699 karma · joined June 17, 2010
Are the technical skills wasted if the engineers go to management?
Summary: People who hold entity theory about their traits (ie they believe their traits - like intelligence, sociability etc - cannot change) are not able to change. People who hold the opposite incremental theory (they believe their traits can change) can and do change and they specifically seek out situations that help them grow (they don't fear failure and they like a challenge).
Everyone can pretty easily switch between entity and incremental theory by as much as reading a news article. Of course the long-term belief is rooted in deeper values but fot that you'll have to read the book. It's definitely worth it. IMO one of the best books a startupper can read.
Thought you'd like to know. Good luck.
In terms of programming-in-the-large, at Google and elsewhere, I think that language choice is not as important as all the other choices: if you have the right overall architecture, the right team of programmers, the right development process that allows for rapid development with continuous improvement, then many languages will work for you; if you don't have those things you're in trouble regardless of your language choice.
And the best part - they released the plugin to the public. Gotta try it!
For an example see how Aaron Wall turned his SEO Book into a platform (forum, tools).
We have electricity, light bulbs and flickering TV and computers screens but we don't understand our sleep cycle and the circadian rhythm. We are a sleep-deprived civilization.[1]
Our scientists already know how learning works (semantic encoding and repetition are the key), but we still cram kids in Austro-Hungarian like classrooms.[2]
We are the last generation to waste drinking water. Water is already today a precious resource. In the future this will be even more pronounced.
Great article, got me thinking.
If you're interested, I recommend
[1] The Promise of Sleep: http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Sleep-Medicine-Connection-Happ...
[2] Brain Rules: http://www.amazon.com/Brain-Rules-Principles-Surviving-Thriv...
See the reasoning behind the switch from del.icio.us to Delicious.com:
So why did we switch to delicious.com? We’ve seen a zillion different confusions and misspellings of “del.icio.us” over the years (for example, “de.licio.us”, “del.icio.us.com”, and “del.licio.us”), so moving to delicious.com will make it easier for people to find the site and share it with their friends.
Will there be any paid gaming of Reddit?
Will Reddit turn into a sewer as it grows, as did Digg?
Sure he was smart and he worked hard, but he was no smarter and worked no harder than many of the rest of us.
With all due respect, this is such a bitter, jealous and peasant-like rant that's not even worth your status as the best HN commenter.
No matter what Gates' starting position was, his success was nothing than a lot of hard work, several good decisions and some luck.
He got a million bucks and a computer? Well he could have spent it on whores and only played games. His mother knew the chairman of IBM? Instead of using this connection he could have absolutely squandered or missed it.
But he made good use of it.
Shame on you and all your upvoters.
Games-as-a-service in the future?