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louiswilbrink

36 karma · joined April 4, 2015

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louiswilbrink··on Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?
remarkable 2. I use the chrome extension to send HN articles and read it there mostly. It has cut down my article surfing/skimming significantly.

As a writing pad, it’s a perfect set of functions and is the origin device of all my ideas.

louiswilbrink··on Work begins on architects’ cracked Denver residential tower
Snow doesn't last 24 hours in Denver.
louiswilbrink··on Ask HN: Have you ever taken a 6-month to 1 yr break anytime during your career?
I'm a developer in my mid-30s, I've done this twice.

The first time was to launch my on consulting in a new city (Denver). I networked a ton and learned new technologies for 6 months. It yielded me the largest fee I've ever secured.

The second time I took 7 months off (once again after moving to a new city). I traveled to Singapore, the Netherlands, and Korea (twice). I was in different states visiting friends 2-3 weekends a month.

Both instances were incredibly fruitful. I got into incredible shape (I worked with two trainers, 5x per week) and inhaled books (fiction and business). These stretches are the best investment I've made in myself.

louiswilbrink··on Ask HN: Who here has been successful buying a small business or tiny project?
Was a rewrite the best way to increase customers? Or was there more energy and resources dedicated to marketing and sales?
louiswilbrink··on Redfin: Vacation real-estate ‘toast’ as Airbnb owners rush to offload homes
Just want to offer perspective from the investor side: I own just one Airbnb in a hot market (downtown, hip neighborhood) and even though bookings were cancelled in April, they’re building back up for May and summer months. It was scary for sure for a span of several weeks, but there were always other contingencies before liquidating (like converting it to a long term rental).

Even if I went along with the panic, it would take probably three months to go through with any transaction that would throw a desirable property onto the market. The demand is still so strong that the low price would likely chum the waters and competitive bidding would drive the price up.

I think these Airbnb liquidation sale headlines are being sensational and end up wasting buyers time.

louiswilbrink··on The Resistance Is Real – Why Side Projects Are So Hard
I want to ship complete code ASAP.

However, I would allow for refactoring that deletes large swaths of code. This keeps the codebase lean and maintenance low — so that you can keep up the fast pace.

louiswilbrink··on The highest paid workers in Silicon Valley are product managers (2016)
To add to your anxiety: right now might be the best time to negotiate for life-changing salary in your lifetime.

All the market drivers are in place to make companies compete for senior/principle talent. Your salary is always a symptom of these economic drivers, not your tenure in the field.

Your financial well-being will be defined by negotiating during these goldrushes. Taking a “good” salary during these times could be the biggest mistake of your career.

Sleep on that!

louiswilbrink··on Ask HN: What do you do about too many open browser tabs?
Same. Especially when coding, it’s one tab only and my focus is through the roof.
louiswilbrink··on Ask HN: For those who don't have children, what do you do during your free time?
I don’t see how this question reaches the level of patronizing. Kids take time. Not having them frees up that time — OP is curious how people spend it. What leap of logic am I missing?
louiswilbrink··on Promising Billions to Amazon: Is It a Good Deal for Cities?
government’s first rule: “every worker pays taxes”

Goverment’s second rule: “but if you create 5 workers that we can tax, we’ll give you a discount”

I don’t find this particularly offensive. Incentives are the only way a government can influence the market without owning industries outright.

louiswilbrink··on Ask HN: What do you do to deal with a lack of inspiration?
I booked myself a tiny house for a weekend.

In the evening I hit up a brewery with live music. In the morning i biked to delicious breakfast joints. In the middle of the day I journaled and coded to chill music for long stretches. Got inspired on day two late in the evening.

Effectively changed my surroundings to bias my mind.

louiswilbrink··on Ask HN: What are you working on?
I turned my investment property spreadsheet into an Angular 4 web app:

https://gocashflowapp.com

It lets you run cashflow calculation on the go, and provides numeric keyboard since I hate typing in numbers on the full alphanumeric one.

Launched 2 weeks ago and tweaking adwords campaign. I plan on turning it into a Progressive Web App, then add persistence using AWS Lambda and RDS.

louiswilbrink··on Ask HN: Going native, hybrid or responsive
I suggest looking into ionic framework and building a hybrid app. They have put a lot into making the workflow amazing to work with. Ionic View will let you run your app natively on a phone without having to install from the App Store or drop money on the sdk. Just push from the command line!