510 karma · joined July 21, 2011
It makes more sense to take big risks with money and then use any big payoffs to help geoengineering efforts or prepare for living in a bunker. That may sound silly but some rich people are already doing that: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-f...
All humanity needs to do is spend about $200 billion per year on mining and crushing olivine rocks and spreading it in the ocean. https://eclipsenow.wordpress.com/olivine/
That's not going to stop because it's pretty much replaced my workouts. Instead of doing a 30 min intense workout, I do two hours in the Vive. It used to be more Holoball, Holopoint, Zenblade... but now it's RecRoom, BattleDome and Pong Waves VR. More stuff comes out than I have to try with a full-time job and a minimalist social life.
Just like when mobile apps came out, existing games didn't work on the new platform. No one wanted to play an FPS on mobile. VR is a new platform and developers have to adjust for what works on it. Games like SPT, holopoint and zenblade get it right. They're all simple games inside a room but they are all create amazing experiences. I've been using my Vive almost every night for weeks and this is definitely here to stay.
Gamers are already spending lots of time in VR. If we all have new interfaces for doing our jobs maybe some people will prefer that experience to using a mouse and keyboard all day.
I like it. I'm a back-end web developer(php, node.js, python) that likes using Windows. Everyone else at work is on Macs.
I've done useless projects at school and at work but the point of those projects was to get credentials or money.
If you're doing this for fun, you should start with something you want to make. A game idea, an app idea, a robot that does something. Break the problem into the smallest parts and start with that.
I also hate complicated compiling processes, bloated tools, or anything to do with configuration. But that's just part of software development. You'll have the motivation to plow through that if you really want to build something.
I've had multiple health problems over the years that I've cured by doing the proper research online. Most doctors wouldn't even consider the solutions that helped me because they're always just looking to prescribe a pill. They fix the symptoms and not the cause. You're better off acting as your own doctor, unless you have some traumatic injury that requires surgery.
Disclaimer: This comment is not medical advice. The information presented above is not presented with the intention of diagnosing or treating any disease or condition. This information is for educational purposes only. No responsibility is assumed by the author nor anyone connected with this website for the use of this information and no guarantees of any kind are made for the performance or effectiveness of the recommendations provided.
... and people have to leave a disclaimers like that when they say something like I did. Why don't non-programmers have to leave disclaimers? Our profession is more legit than modern medical practice. I can't wait until expert systems and robots replace doctors!
Programming is a solitary activity where you solve logic puzzles. Anyone can do it. Another activity that is very similar is playing chess - yet no one is up in arms that chess schools aren't including 50% girls in elite chess training.
If you took a group of girls and a group of boys and put them in a room where they played chess for a few hours, then asked them how much they enjoyed it... more boys would rate the activity higher. Is it because some stupid poster on the wall??? No it's not. On average, men and women are different and have different average preferences.
Programming is not an activity where you need social support groups to succeed. It's the one activity where being a hermit who takes initiative and learns everything themselves can be an advantage over being more social. A large portion of programmers are self-taught online, and just start tinkering with things because they enjoy the activity. You can't force that.
You can call it a scare tactic... but with GMOs we're doing things that would be impossible to try with traditional methods.
If software keeps eating the world maybe everything else will be software too... well I can only hope.
You know how they code new organisms? They rip out code from one organism and then they randomly insert it somewhere in the DNA code of another organism. They do this thousands of times... 99.999% of the time the cell dies. So they keep trying to compile random variations of code and it keeps crashing. But let's say they get lucky one time and the code compiles. The cell lives, and then they use that cell to create a new organism. If that organism has the one property they wanted to port over from the new DNA code, they call it a success. They don't do any unit testing, they can't possibly test every scenario this new organism would be used in production, and yet no one cares.
Would any software developer use a process like this in a production environment? No - it's obvious this way of coding would would cause drastic unintended consequences. With GMOs you get malformed proteins, new chemicals/toxins, and interbreeding with other plants that could cause even more unintended consequences.
Usually I'm all for technological progress. But until we understand DNA inside and out and can precisely edit just the code we want, GMOs seem very dangerous.
If I build a product that can't be ignored then I'll have options for funding even as a single founder. Then I could get employees instead of partners and avoid the whole scary idea of someone corrupting my vision. It would be a huge time sink to find the perfect cofounder, and for someone like me it would cause tons of stress. You're supposed to basically marry someone. I'd rather just keep grinding outside of my 9-5 job and build the product myself.
I'm a PHP developer by choice and I like that quote. I like throwing things together - I don't use frameworks, I use libraries. By combining an ORM, a template engine, and my own router... those things form an MVC framework that I actually understand. The frameworks like RoR, people don't understand what's going on when something goes wrong because they put on so much abstraction... PHP remains simple, and I like it.
To be honest I like javascript better, but PHP has more reusable code on the web so most things are still way easier to do in PHP than Node.js. Also I think composer is a great package manager, it's not like PHP doesn't have a good one.
I enjoy hacking things together and agree with Ramus that abstract classes and protected properties are worthless. Wordpress was hacked together and it's still doing fine... all that code and not one abstract class. That's the PHP developer philosophy the author was looking for... we do what we want.
You see my idea is to install hydro turbines inside men's urinals at major corporations. Then everyone will piss on them generating free electricity... that electricity powers work computers during non-office hours to mine bitcoin.
It's sort of like the enterprise version of this idea. Maybe I should start talking to VCs to raise $200 million? B2B startups are hotter than consumer-facing ones right now - so I should ask for more.
Or was his letter looked over because the Duke's assistant was looking for a technology using "sulfur"... and Da Vinci didn't mention it in his resume.
Seems like people like this live in a different world. I'm just grinding everyday at my 9-5... then I go to a coworking space for my "5-9" to code my startup. Reading stuff like this makes it seem like everyone else just puts FizzBuzz in an iPhone app and gets $100k funding.
All these frameworks make you write more code than needed... and because people started to feel it wasn't worth it, their latest pitch focuses on speed. They say the "virtual DOM" is the future, and if you're not diffing your state to re-render the DOM you're not a serious developer.
I still don't see the benefit. I've written 15k lines of javascript code in some apps. My components have state and I re-render as needed, and as long as you separate code between components it's fine.
How many times have you been using a js app and thought "wow this DOM is slow?" You don't. It's either 0.1 sec or 0.2 sec to re-render the whole component/widget. 99.9% of the time a website is slow because the server requests take too long. Every once in a while you'll see some crazy CSS3 animations that make things unresponsive.
The people who go on about having a virtual DOM run benchmarks on thousands of elements... I don't know about you, but I'm never rendering thousands of elements at a time. Ajax/pagination works fine for extra data. I did write a very simple template system and event management system... but I'd rather do that than add the complexity of a framework. Dealing with a framework to make things work in "the X way" is wasting everyone's time. And then the next Angular or whatever comes along... and everyone wastes more time learning the latest version. This has turned into a rant... but I just want to say I'm happy as a coder who avoids frameworks at all costs. At the same time I try to use as many libraries as possible. Libraries save time, frameworks waste time.
Someone should make that... I'm not into VR yet and have too many other projects or I would.
Their manager said "Your goal is to write a blog post mentioning each one of these technologies, and add links so it appears in dark-bold-blue text. If we don't have a project using a trendy tech-stack... you bust your ass and get something up and running."
The engineers balked... "but why?"
Then the boss said, "I'm tired of being ignored in 'Who's Hiring' on Hacker News. We make this article and they'll all come begging us for jobs. At the BBC we don't wait for news to come to us, we make the news. And THAT'S what we call journalism kids."
I'll get traction/users first before getting rejected again.
For example if I went back in time I could tell my teenage self everything about nutrition. Unfortunately it would be pointless. Even though I'd listen, without the years of experimentation, forming beliefs and learning I would never have the discipline to think "These foods are poison. Other people can eat them, but not me."
So it's a long process and I think people should discover what works for themselves. But since you asked, here's what I eat and don't eat as of now...
NEVER EAT: HFCS, DAIRY, processed foods, greasy foods, red meat, brominated/bleached flour, unfermented soy (especially soybean oil), alcohol, artificial flavored foods or things that you don't recognize the ingredients, basically avoid all restaurants even supposedly healthy ones
EAT: Tons of organic vegetables/fruit, things cooked in coconut or olive oil, organic chicken, organic eggs, sprouted wheat, high-quality spring water, home cooking flavored with herbs/spices instead of sugary/salty sauces, foods with high omega 3s or high antioxidants, cook everything yourself using basic ingredients
Things that are listed "never eat" I make no compromises for no matter the pressure... "Oh hey - it's our company's annual pizza taste-testing competition, you can make an exception this time can't you? Don't you want some of this amazing pizza with cheese, soybean oil and brominated wheat flour in it. NO!?! What's wrong with you? Are you going to risk your job by not participating???"
YES - I will quit my job before eating pizza... it's poison to me, I won't eat it.
That combined with the routine of going to a 9-5, then afterwards going to a coworking space for my startup, I'm really getting a lot of work done. Before I would stay at home and do the bare minimum of contract work, waste time on the internet, and dream about doing a startup. I'd say I'm about 3 times as productive as I was when I worked from home.
Now I make the average salary of a web developer in Chicago according to glassdoor. I have 5 years experience as a dev, with a ton of holes in my resume (because my heart is in doing my own startups). Just thought add that anecdote.
Before I was basically a bum that occasionally did contract work... now I work 40 hrs at my job, and 20 hrs at a coworking space on my startup. My hatred for the 9-5 job is what motivates me.
I'm not paying $100 extra for Prime just to get things shipped in a reasonable time-frame... because those other services that are bundled with Prime are worthless to me.
Since Amazon has been so bad, now I use websites that focus on niches (one website for computer-related items, one for supplements etc.). All these websites offer free shipping much faster than Amazon.
In startup terms I thought it would give me more runway.
Since then I've never been able to be productive. I tried contract work here and there but I've never had the self-discipline. Actually I've made less money in the last 7 years combined from programming than 1 month at my real job. Think about that... I haven't made $5K from programming over these last 7 years.
Of course I needed money so I started working part-time jobs. I currently work 24 hours a week for near minimum-wage, often having to shovel snow in sub-zero temperatures. I thought the worse I suffer the more I'll get motivated to do work at home. That has not happened. I have nothing to show for these last 7 years except half-completed projects and a free productivity extension that 5,000 people use - but obviously does not work for me.
So maybe getting a job is the right thing for you. If you can't work from home, you can't work from home. You'll have to accept the best terms you can find, and if that's $100/mon then that may be your only option.
As for me... I would rather die than get a programming job. I'm as defiant as ever. I love programming, but I only love programming my own ideas. Even the thought of programming for someone else makes me feel physically ill (like throwing up). So either I make it as an Indie developer or I die as a janitor. Your post made me realize I should feel lucky that I have the option to be a janitor for $10/hr. You don't even have that option.
Since I'm releasing nothing... I decided to take on smaller and smaller projects. Instead of making a mobile app, I'm now making a small plugin to release on CodeCanyon.net. I put all the CSS for the demo and the actual plugin in the same file to begin with, and now I don't "feel like" separating the demo's CSS in a separate file because it's frustrating and boring. I'd rather code new things than mess with this stupid CSS on a project that probably won't sell, that took way longer than it should have.
But this time I said I'm not doing any other project until I've finished this one. And now I've done absolutely nothing for 2 weeks(except my part-time job), and procrastinated by watching TV shows and studying Japanese.
As someone who always changes their opinion on "what should I really be working on" - I think I need something more than "asking the right questions." I'm still not sure what that is, but I'm hoping that one day I will find it.