
Ask HN: What stories do you know related to doing things that didn't scale? - trulykp
Inspired by Paul Graham&#x27;s phrase, I’m adding more to the open list on DoThingsThatDontScale.com, the home of hacks&#x2F;stories of real founders who did “things that don’t scale” to power through their initial startup days.<p>What are some of the hacks you have heard or have personally experimented with? Thank you in advance!
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mtmail
"Autonomous" robots kiwibots are acutally remote-controlled by contractors

[https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Kiwibots-win-
fa...](https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Kiwibots-win-fans-at-UC-
Berkeley-as-they-deliver-13895867.php)

"The Kiwibots do not figure out their own routes. Instead, people in Colombia,
the home country of Chavez and his two co-founders, plot “waypoints” for the
bots to follow, sending them instructions every five to 10 seconds on where to
go." "Another cost saving is that human assistance means the robots don’t need
pricey equipment such as lidar sensors to “see” around them."

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trulykp
wow, that is amazing. It reminds me of the "Wizard of Oz" reference commonly
used in startups where AI is first tested by real people doing those tasks
repeatedly to learn and improve.

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mtmail
I think that's the secret to a lot of startups. I worked with one where the
whole AI promise was a huge file full of regular expressions.

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trulykp
Haha, can't say I am too shocked!

