
Show HN: FortyQ – Answering any question in forty-two minutes - judlaw
http://www.fortyq.com
======
_Nat_
I checked one of [your
samples]([https://ankuj3.wixsite.com/website-5/q-founder-
us](https://ankuj3.wixsite.com/website-5/q-founder-us)),

> Q. We are 2 co-founders and directors of a company. There is a valuation of
> 8M and we finished the seed round. However we cannot agree on how to move
> forward. We are considering dissolving the company. My co-founder has told
> me that if I decide to dissolve , he will agree , then re-incorporate
> without me. Is this legal? If yes, How do I prevent this from happening?

, and it looks like this question was just posted to reddit
[here]([https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/ecaxx2/disso...](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/ecaxx2/dissolving_a_company_as_cofounders/)),
with [this
response]([https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/ecaxx2/disso...](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/ecaxx2/dissolving_a_company_as_cofounders/fba67vy/))
then given back as the answer.

So is the idea to ask questions for people on other Q&A sites like reddit or
StackExchange?

~~~
planb
And the third sample is taken directly from StackOverflow...

~~~
judlaw
The SO source in question is one that I have answered, and not copied from any
random source off the internet.

~~~
davidjgraph
That doesn't give you the right to copy and paste the question without
following the licensing at SO,
[https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/24611/is-it-
legal-t...](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/24611/is-it-legal-to-
copy-stack-overflow-questions-and-answers/24618) .

You are missing the attribution part from
[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
sa/3.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).

And you intend to be taken seriously as a site that will answer legal
questions?

~~~
judlaw
Point noted. I will change the question for one that we answered on our
website, there are numerous examples:

[http://helplicit.com/](http://helplicit.com/)

Again the idea was and is to demonstrate diversity. Appreciate you pointing
that out though.

------
keyP
Small tip, the url isn't masked and shows it's a WIX site. This doesn't mean
it's inherently bad but it seems less professional for a site that accepts
payment so you may want to mask the domain to show "fortyq.com".

~~~
judlaw
Thanks for that tip! I couldn't get the redirect with masking to work in time,
but cleaning it up as we speak :)

~~~
brokensegue
In time for what?

~~~
judlaw
Well we had a launch deadline in mind and DNS updating would have taken an
additional 48 hours, so we went ahead and launched it anyway.

~~~
quickthrower2
Move fast and break thing! Good stuff, things don’t need to be perfect.

~~~
judlaw
Thanks! Appreciate the encouragement :)

------
philip142au
Give an unsolved maths question. ;)

~~~
fixf
What is your agency's policy for answering Newcomb's problem?

~~~
logicallee
I just read about Newcomb's problem due to your comment. Maybe I'm being
stupid but I don't think there's any paradox. Let's change it so that the
first box contains only a tiiiiiny little speck of gold and nothing else, and
you'll see.

For this demonstration, you get to play repeatedly.

Let's make you too smart for your own good. You start off with the strategy I
think is stupid and wrong. So: each time you play, you select both boxes on
the (stupid, wrong) theory that selecting both strictly dominates selecting
just one. Of course, each time, there's nothing in the second box because your
choice has been predicted.

After playing several hundred times and amassing a tiny little mound of gold
flakes you think about whether you even know any shops where you can convert
it, and you didn't even bring a zip lock bag with you, what are you going to
do, go home with golddust in your pockets? You think about the hours of time
that you've spent. Finally you wisen up and say fuck it, this time time I'll
just select the one box.

Since your choice has been predicted, you _finally_ get the million dollars,
and you realize you were pretty dumb for wasting several hours on a few specks
of gold.

You keep playing, selecting just the one box, and keep getting a million
dollars each time. After you have more cash than you can drive home, you thank
God for all your cash and go home.

This proves that the choice is simple and there is no paradox or
contradiction. With my approach, do you see any paradox?

~~~
fixf
I share a similar view, that testing whether the examiner is lying is itself
worthwhile. But while the analysis has several interpretations this question
may pose the agency a small problem. They are answering a paid user and
therefore have technically already opened box number 2. They cannot therefore
lay claim to box 1, only dodge the question, lie, or accept their fate.

~~~
logicallee
I'm sorry, I completely missed that you were relating it to the agency's
problem.

I thought you were just giving any paradox as an example of a difficult
problem, and could have given any.

I don't quite follow the analogy with this agency's policies, could you make
it a bit more clear? What are the "boxes" in this case?

~~~
judlaw
Interesting take on this whole scheme of things, thanks for taking the time.
I'd add that we're qualifying the question before accepting payment i.e. if
its out of scope, we politely decline.

On a side note, aren't we already doing the same when we go to white collar
practitioners like doctors and lawyers for advice? I mean you pay the service
irrespective of whether we like the advice or not. With FortyQ, we're giving
you a way out of that with refunds.

~~~
fixf
Glad to hear that. The Freemium solution is certainly a simple one, but I
didn't feel it was appropos. Personally I'd have to start writing a day ahead
to have a chance at formalizing my question before the time limit. Expert
advice does benefit from codified standards but it's hopefully dissimilar in
that the question I brought features a double bind; It doesn't have a
'winning' answer. There are tons of regular answers, so an expert would just
tell you not to fall for it. Education against them is one of the few ways I
acknowledge of their constructive use, and I'd guess logicallee still won't be
satisfied with my breakdown. I do what I can.

~~~
judlaw
I see your point regarding a double bind, and it is something we see a lot in
blogs I guess with conflicting viewpoints? Its true that there is a
significant effort involved in formulating the question properly, but it also
ensures getting a chiseled answer. Something we noted as well with paid
questions: the amount of detail provided improves dramatically.

One thing that I have noticed working legal questions in the past weeks is
that people more lost than they were when given all possible viewpoints and
given the possibility to choose. More often than not they are looking for
someone to tell them what to do. Makes sense though if you think about it.

Not sure I entirely got the 'Education against them.. ' point, could you
elaborate?

~~~
fixf
Against the use of double binds. To me they are an indicator of hostile
intent, although as demonstrated here and in the practice of law, adversarial
interactions can be constructive. This abstraction is incredibly beautiful,
but typical examples are not necessarily nice.

~~~
judlaw
Do double binds automatically come in though, when you allow people of
disparate backgrounds and experiences a platform to express opinion?

Could be constructive though as far as law is concerned.

What typical examples would you refer to?

~~~
fixf
They could, though I think much of that can be mitigated with effort. I
believe the textbook example is domestic abuse, but I worry that the scope
also coincides with fallout from poisoned well attacks and tribalistic
recruitment efforts.

------
lol768
So what qualifies the folks answering the questions to answer them?

~~~
notretarded
PhD in Googleology.

~~~
judlaw
Fair point, though I'd add that information is free and knowledge isn't. If it
were the case, student loans would be coming down instead of spiraling to
record highs.

~~~
zerr
Not the best example though - student loans are used for getting a pedigree
and personal contacts.

~~~
judlaw
Probably, in which case i'd end it at "information is free and knowledge
isn't" :)

------
judlaw
Hi guys, thanks for all the comments and questions. The past day has been
supercharged by more demand than we can handle.

We're thus looking to collaborate with ninjas in various domains who can help
answering questions. Please reach out to us via the website if it is of
interest to you, and we'd be happy to chat.

The vision? Join us in building the world's biggest curated knowledge base, 42
minutes at a time :)

------
layoutIfNeeded
Google Answers [1] reloaded?

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Answers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Answers)

~~~
judlaw
Yes and no. 'Yes' as in there are answers, and 'No' as in referring to the
questions we've answered in the past, we are directed towards contextual
questions.

E.g. I've a bug in my code right now and it needs to get into production right
away.

Hope that helps.

------
notretarded
It has the same logo as airbnb and skiplagged

~~~
judlaw
It's to demonstrate the idea that we'd like to answer with a few notches of g
as boost :)

------
avip
Can God create a lift she herself cannot stone?

~~~
jonathanstrange
Totally, man, totally. You don't have buttermilk in the fridge, do you?

~~~
dkersten
You forgot to charge 4.20 for your answer.

------
camhart
Why 420? Pot related?...

~~~
droidist2
Probably another reference to "42" but 42 cents would be too cheap.

~~~
judlaw
We're looking to charge 10 cents per minute of work done, and are setting
ourselves standards to take less than the amount of time it takes to answer
the ultimate question :)

~~~
techntoke
$6/hr. is less than minimum wage. Are you outsourcing to slaves?

~~~
judlaw
Afraid its too soon to answer that one, we're just testing a hypothesis atm :)

~~~
quickthrower2
Yeah just make it up on volume.

~~~
judlaw
That indeed is one way to go!

------
oefrha
> We answer any question in 42 minutes flat, for $ 4,20.

The most confusing pricing I’ve ever seen. Is it $420 (outrageous and thousand
separator placed wrong)? Or is it $4.20 with the comma as decimal separator as
seen in some non-English-speaking European countries (but why would you use
that convention with USD)?

~~~
bloak
In Britain it's normal to separate pounds from pence with a comma, at least in
handwriting. In handwriting people also use a dash. A dot just isn't visible
enough. If you do use a dot then it should be a proper decimal point (£1·50),
not a full stop. Typewriters are the work of the devil.

EDIT: It looks like I'm wrong about the comma used to separate pounds from
pence: that's not normal in Britain. (What about '='? I think I've seen that
in handwriting, but I can't say for sure in which country.)

~~~
NeedMoreTea
_Never_ seen a comma used in Britain, during my almost sixty years as a
native. It's usually £1.50 (and yes, a central dot not a period unless typed),
occasionally £1-50 which is most commonly seen on shop and handwritten market
signs.

Pre decimal was almost always a '-' when there are pounds, a / (more like a
super long apostrophe) when under 240p. So £5-2-6 for £5, 2 shillings and
sixpence, 7/6 for seven and sixpence. Less common was £5 6s 2d, or slashes
£2/19/2 3⁄4d, but there were a _lot_ of conventions for written Lsd, with nary
a comma among 'em. :)

Edit: to your edit, = was common (seems much less so now) for whole pounds,
and in the pre-decimal era too, e.g. £1/==, or simply £1==. Also pre decimal
whole shillings: 5/=, sometimes 5/-. In the days we still wrote cheques when
it was for whole pounds it was common to _fill_ the remainder of the figures
box with two lines, essentially =====, after the £250 or whatever numerals.

------
jen729w
Constructive feedback: I’m not giving any money, no way no chance, to a
website that can’t line up its elements or put a bit of padding in its CSS†.

This might be a great idea (I’m not sure), but basic layout is table stakes
before I even think about what you’re selling.

It’s an attention to detail thing. If you can’t see the obvious problems with
your own home page, what hope do I have that I’ll actually get $4.20 worth of
value from you?

(† Speaking of which, I closed my 20 year old eBay account today.)

~~~
judlaw
Hi thanks for the feedback, sincerely appreciate it! Have to agree that it is
pretty bare bones at the moment, and been haphazardly done in a few hours as I
was too impatient to test it out lol. It will be chiseled in the days to come.

I'd add that we wouldn't disappoint on the product, which is the quality of
the answer baked in 42 minutes. And of course we're happy refunding in case we
do :)

~~~
jen729w
> I was too impatient to test it out lol

And you want me to give you money? C’mon.

~~~
vectorEQ
he's asking for 4.20$ so it's ok to be a bit lazy :D .. 4.10 or 4.30 and i'd
expect him to know CSS and to be able to tell me what ISA quantum computers
use :O

