naithemilkman

Wow, they completely exposed their data set. Don't see many companies giving away cohort retention details like this.

Nice to see another person take the leap! Us wannabe hackers gotta stick together :) Good luck on your own endeavour as well! My initial blog was actually on tumblr as well but it was annoying that you had to get a plugin for comments so I jumped to wordpress. Something you might want to consider if you plan on blogging and interacting with visitors.

Oh yeah, its been fun. The learning curve can be pretty daunting at times but that's what its all about. I think having fun is an important part of it, so it seems like you enjoy this process of learning as thats definitely a good sign. Do keep us posted on your progress! Looking forward to sharing experiences :)

cool, I'll check it out!

I'm kinda in the same boat. I've been blogging about my 'turning hacker' journey at http://pragmaticstartup.wordpress.com. You might find it helpful. I've got some posts on learning Python and why I chose Python as well which might be interesting. All in all, good luck!

touche

Is there something like this for Django?

I did and I like to talk?

Like what melling said, if you need convincing, you're probably not in the right state of mind.

Personal experience, I just fucking did it. No talk, no post on HN on whether I should or not. A little less conversation a little more action please.

My previous startup targeted teens so I think I can contribute to this discussion.

Contrary to popular belief, most teenagers are not whiz kids early adopters. The most important thing for them is to fit and to do so, they go where everyone is or appears to be.

If you really want to target teens, you have to capture the 18 - 25 cool crowd. Get them and the teens will come soon enough.

Are you learning more at your present job or do you think you were learning more at GS?

I'm gonna mindf*ck you a bit by saying: you didn't answer the question :)

No offense and I don't know your background or association with Goldmans but this sounds like a kneejerk reaction to populist sentiment.

The existence of practices that goes on at Goldmans and every other IB is a symptom of a deeper underlying problem. You really have to question the foundations of a system that has enabled such institutions to come into play.

Thanks! I hope you find it helpful and good luck with the learning!

Highly personalised cold email

Based on your reasons, it sounds like while you found the job exciting and cool, you didn't like the culture.

So you went with your gut and made the call to reject the offer. For most people, that is a very acceptable reason to justify to your missing zeros on your paycheck. Right now you're perhaps wondering if you made the right decision -- afterall, Goldmans is creme de la creme no?

Like others have said, only you can answer that. Personally, I have a different take on this. I think early in your career (you sound like you're early in your career), it's all about an information land grab even if it means forgoing short term rewards (like a nice salary). The experiences you gain in the first 3 years of your career will have the most impact on the rest of your career and life. So, my question to you is: are you learning more at this company or do you think you would be learning more at Goldmans?

How about pooling together cash and hiring a freelancer to do #2 as another option.

Just out of curiousity, how big is your 'group' and what's the role assignment like? Who's going to be doing what? The reason I ask this is because it sounds like there might be too many 'non techies' involved in the project. Is everyone going to learn to code?

From my short experience in teaching myself to code in python, there is an entire sys admin side to the equation that is often left out of conversations but is really important as well. So I think that's something you need to factor into your to-do list as well. If you're going to be learning Django, you kinda need to know Python. Otherwise the terms will just fly over your head pretty quickly and you'll be making really obvious mistakes (like not putting a comma at the end of a tuple). So having kind of walked this path already, I recommend doing a 101 on Python to begin with (its not that hard to get the basics down). You might find my blogpost on this useful: http://pragmaticstartup.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/how-i-am-le...

If you do not want to bother yourself too much with sys admin, you probably want to consider hosting your mvp on Google App Engine (GAE) to begin with. But having said that, I don't think there have been many startups who have gone down this route in the mid-long term. The general consensus from what I have read seems to be to use GAE to host weekend projects and then migrate away once you decide to take your project more seriously.

Nice job on the self learning part. Not sure about interrupting my video viewing experience. Maybe have that option at the end of the video or pop up subtly in the middle somewhere.

I think you should totally go for it if you get the chance. I cold emailed startups and wrote very personalised (albeit long winded) cover letters. If you objective is to learn, you really have to make that point shine through because there is no greater motivation in life than the desire to learn and people can see that. So don't get hung up with the low allowance (or none) and don't get discouraged by your friends riding high in their careers, do what you need to do to get that knowledge because (cue cheese) knowledge == power.

Thats exactly what I am aiming to achieve. Not CTO status but enough to hack out a prototype and THEN get a CTO to mend later on.

But dare I say in most people's eyes (e.g mine), you're definitely a programmer.

I think that mindset just generally applies to everything in life. I've been greatly humbled by my personal experiences at my previous startup. I came away with one clear though: I know shit about what I thought I knew.

Being in a room with smarter/wiser people than you can only make you move forwards. And do that enough, I hope to actually join the club someday. Heh.

And yea, SO rocks but I think a lot of newbies are taking advantage of it and getting shot down advice to wannabe hackers: do your homework first or get flamed on SO!

Gogogo!!

Then share your experiences with HN!

Bingo. It's in a way risk mitigation as well plus I think it makes it easily to speak the same language as your future cofounder.

Yeah, I'm starting off with bitesized problems. :)

You should totally blog about it when you get the time!

What happened to Python?

I have definitely seen a few other guys on HN posting about this as well. I think one of the commenters in this thread is another such person.

I think its a good question actually.. Here is my opinion:

1) Environment. Having the right people and drive around you striving for the same goal has a positive impact on your own actions. Makes you more motivated to do stuff (at least for me)

2) Make less mistakes. I made a ton of mistakes the last couple of years and I am now VERY receptive to not learning things the hard way.

In the event that I did not, the plan was to get a regular 9-5 job and devote nights and weekends to improve my technical chops.

There are many ways to do this but having a mentor or a right environment to do it certainly helps an already difficult journey.

Thanks for the tips.

Question: why are you hopping around different languages?

Thanks for the tips. Out of curiosity, what were you doing before and what made you jump to programming?

It's sounds you're still undecided as to whether you want to take the leap? What are your reservations? Care to share?