As an aside, I don't know why there's always a bunch of hate on Andrew and Mixergy when these threads come up. Personally, I appreciate it when his interviews are linked on HN, as this is how I hear when there's a particularly good one live.
That being said, I liked the interview. Though, I don't agree that failing at a business makes an individual more qualified to create another startup. I've met a few entrepreneurs who probably should just pack it in...
Really I think the key is that this guy made good connections and left and impression. If he had made the same connections (somehow) without failing first in a business things might have played out similarly.
Though, the fact that he had the wherewithal to start/fail at 15...kudos to him.
On another note, one of his points is similar to another current topic "eating/buying you own dog food". I suppose it's easy when your a 15 year old male and your market is video games...
You have an excellent point though that selective HN highlighting of half-decent content actually minimises exposure to the site.
I know you work. You have a good sense of style. I'll take all the advice you're willing to give. mail at awarner dot com is my personal email address.
I really wish people wouldn't do crap like this.
The goal around here, AFAIK, isn't to get the most votes but to have a quality discussion. This guy is just begging you to get links to his site voted up, probably so he can get more eyeballs/ad revenue.
Not smug though. But too polished.
This may help: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/03/its_how_you_...
Some articles & videos speak for themselves. See http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html .
What to Submit
On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.