, as I am a…
2010
- 175D
597 days ago, I posted about the project our team was developing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3183322 - here on HN, and today we're finally taking the wraps off what we've been working on since then. At it's core, what we've been building is an end-to-end solution for creating, storing, and working with structured content in a way that's accessible to anyone. You can check out an introduction - http://team.marquee.by/introducing-marquee/ and dig into the technical/philosophical details of our approach -…
2013
- 18LJ
I've been working for about 8 months on http://www.Learneroo.com, a site to teach programming and more through challenges. I created the site and all the content on it, and I'm looking for some feedback. Thanks!
2013
- 19IT
I created http://devtest.net as a weekend project, and I'm pretty proud of it from a technical and UI standpoint. The problem is, I've built this by myself in a bit of a vacuum, to "scratch my own itch", and I don't know if this is useful to anyone other than me. I'm also not so hot on the business side and don't really know what I'm doing. Basically, I'm looking for some advice, now that I've actually launched, what now? One thing that this has shown me is that I'm capable of putting together a pretty decent web application on my own in my spare time. Should I stick with this idea, or…
2012
- 20MO
I made this site over the past year in my own time, http://bizspeaking.com/ , the Twitter for deals. I'm going full-time on this project and sincerely seek all suggestions on building a viable business -- partner, funding, mentor, referrer, designer, developer, legal, anything. Technically, this site is mainly made with the Pyramid (Python) web framework, PostgreSQL as relational db, MongoDB as document store, Redis as cache/queue, and Solr for search. Do follow our AngelList page http://angel.co/bizspeaking , and official blog http://bizspeaking.posterous.com/ Thank you!
2011
- 21IM
I'm documenting everything about my process. From learning to code, to building the app, and all the way to my outreach efforts. I'm learning as I go and sharing it with everyone who's not a programer, and is daunted to build a software on their own. Trust me. If I can do it, anyone can! You can find my updates on: https://Claritask.com ...as well as video updates on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmqmifW4kIcPclXigay1dQ Would love to hear your feedback on my progress and if you have any suggestions on what I can do better. There's so many task managers out…
2017
- 22IB
Hello HN! I got pretty overwhelmed with Notion, Trello, etc. (Even though they are great tools!) as an indie dev, so I built an app that is simpler to use and perfectly suited for an indie like me :) You can basically divide your projects into multiple milestones (a milestone could be e.g. a new version), and the milestones can have multiple tasks that are either todo, in progress, or done. The progress for each milestone is calculated with those tasks, and you can also prioritize and categorize the tasks using tags (E.g. for me, #ph turns into "High Priority", and #pm into "Medium…
2024 · apps.apple.com
- 23MW
After a weekend of coding, last night I launched a very early-version MVP of Coders Who Care. - The goal of the site is to connect nonprofits with developers willing to donate time to a good cause. Right now, it's simply a directory, but in the future I'll be adding more tools for devs and organizations, including ways for charities to post projects and tools to notify developers when a project is posted that matches their interests, etc. I'll also introduce some social components, like recommendations/endorsements, and I have plans for eventually adding a software distribution system that…
2011
- 24JL
Hello everyone, I just launched my bootstrapped (no funding) online learning startup, after 3 years of solo development part-time (2 to 3 days a week) - https://onlinecoursehost.com I would love for you guys to go through the landing page and give me your feedback on the page itself, the idea, the pricing model, any feedback would be much appreciated. About the product, it's an online course hosting platform. Online instructors upload their video courses, integrate with Stripe, set a price, create a course landing page and website home page (there is a website builder component to…
2021
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