Comment by piloto_ciego | Hacker News Reader

Comment by piloto_ciego | Hacker News Reader

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I have literal quantifiable output that supports the claim when I make it. I've literally been building tools for a customer of mine since January, and while it started out kind of slow, it's now paying my bills entirely every month. I am so busy baby sitting the robots and adding new projects on that I don't really have any time to find new customers right now? But I'm thinking I should have most of the stuff they're going to need done here by the end of the year, so next up, I have to find more people and maintain their tooling...

I don't want to get into the nitty gritty, but I'm kind of at the nexus of tech and aviation with my experience in life. The result has been that I can build tools that directly apply to my customers' requirements and I know wtf I'm doing in the industry. I think if I was "just a dev" or "just a former pilot" I'd be kind of screwed because I wouldn't know what I was doing? But, the reality is that because I know how to do both I'm able to make money. I don't have to look up "what an IAP is" means or "what is the 1-4-1 rule and 2-2-1/2 rule" means or "what is an OpSpec?" frantically when I am figuring out what they need. That's quite helpful.

If you know what the hell you're doing, this is a game changer. Like, "oh, I need a custom CRM spooled up that covers things that aren't in typical CRM software" - if you're a developer you probably don't know what people actually want; if you're just an industry expert you don't know wtf sql is. But if you're kind of blend of both you can add real value.

Generalist > specialist right now. I doubt that holds for much more than about a dozen months or so.

    Generalist > specialist.

No, my friend, if you are deeper than "just a pilot" and also capable of defining and building software (even with claude) that works and works well as extensions to industry tools like CRM, then you are not a generalist, you are an intersectional specialist of the kind Scott Adams used to talk about as "skill stacks" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3PcdTyZ6w

You have two good skills, median-level among those specializations probably, and combine them into a top-tier niche ability.

Also, did you voluntarily disclose that you thought that comment was about you? It feels like you are the friend they were talking about, lol

I don't know, I was a good pilot, I'm a mediocre programmer compared to some Leet code heros or whatever, but I'm making money? And it's working? I literally see the evidence every day... that was why I responded.

Yep, that's how skill stacking works.

Here’s to hoping it gets me where I want to be in a decade lol

I am so busy baby sitting the robots and adding new projects on that I don't really have any time to find new customers right now?

That statement seems to somewhat fly against the statement you have unparalleled productivity.

I feel like the way LLMs work involves them allowing you to do things you previously simply couldn't do but doing those tasks involves really a lot of effort at controlling the things. It's compressing "one kind of hard part" (actually writing code is another a hard part that's taken care but articulate/evaluate).

Which is to say, it seems like you're "working harder than you say"

I'd say that I am the main problem. If I was a bit cleverer, or better at time management, I'd be better at finding customers? I don't think that's an AI thing, that's a "me" thing.

Still, I'm making a living doing this, working less, and have way more control over my own life. My life kind of rules now compared to what it was a year ago.

I personally am doing some LLM work right now where, if successful, I will have accomplished what was years worth of effort in a couple of weeks.

But I feel "totally disorganized" in the way I'm doing it. I think that may be inevitable since becoming organized is a natural part of doing a project the slow, "old fashioned way" and just orienting oneself to the process can be a significant and inevitable part of the effort.

Honestly, my strategy has been "building custom tools to help me cope" having lots of terminal tabs open, tmux, and hope.

I'd source for where the signals are first, and do whatever it takes to stay there.

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