
The Library - alansass
Hi everyone. My name is Alan Sass. I&#x27;m the CEO of x. (x=doesn&#x27;t really matter in this equation, but we’re a startup that’s a couple years old). I’d like to create something new, simply called “The Library”.<p>Our team and I spend our days figuring out new ways of solving problems, with our day-to-day responsibilities consisting of performing product research+distribution for tangible products. We love technology and want to continually learn more about it so here we are today. Spending time today with my family, and thinking of how to structure this post to Hacker News, a site that I visit multiple times daily seemed like a great way to spend the day.<p>Recently, our team realized that we needed to open up the possibilities and think of topics that we don’t yet fully understand and explore certain subjects that are unknown (to each of us, at the current moment). Multiple team members are partnering up more and more lately to learn and work on building new things together, which has sped up the learning curve for everyone, and has also been very fun at the same time.<p>Naturally, I started browsing Google+Amazon for ideas, and then started thinking of the problem from the perspective that we have the opportunity to create something new. The something new is a network with new distribution channels that might not have existed before today.<p>I’m a huge believer in combinatorial innovation, by combining two technologies that did not previously exist together before to create something new. There’s that magical, unique moment that happens only once when you create something new, with the real joy in creation is watching an idea perpetuate over a long time horizon and allowing people to experience things and situations that they never believed that could&#x2F;would have happened to them before.<p>(1 of 5 - continued below)
======
alansass
(4 of 5)

If anyone is interested in sharing any ideas for new books to add, donating
any books, or helping in any other way, please feel free to contact us as we’d
love to hear from you. We’re really just trying to build a massive library at
our office (or future new location), and my entire personal book collection
will be transferred to this to help speed up the process of creating a large
list as fast as possible, to help the network grow. The list is only a few
days old (and most of it hasn’t even arrived from Amazon yet!)

Our current heuristics for purchasing new books:

Think of Subject (Google+Amazon+Wiki+?) -> Search for 3-10 highest reviewed
books (Amazon) -> Purchase ($!) -> Add to Master List (Google Sheets) ->
Aggregate Tons of Data (Amazon+Google+?) -> Continue Building List of Books
(Referrals+Search+Reviews) -> Perform Tons of Regression Analysis to Learn
(?!#?!) -> Figure out all steps for Data/Sheet to update in Real-Time (this is
the largest unknown variable in the equation, and we need to get to this point
as fast as possible to properly scale the idea)

We’ve self funded the books that are on the current list over the last few
days, by purchasing them on Amazon, and we have 500-1000 more unique titles to
add in the coming week, so I hope that this is a start to something great.
Please let me/us know if there’s anything we could do to improve. Thank you
for your time reading this.

(continued below)

------
alansass
(3 of 5)

Our current business allows us the flexibility to easily ship things (at least
nationally!), so today I'd love to start an additional experiment where anyone
in the US (all 50 states - need to limit exposure first, sorry!) can borrow
any of the books listed on the sheet, free of charge. We’ll keep track of
updates for rentals+returns as time goes on, but we truly believe that we
needed to continually invest more and more in the future for both our team,
and our company, first by allocating capital to this idea, and then allowing
it time to grow on it’s own. If this project and/or experiment(s) are a
failure, then the worst case scenario is we have lots of interesting books to
read, that lots of people would be happy taking home, so all would not be
lost.

We can’t promise anything at this point other than what we just shared with
everyone. We would very much appreciate any help or ideas that anyone might
have to help us move forward, or could help with what we’re trying to
accomplish. We’ll continually re-evaluate the future, based on the variables
that we currently have, and then re-adjust accordingly, but this offer is
available until I/we state otherwise.

The technology for what we’re trying to accomplish is still very basic, and
I’d love to see it continually improve with time, to remove any friction in
the process. We see no end to our investment in books, or the future, so
unless this gets too huge, then we’re fine. But if it does get huge, then that
just presents other opportunities (assuming we could fund it until that
point!).

(continued below)

------
alansass
(2 of 5)

I love discussing new books and subjects with my family/friends/team, and
always look forward to any opportunity for that situation to present itself,
but I believe that something or someone has to change our current position(s)
to allow the situation to better present itself to each party. Then I started
thinking of an offer/accept based tech system that might be able to help align
many people’s interests. We’re not sure if the idea currently exists in this
current form but we also like fun experiments.

My initial intention with creating "The Library" would be to create a new
network to help create/maintain connections between people that might not have
existed before. By creating it, I would start the process by purchasing a list
of books that are interesting to me, and hopefully people that I know.
Everyone has their own unique interest in books, and so as a collective group,
I would hope to eventually have a very diverse range of book subjects.
Creating and maintaining a large list of books will (hopefully) naturally help
our organization grow into what we want for the future, and continually bring
up the standards of learning for those involved.

Within the last few days of sharing this sheet with some of my past/current
friends, we’ve had many more enjoyable interactions and conversations that
might not have previously happened, without this. I hope that result would
present itself for future relationships that don’t yet exist. That’s one of
the reasons that I’m sharing our idea here today, to solicit any feedback,
both negative+positive, with the hopes of building a new network that many
people would eventually want to be a part of. I’m very thankful for this site
to be around so maybe this could be a way for us to help in return.

(continued below)

------
alansass
(5 of 5)

"Don't focus on the idea. Just start building what you believe is true and
share it with the world." "If you're not embarrassed by your product release,
then you've released too late."

The Library - List of Books (Google Sheets - Public URL)
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pLQ86vv4u0Mutcob6K24...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pLQ86vv4u0Mutcob6K245aNcKEnJ3yNuvUQ5kLCGeDY/edit?usp=sharing)

TO REQUEST/RENT/BORROW A BOOK: Please send me/us a private message on this
forum (Hacker News), and include whatever information you’re comfortable
sharing with me/us, and we’ll send the book to you this week.

We’re not sure if we’re offering return postage yet, but we’ll guarantee any
initial postage for outbound shipments and hope that people return the books
to us. Since this is new to us, we’re hoping that by offering this to the Y
Combinator community, that we could at least have some past member history as
an initial data point to start learning from.

We will not share your information with anyone. This is not a joke post.
Please, limit one (1) book per member+household, at least initially. These
rules could change at any time.

The most basic details that we need to send you a book are:

Book Title: Address Information: (name not required) Expected Return Date:

You may keep the book for up to 90 days, but we please ask that you think of
other people and return the book when possible so other people can also borrow
it. If everyone chooses 90 days, then we may lower the maximum number of
rental days in the future. If the book that you request is currently out of
stock, then we’ll add your name to the reservation list, and send the book to
you once we receive it in return.

If you would like to review the book after you return it then it would be much
appreciated, but completely optional. We plan on adding different metrics of
reviewing the best books to read, based on past data, but that’s in the
future.

Thank you again.

Moderators: If these posts are not allowed, please let us know and/or take
them down.

~~~
greenyoda
_" Please send me/us a private message on this forum (Hacker News), and
include whatever information you’re comfortable sharing with me/us, and we’ll
send the book to you this week."_

Hacker News doesn't have a facility for private messages. If you want to
receive replies, you'll need to put your e-mail address in your profile. Note
that the "email" field in your profile is not publicly visible, so if you want
people to see your e-mail address it needs to go in the "about" box.

~~~
alansass
thank you! just updated it. any random problem we could try to research and
help solve with you?

