dalfonso

Yes, these are the "features" that really bog down the excitement when trying to launch -- user invites, user profiles, billing, transactional emails, password reset, file upload, PDF conversion, free trial capability, coupon code capability, shared accounts, PERMISSIONS, etc. Then you get to the next level -- search, caching, deploying.

Not exactly in the same vein as the others, but I've never seen soft-deletes done really well either i.e. the user can "delete" something but it still lives in the database. It's one of those features that sounds good but when it comes time to implement, it ends up being more trouble than it's worth.

I use https://www.focalfilter.com/

Its not 100% effective since I can still use my phone, but it helps. Unfortunately I haven't found a good Mac alternative that allows you to update your filter list in bulk.

I wouldn't consider "20 percent of customers were responsible for more than half the money raked in" as having "whales". At that point, you can usually still afford to lose one of your customers and survive. I've worked at companies where 1 out of their 15-20 clients is responsible for 25+% of revenue...THAT is having a whale.

If you do have a whale, then you've essentially just become a custom software/service firm for that "whale". From my experience working at companies that had a "whale", the business starts prioritizing the requests of that one "whale" over what's best for the product itself.

BigCo:

-Better pay, benefits, stock options

-More organized in all regards (sprints, HR, ramp up, training, etc.)

-More "name recognition" e.g. when you tell people where you work, they immediately know/are familiar with the company

-Hours will usually be between 40-60 per week

-Not often mentioned, but with so many people, you're more likely to make "work friends"

-Siloed into your specific role - if there's a new technology or idea you want to implement, there's usually a few levels of approvals you need to go through

-Can feel like you're just a small cog in a big machine

Startup (not "established startup" e.g. multiple rounds of funding):

-Immediate impact -- you're usually defining the direction of whatever you're working on

-You get a chance to "wear many hats" i.e. work on various different projects/tasks

-If there's any equity/options, there's a possibility these become lucrative (although I would assume this is unlikely)

-Usually your hours are more flexible

-Can get "lonely" if the team is small

-Pay is usually below market or if you're a founder...nonexistent

-Can have long hours e.g. 80 hour weeks

SmallCo:

The middle ground of the two. Almost all the pros and cons of the above, but just not as extreme. For example, HR is usually more organized than a startup, but not as organized as a BigCo. Or, you have more of an impact on the product than at a BigCo, but less than at a startup.

I’m American but my guess is central business district apartments AKA “downtown” apartments.

This is terrible. The app definitely says, "100% goes to your dasher".

Saw https://blendle.com/ posted on HN a while back. Works exactly like that.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned: Kinect was Microsoft's reaction to Wii's success.

I worked at Microsoft when the first Kinect came out. I spoke with a few members of that team (non-engineers). My question was very clear -- are you expecting this to takeover for controller based gaming? I don't recall all the responses, but I think the overall sentiment was along the lines of "No, but it might", whereas my thoughts were along the lines of it absolutely will not, this is such a gimmick. I'm not a gamer at all, but I used to be in college. When I want to game, I plop down on my couch and mash on the controller. If I wanted to jump around and flail my arms, I'd go to the gym or play some pickup basketball.

I think there was (maybe is) a disconnect between Microsoft and hardcore gamers. Kinect and Xbox One's initial non-gaming features were an attempt to take Xbox "mainstream". Stop it. Appeal to the core demographic. To their credit, it seems like they've been doing that now.

>> Sure, you can learn new technologies but spend one hour a day or less on them. Make sure it’s a hobby and not an addiction

This. I don't think "the Learners Syndrome" is necessarily a bad thing.

My process is usually something along the lines of

-See articles or mentions of some new technology on HN,Reddit,etc.

-Spend a half hour to understand what it's for, what's new about it, what are the pros/cons either via videos or articles.

-If it looks super interesting, work on their tutorial or some intro throwaway project (to do lists being a good example that the author mentions). For me this is very rare. These should take at least an hour and can take multiple hours

-File that technology away and then know that it exists. Usually something like, "Okay, [new technology] exists for solving [X] problem, the next time I need to solve [X] problem, don't forget to evaluate [new technology] as an option."

AOL/AIM profiles were my first exposure to HTML. “What’s the code for that shade of neon green? How do I get that super cool Copperplate font on my profile?”

RIP AIM

20/All/Our memories and our hearts

Can you talk about the "pivot" from web dev? Would be interested in learning why you pivoted, how you decided to pivot into creating a game, etc.

Game looks cool though.

This retro version highlights what I like about the Thinkpad line -- it is what it is and it's proud of what it is. It's a no nonsense line of laptops meant for business.

Compare this "retro" version to today's version -- there's not too much difference. Lenovo tried experimenting with being hip via sub-brands and technologies (touch bar, Yoga, etc.), which is fine, but the Thinkpad line's core identity hasn't really shifted. If you want a Windows laptop that works and can withstand a decent amount of punishment, go with a Thinkpad.

Yes, 'you must re-enter your master password for particular sites'. I liked turning that option on for any e-commerce or highly sensitive sites.

Bitwarden also doesn’t support per login “re-enter master password”.

Don't get me started on B&N. As ridiculous as it sounds, I want to support B&N because at least they employ people who are somewhat local vs. an Amazon fulfillment center X miles away. Plus with that story of fake/reprinted books on Amazon, I'd rather buy directly from the retailer instead of a commingled pile.

My ideal B&N experience: go to their site, find the book I like, purchase it for the same price as Amazon (usually the prices are the same), then go pick it up at the store. But no, I can't do that. If I want to pick it up in store, I have to pay the "in store" price (which is often at 10-20% higher). No thanks.

Disclaimer: I have a small amount of Snapchat shares.

Every time I interact with any sub-21 year old person, I ask them 2 questions:

1.What's the most popular social network among your group of friends? I'd estimate 7-9/10 say Snapchat. If it is Snapchat, I proceed with question 2.

2.Do you read/interact with the "Discover" section of Snapchat? (Because this is where I think Snapchat has the most potential to actually make money.) I'd say 5-7/10 say Yes.

In short, yes, kids still use Snapchat.

Curse of Knowledge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge

I can relate to this. Self-taught programmer. People ask, "How did you teach yourself?" and my answer is always, "I built things and learned along the way."

>> At the same time, the best programmers I’ve ever worked with had limited formal education. They had something far more useful…

The best programmers I’ve ever met are what I would call “builders”. They always were building something. Even when they weren’t coding, they were usually building something without code - like wood tables or renovating their bathroom or something like that.

I'm always amazed at the conflict between "the best programmers I've ever worked with had limited formal education" and the notion that the best engineers are those that make a lot of money and work at Google/Facebook/Microsoft/Amazon, etc. Because it seems like the "builders" probably won't have the DS/Algo/CS knowledge required to get past the interviews of the Big Guys. Are the true "best programmers" a combination of the two?

I love the library and will frequently check out books. I much prefer physical books to digital books. There's something satisfying about holding a book, opening up the cover, flipping the page, etc.

A few areas for improvement:

- Most of the libraries I frequent have very slow wifi, but this may be on purpose.

- Most digital library catalogs have terrible UIs (broken back buttons, poor search results, etc.) They work, but they're not fun to use.

>> “We’re a small town,” City Councilman W. Clarke Conway said at a meeting on the project last fall, “and we’re a small town by choice.”

>> Last year, Brisbane hired a consultant who found that the city would net $1 million a year in tax revenue by approving the Baylands. But if the city instead approved a project with lots more commercial space, a larger hotel and no housing, Brisbane would gain $9 million annually — an amount equivalent to more than half the city’s current day-to-day operating budget.

>> “I’d like to think if just the fiscal incentives were reversed, if a city could make as much money off housing as they could retail, we’d be having a very different conversation in California,” Stivers said.

>> “I see a lot of stuff,” Dettmer said. “I see beds in garages. You have to increase the [housing] supply. If you really want to help out people, let them live in dignity. It just seems like a no-brainer.”

>> “I do feel sorry that the younger generation is not going to get to live the life that we did,” she said. “But it’s a different time.”

These were the quotes that stood out to me. It seems like, for various reasons, the only benefit to existing residents and policy makers is "we may be able to help other people". That's not enough of an incentive.

What's the long version? I've always struggled to define "tech company" vs. "non-tech company".

I like your short version except for "hire a contractor to build it." What if the company actually hires on one or two engineers to build it? Would that company have made the jump from "non-tech" to "tech"?

I wonder if it's simply a matter of engineer/development headcount i.e. what job function has the largest headcount. Google's is R&D (https://www.quora.com/How-many-employees-does-Google-have) and Microsoft's is Engineering (https://news.microsoft.com/facts-about-microsoft/#RevenueHea...). I tried to quickly find examples of some non-tech companies' (Walmart, Target, BofA, Wells Fargo, Nike) headcount by function, but couldn't.

A few thoughts: 1. I definitely wish there was a way to filter out "covers" from Spotify. There are definitely a handful of times that Spotify puts covered versions of songs in their "Discover" playlist. 2. If these songs are "fake" in that Spotify is commissioning artists to create original songs and then featuring those songs in Spotify-created playlists, is this any different than Netflix/Hulu/Amazon original content?

>> It sort of blows away this thought of successful startups being full of the best and trying to build the best product.

On one of my first projects, I was so afraid of "spaghetti code". Before adding any substantial feature I searched for "best practices" and tried to implement them, made sure my file names and folder structures were organized, wrote unit tests, then wrote integration tests, then manually tested -- all before I had a single customer or another developer on my "team". Looking back, I was very slow. I think it still would've failed if I was a bit faster, but who knows.

Then at my next job I had almost the exact same experience as you. 400-600 line methods, no logging, reliance on outdated libraries/frameworks, no documentation. Fixing bugs meant trying to change as little code as possible, because if you actually tried to refactor you would almost definitely end up altering or breaking some other feature. Yet there were large companies that paid for and relied on the software for business critical processes.

I'm still trying to figure out what the balance is, but I'm glad to have experienced both ends of the spectrum.

For a separatist or any city to be successful, it needs to bring in money from other cities. Tourism is the most direct way I can think of. Las Vegas is similar to California City - a city in the middle of the desert, but is viable because of tourism. But tourism is very boom/bust.

The better option is having a company/industry located in or close to that city (e.g. money from all over the US goes to Apple, which it distributes to its employees who spend money in the Cupertino, San Francisco, etc.) BUT this isn't fool proof -- look at Detroit.

At the end of the day, it's about access to capital. My wild hypothesis is if some angel investor said, "I'm going to invest 10 billion dollars in funding startups but you have to relocate to Colorado/midwest/anywhere for the first 5 years", then in the next 5 years that city will definitely "have a prosperous startup industry". Yes, you can be successful bootstrapping but it seems so much easier once you have funds to use for hiring/marketing/scaling/etc. (Note: I've never raised any amount of capital before.) In addition the "we've raised money" badge also signals legitimacy to potential employees, customers, partners.

Agree. I have a Mac for the sole reason that I can boot into any OS I want and thus run/debug any app I want.

If there was a Windows laptop that allowed me to boot into macOS with relatively simple set up (meaning as simple as Bootcamp setup) I would strongly consider it.

Thanks for writing that article. I'm extremely disappointed in the CSU system's decision to give college credit for remediation classes. As a society we need to really reassess the purpose of higher education in light of increasing student debt, flat grad salaries, and decreasing quality of graduates.

Anecdotally, I'm still baffled at those in my extended social circle who followed a path similar to:

  - Graduate high school with sub-3.0 GPA
  - Admittedly they didn't "like school"
  - Attended community college or local state university
  - Proceeded to graduate in 5-8 years (to their credit some may have worked part-time or full-time)
  - Study general business, marketing, or a social science
  - Graduate college with sub-3.0 GPA
  - Graduate with no meaningful experience (internships, part-time work, etc.) in their desired career
  - Immediately and even in later years, get upset about undesirable job opportunities and/or low salaries and/or high cost of living

would have