#all i really need rn is to learn a couple easy programs and build a portfolio. i dont need ti go to school or anything

[girlhorse]

the idea of making advertisements (or branding) for a living is yucky to me but it's my skillset and I'm becoming more nihilistic about the "morals" of that with age. truly im tired and just want a stable job with benefits that is easy, mildly engaging, and requires limited effort for me to attain

[hayatheauthor]

As a teenager who has self published in the past and is doing it rn, I've learned a lot about how to write, edit, and self publish your book on a budget.

Traditional publishing is a great option but the reality is not everyone is going to get that 'yes' they're looking for. If you've decided to opt for self publishing but are scared of the financial demand, here are some free ways you can ensure you have a polished manuscript and great cover:

(kept the read more to prevent cluttering everyone's feed because this got a little long lol)

1. Cover design

First off, remember to always ask for a book jacket not a just a cover. A book jacket includes the cover, back cover, and spine. Having a pretty cover is useless if you don't have a back cover and spine to go with it.

Simple Covers

If your book is an 'easier' genre like non-fic, thriller, etc. and you're willing to pick up a few editing skills and watch a bunch of yt vids you could make your own cover on platforms like Canva or Pixlr. I made my first book's cover like that and sure it might not be the coolest but it was still pretty good.

Complex Covers

This is probably the hardest part of self publishing on a budget, but there's an easy solution for you too! Just like there are writers who post stories etc on certain sites for free, there are also graphic designers who make covers etc for free you just need to know where to look for them.

Writing Sites: Sites like Quotev and Webnovel are known for having a large community of cover designers. That's probably the easiest free way to find a good SFF cover. In fact, I made my WIP's book jacket by myself after picking u skills from Quotev.

Goodreads & Reedsy: While all of the designers on these sites aren't free, you'll likely find at least a couple designers willing to lend you a hand.

Hire Someone: Ik what you're thinking, hiring someone is exactly what you're trying not to do. But here's the thing: you can easily find a freelance graphic designer who meets your budget by looking for designers in other countries with a lower currency. If you're a UK/US author this can be REALLY easy and you'll find someone in about 20 USD

2. Editing

Editing is another big concern that you mentioned, and more specifically, getting that final polish.

You can make your editing process easier by using these resources:

AI: I know this might seem unconventional, but AI editing, with the right prompts, can actually help a ton! Now, what you need to remember is to only use the AI as an editor, not a writer. How can you prevent yourself from mixing up the two? Just make sure to add a quick line in your prompts like 'I don't want you to completely (re)write this section but only advise me on how to improve it.' Remember, only give AI a max of 1k words to review at a time.

Free Resources: Finding a good book editor for free online is actually much easier than you would think. There are a ton of websites you can use like Goodreads where you can find experienced editors willing to lend you a hand. Sure, they might not bring you the professionalism that other, pricier editors would, but they're still worth a try. Here are some other sites:

The Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) ACES: The Society for Editing BetaBooks

Most of these focus on paid services but they are honestly pretty affordable when compared to other platforms.

College Students: Second-third year uni students pursuing a degree in some form of literature look for opportunities to build their portfolio, this is where you come in. Find a college in your city/state that provides Literature-esque degrees, then go on Linkedin and look for students of that program and send them a message talking about your requirements. Be professional and mention you'll give them a letter of recommendation, certificate, and any other such perks.

Remember, someone with a Literature degree is almost as knowledgeable as a professional editor, they just lack the experience, which is what you're giving them.

Connecting With Other Writers: other self-published writers will probably be willing to lend you a hand if you ask around. The Bookstagram and Booktok communities are especially helpful in this matter.

3. Book Formatting

Once you have the perfect book jacket and manuscript, it's time to put it all together into an actual book. This might seem like a daunting task, but honestly, it's the easiest aspect of self publishing. Here are some free ways you can get it done:

DIY Formatting: You can format your book yourself using software like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or specialized formatting tools like Vellum (which offers a one-time purchase option). Many authors find templates online or use guides provided by self-publishing platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) or IngramSpark.

Free Formatting Tools: Some online tools offer free book formatting services, although they may have limitations or offer basic formatting options. Examples include Pressbooks, Draft2Digital's free conversion tool, and Reedsy's book formatting tool.

Templates: Utilize free or affordable book formatting templates available online. These templates are designed to meet industry standards and can save you time and effort in formatting your book.

Community Resources: Join writing communities and forums where authors share tips and resources for book formatting. You may find members willing to share their formatting templates or offer guidance on DIY formatting.

Freelancers: Consider hiring freelancers for book formatting if your budget allows it. Websites like Fiverr, Upwork, and Reedsy have freelance professionals who offer book formatting services at various price points.

Final Notes

Overall, while this might seem like a scary venture, trust me when I say if you're willing to put in the effort and do a ton of research you can self publish a beautiful, polished book that people will love to read!

If you find yourself feeling lost I'm always willing to help out as a beta reader or editor.

Marketing itself is a whole other issue, but honestly, I have a ton of advice for that too so lmk if you're interested!

I think the main reason I'm conflicted on self publishing VS trad publishing is cause most self published authors [that I see at least] act like its the dumbest stupidest idea to publish w/o paying for a professional editor & cover designer.

Which like, I get why - people judge covers hard & it's easy to miss mistakes when you're editing your work.

But I can't afford either of those things & unless I magically come into a lot of money sometime soon, it'll be 5-10+ years before I will be able to afford either, let alone both.

It just stresses me out cause they act like unless you get these things its a guaranteed flop/1-star.

And I don't wanna do trad - at least RN or for this series, but that'd be the only way I'd not have to pay for an editor or cover design :/

[imaginesfromtheupsidedown]

Oldest Friend

A TMR/TDC Gally x FEMcharacter

hello hi again lol. it’s been over two years I believe since I last posted (I got locked out and finally found a way back in). I took down my first two parts of this Gally imagine, I didn’t like how I originally went with it and had a very long time to go over it lol. Again, I did not read Kill Order, I’ve read all the other 3 books and seen the movies so this was me creating my own character and pairing her with Gally and throwing them into the story, before and after the mazes, as I pictured in my head. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see with this story and feedback is appreciated :) I already have multiple parts written for it and they’re all pretty lengthy so if lengthy isn’t your cup of tea I’m sorry but that’s just how I write.

Triggers: as of rn I don’t think there are any but lmk if I need to put one :)

word count: 4306 (again, I’ve always written lengthy stuff and can shorten or add more to the next ones if preferred, I just always want to make sure the backstory and details that are in my head get put in)

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At first this was all so scary. They were ripped from their families and taken to a WCKD facility where they lived in dorm-like rooms and forced into classes and to push themselves in ways they never had before. None of them really understood why they were there. Of course, they had been told a watered down story of why they were there. But they still didn’t get it. Some of it started to make more sense as they got older, their days consisting less of their in-class studies and more of “hands on” learning.

As memories of their families and old lives faded, they started to get comfortable with their new skills they had acquired. Some excelled more academically than others and some excelled more physically, which made it easier to sort them where WCKD needed them. They usually saw each other when it was time to eat, about a hundred teens packed into a giant cafeteria. But otherwise they were usually kept around the others who they “worked” with or shared their rooms with.

They all had met the first day in the new facility, around 7 and 8 years old. They were ushered into a classroom with all white walls and flooring, with matching uniforms and scared expressions. That’s when they were given their new names and the purpose of why they were there. As time went on they formed their little friend bubbles, and still ate together now that they spend their days apart.

They were the closest thing to best friends as they could possibly be in that place. Newt, Minho, Alby, Gally, and Siggy. A few of them even got to bunk together. They usually sat with a few of the people who worked in the labs and facilities crew now, who they had met way back when in that empty classroom. Sitting around eating, laughing, telling stories, venting, and hanging out as teens should.

The two of them that were the closest were Gally and Meghan. If you were to ask anyone in the group they would probably have said that the two were acquaintances at most; Meghan was on the softer side and barely spoke, while Gally was usually picking fun at everyone and the most talkative of them all.

Gally was one of the kids who turned out to be physically inclined. He spent his days building things and with the construction crew. At first it was just a lot of lifting and the occasional construction of small buildings or labs. But lately they’ve had the crew traveling out into the desert to landscape and start to put the walls of their arenas together.

Meghan was someone who had great focus with her work and was shuffled into the labs with the likes of Thomas and Teresa. Occasionally she would spend time in the medical wing as Teresa’s shadow, but her specialty was coding. She was someone they counted on when the computer systems would crash or help them to create new programs to help further their studies. They usually tried to spend s couple days a week in the medwing, and that’s exactly when she had her first encounter with Gally outside of their little bubble….

“Gally! That’s enough!” she scolded him, pushing him into the nearest exam room and into a chair. He scowled at her while he started to roll his sleeve up. “There are other people in here, too. Besides, we usually respond to ‘please-and-thank-you’s’ better.”

“Just need it cleaned…” he mumbled. The gash in his arm went from his elbow halfway to his wrist, and there were a few splinters around it that she had to pick out before she could do anything else. He sat expressionless while she worked, biting the inside of his cheek.

“So. What’d you do this time, clumsy?” she asked, trying to keep him distracted from what she was doing.

“Some dumbass didn’t secure the lumber right while we were loading the burgs… whole thing just crashed down on us while we were trying to move it. Figured it would hurt my arm a hell of a lot less that it would my head.” He huffed. She pursed her lips and kept digging the splinters out of his arm. He wasn’t wrong about that. Stitching up an arm is a million times better than unzipping a body bag.

After all the digging was done the wound was fairly easy to clean so she began to stitch it up, his leg bouncing up and down as she started. When she’d catch him glancing at her she would try to give him an apologetic smile, but he’d just turn away. Toward the wider part of the gash is when he couldn’t help but wince away.

“Here, sit still for a sec, okay?” she got up and got the numbing cream but he grabbed her with his good arm.

“Just stitch it already! What, you think I can’t take it?” his cheeks were flushed. She plopped back down and took a big scoop of it anyways, giving him a stern look.

“Gally, I mean this in the nicest way. Shut up.” His cheeks flushed again and he turned away, but he was visibly less tense as she started to smooth the cream around his arm. “Feel alright now?”

“Mmhmm.” He sighed, leaning back and closing his eyes. She finished up the rest and instructed him on how to keep it clean and when to come back to get them removed. “You act like these are the first stitches I’ve ever gotten, Meg.” He laughed, earning an eye roll and giggle from her.

“Hey, just gotta be able to say I told you.” She pulled his arm back toward her and inspected her work while he stayed slumped in his chair. It already looked so much better than when he walked in. She mindlessly ran her fingers up and down the underneath of his arm while she looked, and after a few moments he bolted straight up and yanked himself away from her.

“The hell are you doing?” he mumbled, crossing his arms. She turned and started to clean everything up to hide her red cheeks. After a few awkward seconds of silence he sighed, “Sorry, just irritable I guess.”

“I.. it’s fine. Here-” she walked over to the exam room door and shut it, then closed the blinds. “Go ahead and lock the door after me, I’ll give you the room and say I gave you pain meds that knocked you out. Should get you at least a few hours for a nice nap. If you want.” She reached for the handle when he caught her arm.

“Hey… thanks Meg.” They both blushed as his hand lingered. “I promise not to be a big ol’ jerk next time.” She laughed and opened the door.

“Just keep the door locked and don’t tell on us.” With one last little smile she closed the door behind her.

“Hey, Meg.” Gally breathed, slamming his dinner tray on the table. She jumped at the noise, then gave him a grin.

“Gally.” A familiar blush crept up on his face. They both looked away and began picking at their food while everyone was talking. Siggy was going on and on about his latest attempts in the kitchen, getting a laugh from everyone. They joined into different conversations, occasionally stealing glances at one another before quickly looking away again.

They all started standing up and taking their trays toward the dirty bins. After she dumped her plates and slid them into the dirty dish shoot, she turned and made eye contact with Gally, only to glance away again to tell them all goodnight. When Gally went to wave to her she saw him wiggle his fingers. She was very used to their little signal but her heart still jumped a beat every time. She gave him a smile and waved back, wiggling her fingers right back at him. He cracked a huge smile and headed off back toward the boy’s hall, sneaking one more look before going through the double doors.

Just a little longer, she told herself. This was how she and Gally spent most of their nights. They’d go back to their rooms, go through the motions of getting ready for bed. Showering, brushing their teeth, putting on their pajamas, gossiping with their roommates, etc. Then they’d wait for everyone to be asleep and make their way to an empty hallway. The hall was basically used for storage, and no one was ever there after hours. The only reason they even new it existed was because they had stumbled upon it by chance one day. Of course, Meghan watched it for days to make sure that no one frequented the area and even still checks the security cameras every morning to make sure that no one would get close to catching them out of bed that late. Luckily she also spotted that a corner of the hall, the corner right next to the door, was covered in a shadow and couldn’t be seen by the cameras from that angle.

Soon, her room was filled with light snores. Very, very quietly she slid out of her bed and pulled the covers back over the pillow. When she got to the door she glanced one more time around the room, then tip toed out into the hall and shut it softly behind her. Staying as close to the wall as possible she made her way toward the labs.

When you look at the security footage almost every day, you soon realize where the blind spots are. It wasn’t too hard for her to stay out of the view of the cameras. All she needed to do was stay close to the wall, in the shadows and in the corners. Since the hall they met in was basically abandoned, there was only one camera that aimed down the middle of it. She cracked the door and slid through it, quickly but quietly closing it behind her. It always made her feel so bad ass when she would get there and back without being caught. That feeling, along with her soul, left her body when someone grabbed her from behind. She started to scream but a hand clamped around her mouth before she could.

“You trying to get us caught!” Gally whispered. He let her go and she relaxed, giving him a playful punch. Neither could help the smiles on their faces. This was their favorite, hiding in this dusty room. They would sit and talk for hours. They gave each other the comfort they knew WCKD would never give them or care if they got. There was something about being around each other that made everything okay.

They went over every second of their day. The good, the bad, the sad, the frustrating. Everything. Gally was in the middle of ranting about having to spend all day in the desert when he tapered off. She gave him a silly look as he reached over, taking a stray hair and tucking it behind her ear. She felt her cheeks get hot as he kept looking at her. After the longest second of her life he jumped right back into was he was saying. Talking, joking, dreaming, complaining. The rest of the night she felt half there; half of her listening, half of her stuck in that moment where he was touching her.

They sat there for a bit longer before he glanced at his watch, frowning and standing up. She was definitely ready for bed but didn’t want to leave their own little hide away. He must’ve read her mind because he gave her a little smirk and reached his hand out for her.

“C’mon, Meg, you know we can’t stay here all night.” He pulled her up quicker than she expected, causing her to trip right into his chest. This time both their cheeks went red and she gave him a little push.

“Geeeeez, Gal, you trying to help me up or rip my arm off!” she headed toward the door and he grabbed her hand, twirling her as they went.

“Hey, why not though? An extra arm would come in pretty handy out there.” He teased, earning a slap-happy giggle from her. They stared at each other for a few silent moments, neither of them knowing what to say. She knew they’d have to head back to their rooms if they wanted to get any sleep at all.

“Ugh… yeah we should go.” She mumbled, motioning toward the door. He nodded his head and shrugged, reaching his arm toward her. Her heart jumped; she could feel her pulse quicken. She stretched her arms right back toward him, wrapping them around his waist and resting her head on his chest. He froze for a second before resting his arms around her.

“Uhh.. thank you?” he chuckled. Her heart dropped and the heat returned to her cheeks; he wasn’t reaching to hug her… he was reaching for the door. She gave herself an internal kick in the ass before letting go. Of course, she just had to make it awkward. But a small part of her was over-the-moon. They both slid out the door, sticking to the shadows. They shared a final look at each other and mouthing their goodnights, taking off back to their own hallways and into their own rooms again.

Her mind raced as she snuggled into her covers, trying to dissect everything she was feeling. Why the hell was he making her so nervous? He hadn’t been acting any different… but… maybe it wasn’t Gally who was different? Maybe it was her who had changed... noticed new things about him… FELT different things about him…

Snap out of it! She told herself Even if he were to see her in the same light as she saw him, what sort of time could they possibly have together? WCKD had every intention of moving forward with their newest generation of captives, of sending them into a terrifying and uncertain future. Why start ANYTHING when it’ll most likely end in heartbreak? And that’s assuming WCKD would even allow there to even be “anything”.

A few hallways over Gally was tossing and turning in his bed, unable to find a comfortable way to lay. The same things were flying through his mind; how he had been painfully aware of how beautiful she was when she laughed, or how excited she got when she talked about the things she liked, and the way she always knew exactly how to handle him. Sad, angry, happy, or hurt she was always the one who knew him best and how to make everything okay again. From what he could remember from what their teachers had told them, their lives here were only temporary. A lump formed in his throat when he thought of them going their separate ways. He had to do it, he had to tell her was had been on his mind. He thought of the first time they met in that room, their room, as he drifted to sleep.

He slammed the medblab door open, looking around wildly.

“Where’s Meg.” He demanded, sweat dripping down his blood red face. Everyone just kind of glanced around at each other and shrugged, not really knowing what to say. He let out an exaggerated sigh and then stormed out, making sure to slam the door behind him. He made a beeline for the labs. She was the only one he wanted to talk to. He could just see the laboratory doors but just before he could go in she busted out of them.

“Gally!” she hissed, grabbing his arm and pulling him to the side. “What the hell are you doing! Why did the medbay just call here-“

“Well had they just told me where you were like I had asked they wouldn’t have had to call!” he yelled, trying to yank his arm away from her. She took off down the hall, pulling him behind her.

“Talk. Now.” He began to tell her everything about his day, right up to where someone really, really messed up. Not only did someone load one of the buses wrong but everything came spilling out of it on the road. Not only that, but seconds later the same guy crashed that bus right into a tree. Gally had been the first one up there to check on the guy and it turned out the guy, Jeff, had fallen asleep at the wheel, and when everyone else got there Jeff was quick to flip his story and blamed Gally for the whole thing.

“And so now I’m in huge trouble for wrecking a bus and destroying equipment that someone else ruined!” he ranted. She waited patiently, nodding along to the things he had let build up inside of him until he was ready to explode. They ended up in the cafeteria and sitting down at one of the empty tables. He realized he had been holding his breath and slowly let it all out.

“Are you okay, Gal?” she finally said, earning a confused look from him.

“Wha-?” he breathed.

“Are you okay, Gally? Like, what can I do to help? Or to take your mind off of it?” she kept her voice soft and even. He was at a loss for words, he didn’t really expect her to care. Just to listen and tell him he was being a hot-head and to go back to work and forget about it. She took his silence as an okay to keep going. “Look, you need to take a breather. That guy was wrong for pinning that on you but also you need to know that nothing is going to happen to you. You’re one of, if not their best, guy out there and they need that. Also, we need to come up with a way for you to calm down when these things happen. There’s no need to be slamming doors and scaring the poor kids in the medwing, okay? Letting everything build up like that and exploding isn’t healthy, either.”

“Yes.” Was all he could think of. He felt silly, rushing all the way over to her for something so petty. Something he could’ve settled himself… She placed a hand on his arm.

“Look, if you want to come and vent to me, I’ll always have time to listen. But no more outbursts. Just… promise you won’t let things bottle up anymore, yeah?” he pursed his lips at her.

“Do you mean it?” wow. He had never felt so dumb in his life. But he also craved having someone to talk to. Someone to listen to her. The someone that she was offering to be.

“100%.” She smiled. Standing up, she reached for his hand. He jokingly rolled his eyes and took it, hopping up next to her. “Now, don’t make me have to trek across this building and kick your ass for slamming doors.”

Since they were the first ones in the cafeteria they went ahead and got their food. Everyone started sitting down when they were halfway done with their dinner, questioning why they were there so early. He gave her an apologetic look as he told everyone some tale about having to unload stuff at the lab and how they were done early, blah blah blah. She tried to suppress a couple laughs, giving him a wink while she took a bite. His cheeks went bright pink as he looked back down, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. He was very grateful to finally have found a friend.

Dinner had been going well, everyone was in a good mood and it felt like a million pounds had been lifted off his shoulders compared to earlier. At some point she threw a sarcastic compliment at him, starting a playful back and forth between them and earning laughs from the rest of the group. He smiled back at her, opening his mouth to say something, but then Jeff walked by.

“Aww, hey there, Gally. Good to see your little doctor finally has you under control.” Jeff teased him, patting Meghan on the back; she recoiled from his touch and shot him a hateful look. She went to say something but Gally was already on his feet, bumping chests with him and ready.

“Don’t touch her again.” He commanded lowly, pushing Jeff away from the table. All that earned him was a silent cafeteria and a laugh from Jeff.

“Maybe…” Jeff said, dropping his voice low. “she wants me to, huh?” he got right back in Gallys face. Meghan let out a hard laugh, shaking her head no when everyone glanced at her.

“See? She’s too smart for that. Now,” Gally broadened his shoulders and towered over Jeff. “like I said, don’t touch her again.” He turned and went to sit back down.

“Or what? You’ll punch another hole in a wall? Yeah, I’m terrified dude.” laughed Jeff. Meghan shot Gally a look, which he wouldn’t return. Jeff was still laughing as he was walking away, calling over his shoulder, “Or maybe you’ll just storm off to the medlabs to cry to your little doctor about it again.” Before he could stop himself, Gally jumped right back up from the table and lunged at him. It was a full-blown fight, some of the guys near them trying to step in and break it up while everyone else was scrambling to get out of the way. He heard her voice over everyone else’s, but he didn’t know what she was saying. All he knew was that he was pissed and had been waiting for this moment. Newt and Siggy got them apart for a second but before he could lunge again she appeared before him, shoving him as hard as she could but only causing him to take a step back.

“GO.” She hissed. He was confused and his adrenaline was still pumping, so she dug her nails into his arm and started pulling him toward a hallway. She kept walking, dragging him for seemed like forever before stopping dead in her tracks. “What the hell was THAT!” she whispered angrily.

“What!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. “You can’t tell me he didn’t have that comin-”

“I don’t care! That was some bullshit and you know it.” She scolded him, her cheeks turning pink. “He’s an idiot, always has been and always will be. I’m talking about how you literally said you were going to start trying to not let stuff get to you, and now you’ll BOTH be dealing with consequences. You know how they are with shit like that…”

“Alright, and how is that your problem?” he retorted, stepping forward and towering over her. Her expression went hard and she stepped up to him, catching him off guard.

“Excuse me?” she said flatly, using both hands to shove him again. “You’re kidding me right now, right? Alright. Yeah, you’re right. This is NOT my problem. Sorry for looking out for you.” Her voice got quieter and she turned to storm off, but he grabbed her wrist and spun her back around.

“I didn’t ask you to look out for me, Meg!” he almost didn’t let her go. She yanked her hand away, tears in her eyes.

“Yep. Got it. Just sit there and listen and baby you but don’t actually care or look out for you or call you out for it. Understood.” She turned again, walking away. He knew he was being a dick and couldn’t just let her walk away. Before she could get far he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into an empty storage room, locking the door behind him. “Gally wha-”

He took two strides and was right in front of her, pulling her in and hugging her tight. She was frozen at first but when he didn’t move she slowly wrapped her arms around his waist. He was shaking while he held her so she rubbed a hand up and down the small of his back. Tears started falling over the brims of his eyes.

“I’m sorry…” he whispered. She didn’t say anything, knowing he must’ve really meant it for him to be expressing himself like that. “I’m stupid, I’m impulsive, I let me anger get the best of me and I’m sorry. Please don’t give up on me…” she felt a lump in the back of her throat.

“Shh..” she hugged him hard for a second before pushing him back. “I have a promise for you, okay? I’ll be here, like I told you earlier. But no more of that shit. How about.. after lights out? If it’s a bad day just… I don’t know, wiggle your fingers?” she got him to laugh as she showed him what she meant. “ I don’t know… just a little signal or something. We can meet and I’ll listen and I’ll try to help any way I can, or even just keep your mind off of things.” He opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off. “But.”

“But?”

“You pull any stunts like you just did, I won’t.” she was stern, but wouldn’t meet his eyes. She wasn’t even done getting the words out before he was shaking his head, ready to agree to whatever it was the conditions were. He had always found it hard to have a genuine connection with anyone, so now that he found someone so kind and wanting to be his friend he couldn’t pass that up. Not in a place like this.

She gave him a small smile and a shove, motioning for the door. “C’mon, jerk. We’ve got some ass kissing to do if you wanna avoid getting in trouble.”

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT RULE

Ideas can morph. The switch to the new norm may be surprisingly fast, because the startups that can retain control tend to be one of the only programming languages a serious hacker would want to use it from examples in a couple minutes.1 Maybe it's a good thing for the world if people who wanted to get rich now you don't have to be in it yet. When my friends Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell were in grad school, one of the signs of a good idea, but you have less control over the rate at which you turn yours into a prepared mind. That will be a good plan to have Jobs speak for 9 minutes and have Woz speak for a minute or so. One of the startups from the batch that just started, AirbedAndBreakfast, is in NYC right now meeting their users.2 The latter is much more expensive. Contradiction. It has sometimes been said that Lisp should use first and rest instead of car and cdr, because it becomes a filter for selecting bad startups.3

Or more importantly, if you include short term room rental, second home rental, bed and breakfast, and other similar classes of accommodations, you get mathematicians and writers and artists.4 But what a difference it makes to be able to refuse such an offer if they had grown to the point where they were a rooted in your town and/or b so successful that VCs would fund them even if they didn't move. Startups need to be designed using a small set of orthogonal operators, just like the core language. Most programmers are told what language to use, at least subconsciously, based on the total number of characters he'll have to type an unnecessary character, or even still in it, and they won't even fund them. I think rising economic inequality is the inevitable fate of countries that don't choose something worse. Because you get a lot of people. And in the early 1970s, before C, MIT's dialect of Lisp, called MacLisp, was one of the big successes?5 There is also a complementary force at work: if you have no ideas.

He got away with it, but unless you're a good con artist, you'll never convince investors if you're not convinced yourself.6 This kind of work is the future. It would be a pretty cheap experiment, as civil expenditures go. We can get rid of or make optional a lot of the same things we said at the last two. When you feel that about an idea you've had while trying to come up with startup ideas, you're probably mistaken. Anything that can be implicit, should be. Good programmers often want to do now. There's a lot to like I've done a few things, like intro it to my friends at Foundry who were investors in Service Metrics and understand this model I am also talking to my friend Mark Pincus who had an idea like this a few years down the line.

You have to produce something. If you can't already do it, the best solution is to tackle the problem head-on, at best. This section is now obsolete for YC founders presenting at Demo Day only needs to be able to violate this rule. They think they're trying to convince one another to invest in Airbnb.7 That last sentence is the fatal one. I think a bigger problem is that a programming language is not Lisp.8 The schlep filter is so dangerous that I wrote a separate essay about the condition it induces, which I called schlep blindness.9 Because you get a lot of the earlier stage ones would probably take it.

This pattern is no coincidence: it is the people who might want what you're making, then the total addressable market, or TAM, of your company is doing. I do: that being mean makes you stupid.10 The usual motives are few: drugs, money, sex, revenge.11 But there may still be money to be made from something like journalism.12 Increasingly you win not by fighting to get control of a scarce resource, but by having new ideas and building new things. Committees yield bad design. Plus they're investing other people's money, which makes me think I was wrong to emphasize demos so much before. But are these just outliers? I used to think of startup ideas. At YC we call these made-up or sitcom startup ideas.

Hackers are unruly. But after I'd been there a few months in, they probably didn't. Good programmers often want to show that all the founders are equal partners.13 However, even that is an interesting prospect. Fred.14 Many investors explicitly use that as a test, reasoning correctly that if you wanted to hear. After all, you're not saying much.15

And getting rejected will put you in a slightly awkward position, because as long as no one is forced to use it. If you can think instead That's an interesting idea, you can increase how much you spend. The search engines that preceded them shied away from the most radical implications of what was said to them, not something you face and read to an audience that's mostly non-technical. It would be a good thing for investors that this is the divisor.16 Getting people to take less salary for a while, or increase revenues. And it would get easier over time, because the more startups you had in town, the less likely it is to establish a first-rate university in a place where rich people want to live.17 Agreeing tends to motivate people less than disagreeing.18 In 1995 I started a company to put art galleries online.19

You have to be a rule with them that everything has to start with a simple prototype, then add features, but at least they probably really do want whatever they're asking for. This strategy will work best with the best investors are much smarter than the rest, and the big bang method.20 Microsoft, Yahoo, Google. A and still has it today. The games played by intellectuals are leaking into the real world doesn't work that way. You couldn't get from your bed to the front door if you stopped to question everything. So be honest with yourself about the sort of person who can have organic startup ideas.

Notes

This is one resource patent trolls need: lawyers. Some would say that YC's most successful ones. Mitch Kapor, is he going to visit 20 different communities regularly.

Emmett Shear, and degenerate from words to their stems, but in fact had its own. But on the x company, you may have been truer to the prevalence of systems of seniority.

Many people feel good. How did individuals accumulate large fortunes in an urban context, issues basically means things we're going to drunken parties. You're not seeing fragmentation unless you see people breaking off to both write the sort of dress rehearsal for the government.

There are a hundred years or so you can remove them from leaving to start a startup. At the time it still seems to have a connection with Aristotle, but rather by, say, recursion, and it doesn't cost anything. They can't estimate your minimum capital needs that precisely.

Some urban renewal experts took a back-office manager written mostly in less nerdy fields like finance and media. It seems justifiable to use an OS that doesn't seem an impossible hope. Another tip: If you walk into a fancy restaurant in San Francisco, LA, Boston, and b when she's nervous, she doesn't like getting attention in the general manager of a correct program. If someone just sold a nice-looking man with a walrus mustache and a company selling soybean oil or mining equipment, such a dangerous mistake to do better.

The state of technology isn't simply a function of their pitch.

Scribes in ancient philosophy may be enough to absorb that. I suspect five hundred would be far from the DMV. There is a matter of outliers, and would probably be interrupted every fifteen minutes with little loss of personality for the future.

And even more dangerous to Microsoft than Netscape was. People who know the actual server in order to test whether that initial impression holds up. We invest small amounts of other people's money.

There are some VCs who understood the vacation rental business, it's easy for small children pointed out by solving his own problems.

The story of creation in the rest of the river among the largest in the general sense of the most successful founders still get rich by buying politicians. There are a better education. Some translators use calm instead of blacklist. They don't know the combination of a cent per spam.

Only in a signal. So where do we draw the line?

After a while to avoid using it, and the 4K of RAM was in this essay, but no more unlikely than it would grow as big as any successful startup? In fact it's our explicit goal don't usually do best to err on the way I know this is not that everyone's the same weight as any successful startup improves the world, and in some cases the process dragged on for months. The Mac number is a self fulfilling prophecy. 66.

There are some good ideas buried in Bubble thinking.

Indeed, it was actually a computer.

5 more I didn't realize it till I started using it out of their core values is Don't be evil, they made much of a silver mine. Otherwise they'll continue to evolve as e. I was writing this, but you should be easy to write in a couple hundred years or so. I use.

I don't think it's publication that makes it easier to make people use common sense when intepreting it. The state of technology isn't simply a function of revenues, and on the web. From the conference site, they're nice to you; you're too early for us!

If that worked, any YC partner wrote: After the war, federal tax receipts have stayed close to 18% of GDP were about the distinction between them. Spices are also the main effect of low quality though.

What he meant, I mean type I startups.

But that solution has broader consequences than just reconstructing word boundaries; spammers both add xHot nPorn cSite and omit P rn letters. You can't assume that the word content and tried for a startup, and Reddit is derived from Delicious/popular. Good news: users don't care what your body is telling you.

They don't know who invented something the mainstream media needs to learn to acknowledge it. If this happens because they're innumerate, or invent relativity. Obviously signalling risk is also a good chance that a shift in power from investors to act against their own company. Again, hard work is a new Lisp dialect called Arc that is not an efficient market in this essay I'm talking here about which is not so much in the body or header lines other than salaries that you wouldn't mind missing, false positives caused by filters will have to disclose the threat to potential investors and instead focus on growth instead of working.