KedarMhaswade

Nice! I hope the online education is going to be a big contributor here. This book, however, puts several things in perspective -- one of which is making children of almost any capacity increasingly responsible for themselves without having to go to schools. Peter compares schools to prisons. This may seem extreme, but the (copious) evidence he provides is eye-opening.

I think this is the easiest you can/should do that helps keep random checks and break-in attempts away.

Coincidentally, I had run into it recently. I wanted to ask pg the following:

- Around 12:30 you say that there is a combination of 3 things that drives hackers: 1) the desire to get rich (so they could be "free") 2) the desire to "make something" 3) the desire for "power". If that is still your observation, then how does it relate to the change in YC focus to admit a nonprofit startup? I mean, by definition, shouldn't the hackers doing a nonprofit startup give up on 1) above?

Yeah. Leaving behind an 8-year old son makes me really sad indeed.

This is definitely very interesting. In the long run however, I think self-control/willpower works in unison with cognitive abilities, as another famous experiment -- the Marshmallow experiment, tends to conclude.

I am still trying to understand Alex's post well, but it reminds me of a Warren Buffett quote: "Bad things are not obvious when times are good".

When I search, I get: sort by: relevance | date | points and then separately "ascending | descending" -- isn't it better if the relevance | date | points are made "toggles"?

Add a simple title attribute to the upvote up-arrow. That way mouse-hover tells you what clicking it would result in.

Cool! What's the keyboard shortcut to indicate "Exit Zen mode" after I am done writing?

Please open the links in separate browser tab by default. To retain current behavior (compatibility ;-)), provide a configuration option in user profile.

The first comment on the OP also asks this question. Looking for something definitive here.

Startups are hard because the founders/wannabe founders who perceive it that way far outnumber those who don't. In a way, it's similar to getting better (expert) at anything. It is hard for 80% of people does not mean it is hard for a given person. It's a matter of several factors (and luck) if something hard for many people is not so for you.

Perhaps doing a company is more in line with "wealth creation promise" than say getting better at music or chess or anything at all. And that's why startups being hard gets a special mention in the landscape of hard things?

Yes. Handy for debugging. There are some sharp edges, but by and large, it is useful.

No vice is as bad as advice :-)

No, 9 1/2. That 1/2 a thing is killing. Great article! When DVCS's would be compared, GitHub would be a great plus in Git's favor.

What we need (to really prove the point of article) is a number of successful software startups where average age is say 38. How many of us (I am turning 40 soon) dare cross the Paul Graham Limit (23-38) on higher side? Looking at the cream of younger software craftsmen (e.g. @github) I feel many older programmers (forget outliers, please) have a mountain to climb.

All the "infrastructure" code should be open source. It is better for everyone. I can't imagine a world where such code that enables others to write code (that may not be infrastructure) is not FOSS.

Paid services made available using that infrastructure code is also loosely called software (because programming is involved). But it involves other things as much as programming and hence making a business out of it makes sense if one has energy, passion and talent for it.

As a programmer, if you are in a position to do both, a balance is achieved.

If you are producing software that does not involve other things that a service has to offer, then it is better to just open source it right from the beginning or once you realize the force of open source.

And "free" in FOSS has an interesting connotation that Jamie Zawinkie said to have captured -- "Linux is only free if your time has no value".

+1. Just being "interested" in your own kids (all they really need is your time, agreed that it might be your scarcest resource -- but hey I have assumed it was a conscious decision to have kids) helps.

In particular, I am rather disappointed with generalization of the art of parenting done by Amy in her article. Sometimes, some things become instant hits by being controversial.

Can't believe it. When I was getting bored of discussions like "trying to hire an igloo", "move to California" over the snow-storm, this HN came along and made my day/night. Hacker of the year award! Maybe YC should start such an award if it doesn't already exist.