I really don't see the point of these very vague Ask HN posts. Surely all of this has been said before in longer, better composed blog posts. Just read the stories that show up on HN and you'll find answers to your 10,000ft startup questions.
Ask HN is very useful for specific stuff, like "please give feedback on feature X of my site" or "should I pay for service X" On the flip side, I think it's kind of pointless to ask these kind of "How do I do a startup?" questions.
I clicked on this post (hoping) for something slightly different, though: a kind of a "startup lint", a collection of very specific problems that people had, gotchas and things that caught them off guard.
"File this form, not that form, with the IRS."
"I thought I had security locked down. I was wrong.
Always check your ..."
"A shotgun clause may seem like a good idea -- but
whatever you do, make sure that your lawyer includes a
clause to specify ..."
"If you're trying to decide between a PayPal or
Authorize.NET solution for processing CC's, make sure
you factor in the cost of ..."
Collectively wide-ranging, but individually fine-grained. I see lots of 10k ft stuff in the comments, mostly not very valuable, but there are a few fine-grained nuggets.
Ask HN is very useful for specific stuff, like "please give feedback on feature X of my site" or "should I pay for service X" On the flip side, I think it's kind of pointless to ask these kind of "How do I do a startup?" questions.