morganf

It would be interesting if we answered the question, along with another: why/how? (Is that two other questions?). Knowing why and how, say, Roger L'Estrange's 1715 Aesop's Fables influenced you so would be much more interesting than just knowing that, it did influence you.

Me? Jane Jacobs' Death and Life of Great American Cities. I read it when I was 21 (1998) and it changed how I walk down the street, every single day of my life since. Why this street is full of life, and that street is empty, for example. But not only that: she basically argues that central planning is disastrous for cities, and that cities should think on the street and human levels, from the ground up, and then iterate from there (rather than top-down). These ideas applied to other areas of life -- like software development, for example -- have been very powerful for me. I'd argue that Jacobs' thought is a precursor to the whole XP/agile software movement, for example. Both start with the same premise, the spec is dead (in software language). All this is probably obvious to y'all, but wasn't to me at 21 ;)

Yikes. Somehow, an emoticon like ":(" doesn't capture the pain I feel for you.

I've been through a similar break-up at a low point as well, so I understand the pain.

Someone in this thread suggested going physically far away. There's a great aphorism in Latin America which, translated into English, roughly means, "no one's a prophet in his hometown." Going far away gives you a bizarre super-confidence and super-powers, since what was simple and obvious in your own world that you're comfortable in, suddenly becomes insightful and smart. So I second the suggestion someone in this thread made, of going far away! (Hello from South America;).

More abstractly (the following point isn't about you anymore; this just got me thinking), questions like this make me think: I sometimes feel that people don't talk enough about the risks of the startup world. They all sound so theoretical: oh, you could potentially lose money or friends... but no, that won't happen to me! The reality is... it's a "superstar economy," no different than being a soccer player or a rock star. Mark Zuckerberg as John Lennon (maybe Dustin Moskovitz as Paul McCartney? Ha! Maybe Eduardo Saverin as the famous "fifth Beatle" who left before they took of hahahaha!!!!!). We all instinctively understand that, okay, if my friends and I start a band in our garage, there's a 0.000000001% chance we'll end up successful - okay, so eventually you grow up and get a real job, and stop the band once we go to college. But yet, it's so curious to me that, when we want to start our own company in that very same garage, for some reason we think that we are much more likely to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, that the chance is more like 1% than 0.000000001%. We think we're not like the annoying cool kids in high school, but actually, within our own circles, we see the same patterns emerging: everyone, it seems, wants to be a superstar. Oh human nature!!!

My unsolicited -- and probably wrong so ignore away, I don't know the actual stats etc! -- instinct is the following, and I apply this to myself (and this works only for myself so it might not work for you, everyone's different): when I'm evaluating whether to jump into a project, when I'm evaluating whether to completely run with it and see if I can be the next John Lennon or Mark Zuckberg then, I would treat it no different than buying a lottery ticket or casino game that would be partially a game of skill but mostly a game of chance. If I feel like I'm in a position where I think I can afford to lose a lot of time, friends, and money (since I'll likely lose all three!) -- then I would go for it. But if I'm not in a position where I think I can afford to lose a lot of time, money, and friends, then I just wouldn't go for it. Or I do it as a background project on nights and weekends and see what happens :) So it's about your own evaluation of your own situation more than anything else.

Again, just because this sort of analysis works for me, doesn't mean it would work for you: everyone of us has different levels of risk tolerance, financial situations, family situations, etc. Even issues as basic as age: it's easier to be 21 and lose everything than to be 51 and lose everything, etc. They used to say Rome of antiquity, naturam expellas furca tamen usque recurret -- you can push nature away with a pitchfork, but it'll always come back!

Okay now time to listen to Janis Joplin's Me & Bobby McGee. Freedom's just another word, for, 'nothing left to lose'...

-morgan

As a tech (and literary) nerd type with a little baby, I've been inspired to create two little fun community sites on the side:

http://parentsintech.com - Interviewing other, well, parents in tech! There are a lot of us, but very little online to discuss best practices and tips for getting the best of both worlds, start-up and parenthood.

http://quantifiedbabies.com - The latest news and profiling companies who are building up the "quantified baby" space. Basically quantified self nerds like me who want to do the same to those who can't yet quantify themselves, their young kids.

If you'd like to be interviewed/profiled on either site, drop me a line, morgan at parentsintech followed by a dot then a com hmmm I wonder if the spam filters can figure that one out hehe. Any other parents in tech out there? I'd love to meet you! We need to stick together ;)

Okay time to change someone's diaper!!! -morgan

(You know, Polonius was meant as a figure of mockery, so I'm not sure it makes sense to go around quoting his ironic sayings....!)

Think up, and think down, the tree: you thank your parents for being awesome by, being awesome parents to your own children. (Think of the last line of Shakespeare's Sonnet 13: "You had a father; let your son say so.")

I interviewed my parents, grandparents, and relatives to write a family history for my children. (And my wife's, too.) It was one of the most powerful things I've done, and this process brought our entire family closer together -- and it wasn't easy, there are many tough, painful moments in my parents' and grandparents' lives, including still unresolved fights.

I'd strongly urge any fellow hackers to record their parents' stories for posterity.

Remember, in the third ("developing" they now say!) world, more often than not, factors like who you know, who just likes you, who you bribe, how you get through the bureaucracy -- are much more important than what the law theoretically says. I'm being euphemistic: a difference between developed and undeveloped countries can be seen in how much the letter or the spirit of the law actually matters.

Take Argentina, a case I know far too well. As INC magazine pointed out, the tax rate on businesses goes up to 108% of your profit. (< http://www.inc.com/magazine/201106/doing-business-in-argenti... >). How's that possible? Here's how: the government purposely passes endless contradictory laws thus ensuring you are always breaking the law, just to survive. (A business can't pay 108% of its money in taxes and still survive!). Therefore, you live in a state of somehow doing something illegal. The result? If the government doesn't like you, they find the illegal thing you're doing (that you have to do, just to survive, since the laws are contradictory and unreasonable, like that 108%), and then punish you for "breaking" the law.

Welcome to the jungle, we've got fun and games ;)

Conclusion: If you step into the third/developing world, the key isn't what the law actually says -- but _how sh*t gets done in practice_.

Wow, the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon at work! I just re-read Ecclesiastes 5 minutes before reading your post -- and in the opening lines it says (KJV translation), "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever." In my previous readings, I had never thought about the phrase "the earth abides" but in this morning's reading I did, and now I just saw it used here in the book title! :)

(PS: yeah, I know this isn't a super on-target tech web 2.0 scalable infrastructure comment like most on HN -- I'm just always in awe of baader-meinhof at work!) :)

I was once arrested and in jail for 12 hours.

I saw a big machine opposite my cell. I asked the guards (standing opposite my cell) what that machine did. They light up with excitement that someone showed interested in and could have a coherent conversation. They spent all night explaining to me and showing to me all the cool technology in the system. That big machine -- apparently for electronic fingerprints to take them and transmit them to some national database but it never worked, they kept on mocking the NYC police dept for adding layers and layers of technology and bureaucratic forms and none of it worked, including that machine. We ended up having an all-night conversation, we got along great. I asked the guards all these things I always wanted to ask policemen but never had the chance to: have you ever bee in a chase (yes, once, on the BQE!). What is the pay like? (Horrible, so they all have second jobs; he also worked at Radio Shack! But they all want to get jobs on Long Island, where the police pay is awesome!). It was a very fascinating and enlightening conversation.

12 hours later, when I was released, the policemen I spent the night talking to, offered to drive me back to my apt. He did and when he dropped me off, he got out of the car and shook my hand. Bizarre experience.

Conclusion: I think the police treated me well because I treated them with respect, and I showed in them.

(And because I'm white and dress well. When I went to the court for the court date a few weeks later... I was the only white person in the entire courthouse, excluding the lawyers and judges. No exaggeration. The judge ended up throwing out my case before the trial even started.)

Unqualified Reservations, by our very own Moldbug: http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/

Interesting. I'm living in Argentina - where the Internet connectivity is particularly slow. Therefore, my preferred setup is: everything local but backed up near-instantaneously onto the cloud. (I heart Dropbox.) Does anyone else have this problem? Are there other Dropbox-like cloud services to use for those of us with slow Internet?

This sounds like it might just be what I'm looking for!!!

Thanks for the suggestion. I'd love some solution like xpensr or texthog that lets me just email in receipts, like less everything's accounting system to reconcile everything with a book-keeper quarterly, etc etc... maybe just all these different accounting-ish systems hacked together!

Wow, all of those suggested URLs are awesome! Thank you!!! Do any of you know of something similar, but that can apply to other RSS/Twitter feeds other than HN??? Thank you!!