Im_Talking

Because Germans are not as religious as Americans.

And yet cannabis oil, which is non-psychoactive and an effective treatment for a myriad of issues including ADHD is still illegal at the federal level.

I'm afraid you have been brainwashed by the propaganda against this plant (actually a herb). It has been used for 5,000 years by men, women, and children, and in a way, humans have evolved in co-existence with this plant.

You need to do your own research as opposed to looking at government-funded studies which are only funded to show harm. Start with www.leafscience.com and take it from there.

'State of fitness' makes me think of cardio, treadmills, etc which for most non-fat people is non-optimal. Kenyan marathoners are fit but a strong wind will blow them over.

The optimal view is 'state of strength' since strength is the most important physical attribute, and certainly gains even more importance the older we get. Strength allows the body to operate optimally. People who partake in resistance training have less instances of death across any reason; accidents, illness, disease, even violence (you have a better chance of surviving a gunshot, for example, if you are strong which makes sense), etc.

I'm 54, and I do 2-3 workouts a week on the compound lifts like squats (always do your squats), overhead presses, deadlifts. I also do prowler and farmer walks for HIT. I also play basketball and tennis once a week. I have never felt better.

I certainly understand why you say these things as I have 2 kids.

But do you also want your boy to dream, and try something noble and possibly fail but get back up, to experience as much as the world as he can, and to understand that limitations are self-made? Of course, you do.

So you tell him all this, but he may look at you and say "Well Dad, if you want me to do all these things, why didn't you do them?".

I'm always suspicious of the advise to work on open-source projects, or practising programming on your own, or online coding academies, etc. I feel these are without purpose and people soon lose interest since there is no goal (although helping out on an open-source project is certainly noble).

My advise would be to look at your own network (friends, family, etc) and find those who are in business and ask them about their pain; and there is always some pain that a business has. Then figure out a solution to their problem and program that. This serves 3 purposes: 1) It has a definable goal and purpose (solving the pain) as it's a real-life project. 2) You will learn tons about yourself, programming, and the business. 3) It could lead to either employment or a program you could sell to others and start a business.

As always, make sure you write-up a contract which states that the IP is yours. Hope for the best; plan for the worst.

The most valuable developers are the ones that also have a good understanding of the business-side. A very valuable skill is the ability to talk to the business-types in their language. You become their conduit into the tech-world and they trust you. Most business-types are scared of the technical world.

IRESS is a good software company with very good growth prospects.

Hiring and equity are 2 different things. You should treat equity as gold and only dilute your stake for very good reasons. And hiring your first employee is not one of them unless the person is an absolute star.

And don't be too hasty to hire. The old saying "if you have enough employees, then you have too many" is very true. Being solo for the first while means that you have to work smart. For example, in my latest venture, I am using PayPal for billing, so I don't have any billing issues to bog me down; otherwise I would probably have to hire someone. I understand the PlentyOfFish dating service guy did all the work himself for years.

Then why do you care if you finish projects?

Don't need an answer as I don't care. Good luck.

You have to change your attitude 180 degrees. You sound like 99% of programmers: a techie who wants to get into business. You need to think like a businessman who uses programming to solve business needs. Do you understand the difference?

You talk about file-caching, /tmp, OSs, UI, blah blah blah; all irrelevant. You should be thinking of business needs, attracting customers, marketing, talking to potential clients within your niche. This is the important stuff.

Good luck.

Best bet is to phone-up and meet a few brokers and ask about their work, stresses, and pain. You may be lucky and a common thread may surface. If it does, then you know your path. Following the pain is a great way to get ideas.

When I started I didn't know a mortgage from a hole-in-the-wall (I came from telecom) and sent emails to every local mortgage broker. I met-up with a very cluey broker and that was the start.

You cannot think of ideas in a vacuum. You need to talk to the people in the trenches. Good luck.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

I'm 54 and learning node.js recently was a snap. Why? Because I know 10 other languages and have written production code for 30 years.

I have interviewed a lot of young programmers and they talk about all this new cool stuff yet their skills to write core SQL and true production-level code is lacking. If you want to generalise, I can too.

"but I'm looking for an online platform with quality jobs.".

You should probably change this view because the good ol' world just does not operate like this.

You could start by identifying a business segment which has a common 'pain'. Then devise a solution to that pain and market to that segment.

I started a software business in 2003 catering to mortgage brokers. Sold it in 2008 for 7 digits. I have been managing it since then which bores me. I like to control my own path so I just handed-in my resignation and will start another software business.

I'm 54 and don't let anyone tell you you're too old, or any one of the other million excuses. Backing yourself is the only true security.

I think it's because most programmers end-up working on shit corporate software or under some PHB which just destroys any joy, and finally your creative soul. If your joy and/or soul is gone, any job is a dead-end job. I sold my software business to a public-listed company and hated every day I was there; corporate politics, PHBs, most software developed by company being absolute shit (I pathologically hated their core software platform). I had enough. Now I'm back on my own writing software I enjoy and couldn't be professionally happier.

Solution: stop freelancing and build a product.

I hate Facebook and, by association, I hate every Facebook subsidiary. They are monetizing your privacy.

Haven't read the article as it's probably full of psycho-babble. Just live your life with integrity and the kids will follow. And don't force-feed religion on the poor kids, morals are not from fairy-tales; morals are real. My kids see the value of being moral via me and then these morals are confirmed as they wander thru life.

You misunderstood me. I am saying that cannabis is not the culprit, in fact it helps. People use cannabis to self-medicate so use will be higher in people with mental illnesses. http://www.leafscience.com/2013/12/08/marijuana-cause-schizo... http://www.leafscience.com/2014/03/25/marijuanas-effect-memo... http://www.leafscience.com/2014/03/20/5-ways-cannabis-help-f...

The studies do not show causation, only correlation. And one of the studies was funded by the NIDA which will only fund studies which show harm. It is possible that the opposite is true: that people with a predisposition to mental illnesses use cannabis to self-medicate.

Bullshit study. Sampling of 40 people means nothing. Also, it said that certain parts of brain changed in terms of shape and density but did not determine whether this is a bad or good thing. In addition, I would like to know who funded the study.

Don't agree fully. Maybe these 'wrong' customers are actually telling you to shift your focus in another more profitable direction. You need to be flexible as a start-up and listen to the customers. They are in the trenches, not you.

Dead on.

Loyalty? Really? You think that matters?

Another poster said exactly the right thing. Contracts, agreements, documentation, MOU, etc are the things that matter. Case in point: I am leaving company after being acquired. It's a mutual decision so both sides are happy, but we are negotiating an agreement right now to release me so I am free to pursue concepts (repeat: concepts not IP) that I pitched the CEO 2 years ago. They are only ideas but it still needs to be in writing since I don't want them coming back some years down the line. It's all about contracts.

Stop thinking like a techie. Start thinking like a business-person. As a business-person, do you think this clause is fair?

I haven't read all comments so excuse me if this has been mentioned, but you should hand in resignation now with minimum of notice period.

You say that you are currently desperately needed now, so your leverage to work-out an equitable legal arrangement with them will never be greater than now. As you said, in 6 months you may not have any leverage.

Just my $0.02.

Sounds like this CTO will have more support than you. Time to move on.

Don't understand why everyone is talking lawyers. I'm sure that you have an equity stake which value will be helped by this new CTO. If you have no equity and (as you say) are a founder, then you are out-of-luck and no legal magic can solve this. Move on and leave on good terms. You never know.

I don't buy this at all. If she founded company she would have equity and some sort of agreement(s)/documentation supporting her story.

If she can't product any documentation then she's out-of-luck.

Lesson to all of us: get things in writing.