You just summarized the last 35 years of my life.
276 karma · joined August 28, 2019
I've been building something similar for far too long - and it is far too buggy still - for Europe-only travel.
Good luck with this. I know how hard it can be doing this sort of thing between job, life, family, and dreaming of your next trip :)
Having to use my phone for everything from buying/selling my match tickets on stubhub, match tickets on the UEFA app, Deutsche Bahn train ticket on an app, online QR code attraction entry ticket, audio walking tours, restaurant menus (much less of these thank god), and more, made me VERY anxious every day.
If my phone's battery died through the day (which it did FAR too often), or if i lost my phone, i was completely screwed and would not have access to my overpriced match tickets nor my much needed train ticket.
I felt like a luddite carrying a paper guidebook so I didn't have to really on my phone for maps and location/attraction details, but I don't know how else I would have managed.
Luckily my mobile plan allowed international data so I didn't have to roam.
Our reliance on our phones is frightening, and every company locking us into their apps for 'basic' information/tickets is bothersome. I get it from the business point of view (and the 'let's save the trees' perspective too), but from a traveler's point of view it is very cumbersome and overly complicated to have to not only juggle all the apps, but also focus on maintaining the battery and connectivity of your device so you don't lose access to must-have important documents.
I sorely miss the days BEFORE ubiquitous internet, connectivity, and mobile devices. Maybe I am a Luddite.
I'm 45, focus on Web development, have worked in-house on teams building ecomm carts/solutions for multi-million dollar per ear local companies, in design agencies focusing on custom $100k or templated $5k Wordpress websites, and have freelanced for everything in-between.
During COVID lockdown, I got burnt out at my existing employer, resigned, and took several months of. When I started looking for work again, one potential employer was a Wordpress 'freelance' company that gave me a LC test as a second round interview.
I BOMBED - like a 27%. I've been building sites and web applications for 15+ years and had zero idea what I was even being asked in any of the 3 questions on the 'test'. The company ended the interview process and advised I study Leet Code for 1 month and come back to re-test since my experience was outstanding for what they were looking for.
I did and got an even WORSE score: 13%. I spent way to much time on trying to cram useless (for my daily work) programming techniques to pass a useless interview test when I was told I had the experience they wanted - I've built custom WP solutions/themes/plugins since wordpress first rolled out.
TLDR: With 15+ years experieince in Web development, I still couldn't score higher than a 27% on a LeetCode test and got halted in the interview process for a position I was told I was WELL qualified for.
LeetCode tests for non-overly-technical positions is awful.
I'm sure it's not perfect, but from what I've seen and heard about it, it seems to be a good springboard for basic "therapy" but not REAL prescribed therapy of course.
Sounds like it is helpful as an entry level to 'therapy' and is only getting better.
Arguably maybe it's because Peter is not using ChatGPT for his model AI.
I don't bring it to management's attention like the author suggests, but it gives me a perspective on what sticking points the team and company have that I need to work through over time.
I know there are times when you need to do something CSS can't (and shouldn't do of course. But I mean when the 'thing' is design/style only, aren't we all already using only CSS for those things? Or am I just so old I still practice the separation of concerns and no one else is.
Also, while kudos to the OP for doing this, this is exactly a time when using CSS to do this is incorrect and using vanilla Javascript IS the right decision, as this is a behavior and not a style issue.
NB4: Yes I do code sloppy when time dictates, but I still seperate my HTML, CSS, and JS as the norm, not the exception.
Is it not accurately calculating that you no longer have days available to your (assumed) 90 in the 180-day window?
Is it giving an error that "you must input a number of 90 or less" and that the "earliest entry date must be within 180 days"?
If that is the case, this is one of those edge cases I need to fix - if anyone has already blown through all their days allowed within the preceding 180 day period.
1. Thanks so much for even looking at it! 2. If you can clarify what issue you are running into, i can fix it.
Thanks!
Read and sing to your kid - even if you are an awful singer. I read and sang lullabys to both my kids from when they were weeks old. THey didn't understand, but the memory is worth it, and I continued to so nightly until they were 7 or 8...or until they repeatedly said "Daaaaad! I'm too old for lullabys and bedtime stories." Then just read one more :)
Spend ALL the time with your kid - the time FLIES and one day you'll look at your 14 year as he mouths off to you and wonder how just moments ago you were cuddling with him as you were trying to put him to sleep in his crib.
I'm a night owl, so i never suffered from 'sleepless' nights like so many people complain about. Once my son's could take formula (ie when my wife wasn't necessary for the feeding), those were my favorite times: my wife could stay asleep and I could just grab a bottle and sit up every few hours through the night and feed them. Just me and either of my kids. Cherish those moments.
It is no exaggeration when a parent or grandparent tells you "Enjoy this moment because they fly by and before you know it they are grown." 15 years from now you'll wish for the sleepless nights when you were holding your baby trying to soothe them back to sleep.
"Lead by example" - You try to teach your kids the things they should know and to be better than you. Sometimes that means doing things better than you did (ie teaching them from mistakes or bad habits you might have), but kids are perceptive and will "learn it by WATCHING you". "Do as I say, not as I do" is less effective than leading by example. BE the man you want your son to be or your daughter to end up with. It's very difficult to backtrack on this when you realize you've been the wrong example.
Around 10 or 11, they will stop needing you as much or seeing you as their only hero. Take full advantage of the years before this to be the hero you want them to have and remember.
Teenage boys will rebel against their father and test boundaries. If you've set god boundaries and led by good examples and taught them good fundamentals, they'll circle back once they realize who they are and that you have always loved them - even during the arguments.
Be careful with criticism - even when trying to be helpful and constructive. They have a funny way of remembering constructive criticism as "negativity" :)
Overflow with praise for them - when deserved. Reign it in - but give it - when it's less so. They'll know that when you say something, you mean it.
When they're older sometimes you have to be "the bad guy" to help them learn right from wrong. Stand your ground if you know you are right, but always let them know you love them and are willing to talk about whatever dilemma they are going through.
End of the day: Love them the best that you can and tell them that every single day.
So if the minimum wage was $10/hour and I have sat at the table for 45 minutes, then the tip is $7.50. I don't feel i should be paying the servers wages directly, but at least this seems like a fair rate to me for doing the portion of that hours work.
- Book tracker to track books I want to read (for self, with kids) and will randomly suggest a book from the list i should read next if I am unsure. It tracks my progress through reading the HUNDREDS of books I add to my reading list and estimates how long it will be until I am through with my list...far too long.
- Soccer Score 'pickem' game to play with friends during world cup, Euros, and multiple leagues. I don't like Fantasy sports b/c too much time/attention, and I can just add the leagues we follow only.
- Eurotripr: a tool to plan trips to Europe and track current average costs in european countries and cities for planing purposes.
- an "Intrview status tracker" to help me create interviews with other travelers for my Eurotripr project. I can email an invite to a traveler I want to interview and from a bank of over 150 questions it generates a simplified interview of 10-15 questions, tracks the interviewees progress, notifies me when they have submitted the 'completed' interview, let's me know what percent of the questions they answered. I can provide feedback and request further detail for the responses from interviewees. Plus it will track the status of each interview request: declined, in progress, completed, published. So at a glance I can see how many pending interviews I have to stay on top of or publish.
- A cycling tool that provides a basic 6-8 week cycling plan to get me from 0 miles to riding a century by the end of the plan. I had plans tot try to monetize this with a stripe checkout and if you finish the century (100 mile) ride and don't miss more than 2 rides per week during th plan, you are not charged your money, but shiny object syndrome got in my way.
He did a large number of interviews with his dying father over the course of a year. Then he transposed all the questions and answer from those interviews into a database (i think). And built a Chat bot that used natural language to 'talk' with him after his father passed away to preserve his father in a virtual way. THe bot could answer random questions (not the interview questions) and form answers in the 'voice' and 'tone' of his dad bases on the hundreds or thousands of questions he'd asked in those interviews. It could create new answers based on all that data as if the father was texting his son.
I know that the article (or series of articles) I read about this was pretty detailed in how the man went about this. I'm sorry I can't recall where I read this.
I am sure there is a way to do something much more in depth now that ChatGPT is as robust as it is.
Obviously this isn't all cases, and some traditional school teachers are questionable at best, but at least traditional teachers had to at least TRY to be subject matter experts before teaching in a traditional school. Sadly I personally know several friends that homeschool their kids and I have to say they are certainly doing a disservice to their children as the kids will only ever be as smart as their teachers and these 'teachers' (ie parents) are not the brightest.
And he adds just enough real history intertwined with his pseudo-history to make the books super interesting, and even give the curious reader a springboard to dive deeper into the questions his books raise for Mr. Langdon.
Oh and then there's the worldwide sales and financial success he has achieved from his books...
I guess I am old enough to know how easy it is to read a map and not need turn by turn directions to get somewhere. Also, I find that I ONLY seem to need directions when my cell service bombs out...
EDIT: Also, I just REALLY like a good map :)
1. I built a small web app to provide a cycling routine to help me go from zero miles and overweight to riding a century (100 miles) this summer. I used to ride move frequently when I was younger and my longest ride was 87 miles with camping gear on my back. But 2 decades, a web dev job, and 2 kids later I am lucky to be able to get 10 miles per week for any consistent stretch of time. The app takes my recent riding skill and athleticism, and creates a 6 week riding 'program' for me basing itself on # of miles per day for the 6 weeks and increasing each week until the culmination of the 100 mile ride, allowing for 2 rest days each week. It isn't the most robust but it's gotten me motivated to ride this summer.
2. I built a reading list tracker that I can add the books I want to read for myself and my kids. It suggests which book to read next if I can't decide. It tracks # of books to read, # completed, # of pages & hours to read (so I can see how unlikely it is that I will ever finish my list or can plan time accordingly to know through the list systematically), allows me to categorize the books, and lists them as MY reading list or a list to read with my KIDS.
3. A European travel planner that I track country and city costs with, can create custom travel itineraries, which then will show actual costs for the itinerary based on the costs I am tracking/inputting for cities/countries/attractions.
4. More fun for myself and friends: A soccer scores predictor game. We each follow teams and clubs from various world leagues, and pick the scores for upcoming matches. Then the app scores us based on our predictions and we have annual competitions with each other. I built this before these were as popular as they are now, and well before the likes of FanDuel/gambling sites.
On top of that I watch Serie A, Paramount+ has better coverage of this. But then you want to watch UEFA Europa and Champions leagues.
It gets very confusing and very costly.
I don't get why the individual leagues don't get smart and have their own streaming services rather than relying on legacy broadcasting services.
As for Cycling, I am in the same boat with GCN & Peacock. DIdn't know about flobikes so thanks for giving me something else to purchase :)
The goal was to increase the number of independent online businesses directly or indirectly and by doing so hopefully increase the number of online businesses that used Stripe.
It was never pressed to make money. Courtland said it many times on his podcast that Stripe never expected or gave him goals to earn revenue.
My guess as to why Stripe acquired IndieHackers is that COurtland promoted founding small companies to aspiring solopreneurs and those new companies would need to collect money and hopefully would use Stripe to do so. Encourage more and more people to found companies, and more and more new companies would use Stripe - free low-key sourcing of new customers without marketing or real revenue generation from IndieHackers.
I do agree that the past several months, and the past several podcast episodes have been less than exciting and inspirational, but I wonder if the reason has anything to do with this decision. It may be that there were changes happening behind the scenes and Courtland and Channing were getting bored and that affected their enthusiasm. That could be why they decided to leave and rekindle that Indie spark.
Either way, I never thought the value of IndeiHackers was in the forum post - comments sometimes maybe- but rather in the podcasts and interviews as these told the stories of starters and how they built their companies. To me the forum was just a way to keep traffic around engaged between episodes of the podcast.
I really miss this. I have lived in the US my whole life but my father and much of my family is from the UK. We would always go over other people's houses unannounced when I was young and they always were excited to see us and never inconvenienced. Compare this to my mother's family (born and raised in the US but by Italian immigrants) and it was another story: you had to call ahead and were typically given a time to be in and out.
Fast forward to today, and people think I'm the weird one when I say, let's just "pop in" instead of calling or texting. Except for my parents and sisters, it is completely unheard of to ust pop in or have someone pop in unannounced. My wife gets loads of laughs and shocked expressions when she tells friends and coworkers that me and my family don't call each other ahead of time to visit.
It's a much different society today, but i think (hope?) the more people realize lonliness can (in some ways) be avoided by just visiting each other, I think this trend will reverse itself.
So often people online tell me such-and-such night train route is no longer in service (my first trip was almost 30 years ago now, so many of my night train memories stem from an earlier era). But now i can actually see and point to something with night train routes people can take advantage of.
Also, as someone who is building a Europe Travel planning web app, this is also a great resource to link to for train travel.
Thanks for posting/making this.