timmm

Javascript is a fine language to learn. It should teach you the basic elements that all languages have. That it is asynchronous is the only major thing that is different than some other languages.

> If you are just starting out and would like to work in general web development, committing yourself to JS only would be stupid beyond belief.

You're suggesting they focus on SQL instead? Ha.

In my opinion, java script is probably your safest bet if you want to focus on one thing related to general web development that will remain valuable for a long period of time. The trend I've seen with out clients (top 500 eccommerce sites) is more and more use of javascript. I would say learn jQuery and understand how Angular works.

Fair point about apps but websites are becoming more and more javascript centric.

What flavor of regex are we do making this in?

Development Tools

1. An HTML/CSS editor (FireBug for FireFox)

2. Network Traffic Monitor (Foxmeter for Firefox)

3. Cookie Manager (Advanced Cookie Manager)

4. User Agent Switcher (for Firefox)

5. Modify Headers (optional)

6. Javascript Console

Those are your tools for debugging, writing some things.

Technologies you will have to learn...

1. jQuery

2. MVC framework

3. API/JSON content calls

4. AJAX

5. Cookies (same/cross domain)

Fortunately for your hypothetical "king of php" is still underwhelming in most people's opinion.

The other thing is learning the basics of one of these technologies really isn't super hard. It's not that you have to start using it daily, just spend a long weekend understanding the problem they aim to solve and how they achieve that aim.

This is HN - we value everything but profits, get with it already!

This is a webview app not a native app.

Didn't that thread conclude old developers branch out into non-dev avenues?

The founder, Dave Asprey, actually could not be more relevant to this community. He was the first person to sell something through the internet, and made 6 million dollars when he was 26 by selling his company Exodus Communications. Since then he has worked for several tech all-star companies and today leads a publicly traded cloud computing security company as Vice President.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/asprey

That resume doesn't lie.

> people didn't born knowing Javascript. They learnt it. And one could argue that Lisp is just as easy to learn

Just about everyone here knows javascript. Almost know one here knows Lisp, make your own conclusions.

Jsut one tihgn:

1. Teh iopmtrnace fo godo gammrar.

See, it's not that important.

Sorry but little tricks and magic bullets like this do nothing in the long term to alleviate the issue. Primarily because you won't stick to the habit.

OP you will have to decide whether doing work and being productive is something you want for yourself, you will not be able to fein an answer for any substantial amount of time. Your answer is also subject to change.

My guess is if you completely gave in to your de-motivated mentality you would quickly realize how bankrupt it is and be driven back to working.

> Minimizing pain, maximizing pleasure.

Too reductivist, so do I eat the ice cream sundae and get pleasure right now? To the detriment of my long term health or do I eat the kale forfeiting short term pleasure and gaining long term pleasure?

Your model has no predictive power.

Counter-example: Me, I don't work out. I work 9-5 at a tech job and then spend the weekend working on my own products. I don't struggle with motivation as I literally enjoy what I do.

Always question advice that people like to rattle off - humans are very good at perpetuating bad memes without a second thought. Like that running a marathon (26 miles) in one go is somehow healthy, without ever questioning why a healthy activity would make them shit their pants and nipples bleed.

In fact exercising would probably decrease the probability that I would be productive as it would consume more of my time and energy.

My 0.02

This.

Isn't part of the appeal of starting a web business the low costs required to do so? It sure as hell was for me when I started out.

I have an app that I go months without doing anything with (touching the code base, answering customers, ect.) and yet it still earns me a constant flow of income. In other words my profit margins are absurd (>90%). That's pretty cool if you ask me.

Of course I won't be earning millions from it but I earn enough money and I maintain full autonomy. I frequent places like hacker-news to learn things and to stay connected with the community but I have absolutely no interest networking with investors or taking money from an seed/accelerator firm.

> If you're anyone else, though, the best advice regarding SillyCon Valley is just to sit this lifetime out

Or you can opt out of the silicon valley game of what is essentially arbitrage and instead grow a tech company the proper way which is by bootstrapping and eventually accumulate enough profit to have that aspect of your life sorted out. And you will have done it without all the headaches and bullshit that comes along with investors.

Calories in vs. calories out would assume we all have identical digestive physiologies which we don't.

Furthermore there are many practices in cattle raising that allow for more fat and muscle gain without increasing calories but instead changing other factors.

The following shows the hormone regimen for cattle to increase fat without changing the calories in aspect of the equation.

http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/livestock/production/beef/g...

Or he wasn't a good fit for a multitude of reasons that could only be known after the work has begun.

That makes sense, admittedly I've only had to work with small applications.

We are smarter than this. Why do we accept this as a normal part of our industry. There are ways to avoid this, the anxiety, heart ache, and lack of dent in the universe.

Let's learn from this.

Honest question, what exactly is easier "to use"? Most hosting configs have php installed, to write a program you just code and save it as a .php, basically made for Mysql, and you have more documentation online than probably any other server side language.

Well done.

"hiring [...] interns" I think you are confusing some terms there.

From a programmer's perspective they don't produce stuff like we do, they tend to not be as technical or smart, they just tell people to do their jobs ect.

That being said my boss is a non-technical manager who does a great job of making sure, internally, we are all communicating when we should be (but for her we just wouldn't know what each other are doing for the most part). She brings to our attention work that falls through the cracks. She makes sure we have the resources we need, mobile devices to test on, laptops when we need them, the latest and greatest software tools; photoshop, zendesk, salesforce, browserstack, ect.

She facilitates hiring new team members or even create new positions if we as a team express a need. This is not fun by the way she has to interview and bring in people constantly, which 95% of the time we end up rejecting.

Honestly she is there to support us and champions us every chance she gets. Our client support is far better having a manager directing our team, which translates to value for the company.

Granted I'm sure not all managers work in that way.

Agreed, I was surprised to see that they have integrated with Microsoft Outlook.

I have found the opposite to be true. Good leaders of companies and workers are level headed, their energy is flat lined as opposed to spiky. They don't burnout.

Fanatical resolve sounds less than desirable, I'd far rather settle for 'consistent'.

If you're interested in building a company it will take several years to decades; take your time.

> Risk is high almost always, with some exceptions.

The exception is taking on high risk with your startup.

I can imagine a pretty low risk scenario where you finish school, and start working in a relevant field programming. As you're making money and learning valuable skills you can spend your free time building your business. Unlimited runway and learning from your day job would increase your probability of being successful massively.

The billionaires and facebooks of the world are bad data points to model your future success by.

> That's the risks of entrepreneurship

Not in the web world it doesn't have to be. It all comes back to the right way and the wrong way to start your business.

The wrong way is by taking out credit, quitting your day job prematurely, spending other people's money, leveraging your family's future, and jeopardizing your mental/emotional well being.

The right way is by creating a system that is robust; a job to pay the bills, allocating some amount of free time to working on the business, focusing on sustainability, refusal to take shortcuts, spending your own money (when it's needed) and not being in such a fricken hurry to get somewhere.

You do it properly by slowly gaining mastery in your business until when the time comes you've EARNED the right to quit your day job and go full time for yourself.

But hell, why would anyone want to do that? It hardly even makes for a good Hacker News story.

That's as arbitrary as saying you must have pink hair to use my website. It's a dumb decision on the companies behalf, and for that reason not a legitimate concern with reputable companies.