ralphos

If I wrote an article with the same title I would only include one thing to remember when coding and that is to write code with the expectation that others will have to read your code. (This of course assumes you're not an ass who wants to make people's lives more difficult!)

Thanks! As a backend dev who did the UI I appreciate that very much!

Nice execution. We had a similar idea called http://www.pinchthelook.com but for women. The feedback was great and people 'loved' the site but ultimately we couldn't get to a scale where there was enough traffic and clicks to make it worthwhile. Engagement isn't fantastic since it's more of a quick browse and if I like something click away from site.

Perhaps this idea will work better for Men as they probably need a bit more help in piecing together a look (more often than not) ;)

I appreciate the post and I think it's insightful, but I think the real question is how did you get it on the front page of hacker news!

I think that would be a very good next post to write about :)

We tried to launch pretty much the same concept a few years ago (dating through friends of friends on Facebook) but it didn't work out. It was called 'Trustcircle' and we still own the domain (www.trustcircle.com) in case you are interested in buying it! It might be a better option than tomonotomo! Just sayin' :)

Nice. Just signed up and created an application. Excited to see what may come out of this. I'm more interested in pairing with somebody who's better than me rather than working on a specific problem of my choice so hopefully someone can help!

I think it's hard to argue with a lot of the points he raises. Certainly the 'lack of virility' is an issue and it's much harder to get significant gains now without resorting to a few hacks. The most concerning point I think has to be the case where Facebook denies advertising to competing products. That would suck if it happened!!!

Again hard to argue with many of the points raised, but with that said I think there's still opportunity - just not the same as before where the likes of Zynga and iLike were able to get shed loads of traffic for virtually nothing.

Perhaps "any publicity is good publicity" - at the end of the day, he's had two posts about Betapunch on the front page of HN as a result of all this, and I doubt people will remember this whole episode in a few weeks.

I attended the last meet up in Boston whilst visiting and I have to say this Ruby group is pretty special. I will, for sure, be watching via Hangouts when it goes live!

Yes the product worked, but perhaps the product didn't fit the market?

Great post and a lot of useful information. Particularly relevant for me as I'm a noob starting out on my first project, much like described in the post.

I've followed a very similar roadmap in learning bits of html/css (highly recommend the Head First book), javascript, version control, ruby and doing Hartl's, 'Rails Tutorial'.

I didn't get a job at Pivotal Labs in SF like the author (which I'm guessing would be a pretty awesome learning environment) but I've managed to convince the 'Pivotal Labs' of the Philippines to take me in & provide mentorship ;) If anyone is interested I've just started keeping a log of each step along the way at http://www.ralphy.tumblr.com. (Will update with more posts soon).

So far, it's been tough and I'm realizing how little I know in the whole spectrum of Rails, let alone web development. Having said that I'm already building stuff on the web I can actually see and show my friends, which is kinda awesome.

I think the conclusion he has is right. It's not appropriate to pair 100% of the time. Having said that if you look at the way Pivotal labs pair up, they have really strict rules about what's allowed on the 'floor' e.g. No laptops, no cellphones, no distractions. So while working alone can give you more privacy and space to become creative, unless you're really disciplined by yourself, pairing up can actually be beneficial in forcing you to become more productive.

I think the other thing the author fails to mention is that in terms of up-skilling developers, the process of pairing is quite useful. Often the pairing will naturally raise the level of the weaker programmer by virtue of being exposed to new ideas and solutions by the more experienced developer.

Credit to you for sticking with it for 12 weeks and being successful.

I had been attempting to learn how to program (Ruby) for the past 6 months (from a ZERO programming background) and in the beginning I honestly could not do more than one week learning 'intensively' before I had to take a break to let all the new concepts and information settle in.

Perhaps it's just my style but I've found learning a little bit everyday is more effective in the long run than cramming it into a condensed period of time. It's surprising how you can take a break from a piece of code and have everything come together when you look at it again.

That said, learning how to program in 'X weeks' sounds great and I wish I could have done it!