This is interesting and cool for entertainment, but it's extremely hard to picture using this as a replacement for an architect.
We're building an ADU right now and the floorplan design was a very small part of what our architect did. So much more of the value came from the relationships he has with the structural and geotechnical engineers we used as well as the relationship with our city building department.
This really strikes me as a product in search of a problem.
Maybe a homeowner could use this for initial planning before finding an architect to use, but at that point you're competing with pencil and paper.
The benefits were in communication and relationship arbitrage? Surely both of those can be automated over time.
This is just one aspect but it’s still useful. Many people want to see a house and say “please help me make that”. In Australia there’s a set of house patterns that reduce the overhead of just landing a design and pushing it through the admin hurdles.
As counterpoint. I’m also building an ADU and no architect was needed. I had a drafter iterate on a layout document, most of it was deciding things like windows, door and cabinet layout. It’s not super necessary but informative to layout out MEPs (cost $800.) Although, we didn’t need colored or 3D renders, not value added for us.
From there, I kicked the PDF to a completely unrelated structural engineer that gave engineering specs, a few extra drawings that are standard copy pastes from his previous efforts, and his stamp (cost $600.)
From there, I had everything I needed to get accurate bids from general contractors and permits. Nobody needs to have any special city level connections in my major US city if you follow general code standards along the way they have to approve it. The GC knows what the on site inspectors will pass/fail as sometimes they play by different rules. At the end of the day, GC can always pull out the code book and prove an inspector wrong. Doing so tactfully is part of their jobs as inspectors are a revolving door and not always as knowledgeable as you’d think they should be.
Note. I don’t live in an area where seismic is an issue.
Completely agree with this. Most cities in the US are not that strict. Those cities are where building actually happen. Not in LA, Bay Area, etc, etc.
Majority of homes being constructed in the US are done in areas where as long as you follow the general code standards, you'll be able to get approval. This is why template house plan websites exist.
A very standard process for a builder is buy or use a template -> make tweaks with a drafter -> structural engineer for additional structural documents and stamping (liability) -> submit for permitting.
This opens the market for a tool like ours. In the short term, it won't be as helfpul in strict markets, just pure ideation, but over time that'll change with the model learning how to ingest local codes standards for designing within.
It looks great! I've built a few houses at this point and honestly always find this ideation part a major pain. Not that it's huge but the $800 could have been closer to $100-200 if we just had more firm convictions when starting the conversation, we ended up about 6-7 revisions total which was wasteful (paying by hour). I will be sure to try this tool on my next project.
Features like detailed framing plans, siding/wall/roof/insulation/etc all the detail cross-section drawings would be welcome additions. Especially if I could then tag the product type for each layer and it produced an inventory/shopping list. I think this is closer to what BIM software does but would be great to have even as a DIYer/GC.
Do you ensure you have enough personas in the desired target area to get enough survey responses? Are there demographics you are not able to simulate at this time?
Seems like it would be impossible to simulate anyone who isn't chronically publicly online?
I'm chronically online but I have very few public profiles anyone could glean anything from. (And even the one I'm posting this with here is in the queue for deletion... supposedly... I should probably check on my request.)
It’s very rare that dang actually satisfies deletion requests as it leaves gaping holes in the historic HN threads. You see this constantly on Reddit and it’s a major problem. For that reason, it’s best to follow the policy of not posting something online that you don’t intend to be permanent.
My intent wasn't to redact my comment history (I also value that permanence), just remove attribution/profile and any ability to log in so I stop being tempted to comment further.
I'm a little surprised by this comment because both dev mode and variables are the main ways I use Figma. Our design team creates the design and then the Devs use dev mode to implement what they designed. Dev mode has been great for our team!
When given the choice, I will always subscribe/pay/book directly with the company rather than use a 3rd party. If something goes wrong it's always easier to only need to deal with one company rather than two. Plus I'm choosing to start a relationship with a company that I give money to and thus want them to be able to use all of that money towards making the service and experience the best possible, rather than have them be handicapped by fees coming right off the top.
I have the opposite experience with subscriptions. Have you ever tried to cancel a gym membership? Famously, companies make it easy to sign up online, but require a phone call (likely with a wait) to cancel. Many places have passed explicit laws [1].
I was a monthly donator to a public radio show. After few years I wanted to switch credit cards (with no intention of canceling or changing my donation amount). They had redesigned their website and there was no discernible way to cancel or contact them. I blindly emailed them, but never got a response. My only recourse was to cancel the credit card.
Since then I've greatly preferred a third-party to manage subscriptions. For awhile it was Paypal. In the past decade it's been Patreon and Apple.
You're right that there are definitely some bad actors for cancelling subscriptions, it's really crappy you've had to deal with that! I once had a recurring charge from rackspace that neither myself nor rackspace's support could tell me which account the charges were associated with! Luckily my credit card company was able to put a block on any charges coming from rackspace rather than have to cancel the entire card.
I still think there are way more good companies than bad ones when it comes to cancelling and I do value building a relationship with the companies I patronize.
It is worrying to give so much power to a 3rd party, in this case google, who is notoriously difficult to deal with when an issue arises.
I'm a bit surprised the credit card companies or banks haven't come up with a system to manage reoccurring payments. They have to mediate these issues and are in a place where they can be a neutral-ish party to set standard rules. Its weird that it has ended up being "tech companies."
Do you have any tips on good screeners or places to find these SPACs? I've never invested in them yet and don't know too much about them. Are they traded just like regular stocks?
I look for them close to NAV don't like buying much out from there. The current best opportunities I see are, FPAC, TWCT, AACQ. They are priced well and should move when rumours come out. If you want one a little bit riskier but with a potentially sooner payoff, FUSE, rumoured to merge with Money Lion.
If your into options, SPACs with options create some great opportunities for Call Debit Spreads instead of having to buy commons and front the $10 redemption value.
There's also warrants which have more risk. FPAC+ and TWCTW are in my mind the best current warrants.
There is also Units! The best unit play right now I see is COOLU, its due to split soon and you will get one common and 1/3 of a warrant per unit, so buy in multiples of 3.
All of the tickers I mentioned are tech focused and backed by VC firms with a history of successful tech companies and SPACs.
There are a lot of garbage SPACs so you have to be careful.
Overall, your number one source for information should be SEC filings on Edgar. Read the documents there, research the management team, learn what the target payouts are and see who else is buying in.
SPACs are great and should last through the fall, the exchanges are looking at making direct listing much easier though and that will kill SPACs and probably be the move the pops the bubble.
The good thing about SPACs is that you have a focused management team of seasoned investors and you are investing with them and have the redemption price of $10 typically if there is a problem.
A SPAC is just a stock like any other. If you look for investor videos on YouTube, you'll find the same SPACs being pumped, both in pre-merger and post-merger form. There is also a SPAC ETF ("SPAK") that holds a bunch of them.
100% this. I made a pretty large costco order with instacart yesterday and expected to pay 15% in fees and tip, but when the order came I saw the store receipt and they overcharged me on almost every single item. The instacart order total was 35% more than what was spent at the store. The total lack of transparency is infuriating and I very much feel cheated.
Personally I really appreciate the photography and visual details of films and find that I feel I have to choose between reading the subtitles and noticing those intricate details in a film.
We're building an ADU right now and the floorplan design was a very small part of what our architect did. So much more of the value came from the relationships he has with the structural and geotechnical engineers we used as well as the relationship with our city building department.
This really strikes me as a product in search of a problem.
Maybe a homeowner could use this for initial planning before finding an architect to use, but at that point you're competing with pencil and paper.