Is there really that much money in making a weather app where you can quit your job at apple and do that?

gregoriol 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Funniest thing is how they leave the company they sold their weather app to... to start another weather app.

They sold their last weather app to Apple for like, tens of millions or something. These aren’t some random Apple employees.

Also, it seems a common misunderstanding about some weather apps: yes, most of them just package free data and steal your privacy, but some are really much more than a “weather app”. Some are attempts at building next-generation weather forecast models, which if successful are of course worth billions.

I’ve spent a lot of time building innovative weather apps, most of my career actually. And it’s always shocking to me when people say I’m wasting time or wasting my life or look at me like, “really? You’re dedicating your life to weather apps?!”

No dawg, I’m trying to improve short term forecasts to save life and property from severe events at scale!

I’m not sure what the Acme end goal is, but surely this isn’t just a “weather app”.

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Galanwe 5 hours ago | parent [-]

> I’m trying [...] to save life and property from severe events at scale

Tell me you work in Silicon Valley without telling me you work in silicon Valley.

Sorry but I couldn't resist. There is something in US startup mentality where you can't just "create an app and make a living", you have to be on a grand mission to save the world. That may be normal out there, but for the rest of the world it just seems... Get back to earth man :-)

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3rodents 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Sure, most of us are doing nothing to help people and are using grandiose language to describe reticulating splines. I don’t think that applies to good weather apps though, a lot of people do die because they are unaware of weather events. I would be very unsurprised to learn that any major weather app has directly saved lives. The U.S is a very… weatherful place.

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altmanaltman 3 hours ago | parent [-]

People do die due to weather events. But attributing their death to bad weather apps is pretty wild.

	▲	3rodents 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I didn’t say that.

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dan00 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It‘s exactly the kind of words that venture capital wants to here.