For the most scandalous events of the past few years, the majority of the people that I encounter have been thoroughly brainwashed by the mainstream media (and I live in a Western country!). Most people are unaware of the fact that six billionaires control about 90% of the cable TV news and Internet news media. Large media outlets are usually a poor investment, but, it's always lucrative to control what most people think.
Let me start by offering my condolences on your loss. I know that this must be an incredibly difficult time for you. Since you asked for advice, I'll begin with the obvious: You should consider taking at least a week off from work. The work will still be there when you return. I'd also recommend not trying to rush the grieving process. I would, however, encourage you to (for now) put out of your mind all of the "woulda, coulda, shoulda's" because anything that resembles assigning blame is not going to be helpful to you. You've now embarked on a difficult journey. Embracing that journey is one way to honor the memory of the loved one you've lost.
People consider misinformation to be bad. The problem with censoring it is that I can think of many important instances in my lifetime where accepted narratives were later debunked and misinformation later became accepted fact. Since our understanding of COVID-19 has shifted quite a bit over the past two years, it seems to me the proper thing to do is to let people have freedom of speech.
I can't fulfill your request, but, sometimes, you can learn quite a bit by examining what others have created. You might want to peruse the open source application at:
> To think that you can opt out of society is fantasy.
It seems to me that the wealthy who leave the country and renounce their citizenship are effectively opting out of society. It's not a fantasy for the wealthy. We live in a competitive world where people have freedom of movement. The wealthy will tend to go where they are treated best. I think society works well for everyone when the government keeps the tax rates reasonable. Over time, a government kleptocracy causes horrific suffering for the vast majority of people.
If you aren't already doing it, you should start a cardio and weight lifting routine. If you really whip yourself into shape, then you'll feel like superman, and then you'll be able to handle almost anything. I'd spend the time and effort to right your ship before you go looking for a different job. Taking any new role is typically a big challenge, and you're not up to the task at the moment.
Anytime a new industry is created, jobs for average people are created. Many people say they are angry that average people are struggling to secure a tiny slice of a finite pie, while most of the pie is hoarded by billionaires. I prefer to believe that when a new industry is created, a new pie is created, and some average people will wind up earning a slice of that new pie. Since average people are struggling to get by, you can't expect them to create a new industry. While some rich people play golf all day, I'm glad to see that some on HN are cheering a billionaire who instead decided to put forth the effort to create a new industry.
The author of this 2017 article is probably shocked that Amazon's PE ratio has since gone from 184 to 70, while the stock price went from about 1000 to 3700. The author should have realized that there was still a huge untapped market for cloud services in 2017. It would have been foolish to short the stock four years ago, but, with the departure of Bezos, one has to wonder how much longer AWS can continue to keep the big profits flowing for the company. Rather than focusing on PE, the author should have focused on whether or not there is still a huge untapped market for cloud services. I'd focus on that metric before deciding to short AMZN.
Sandy Munro thinks Plasma Kinetics has a breakthrough technology that will, at some point in the future, allow hydrogen powered cars to dominate the auto industry.
To quote Mazarin, "One must not ask of a general, 'Is he skillful?', but rather, 'Is he lucky?'". I think what Mazarin was probably getting at was that the best generals will always have others claiming that their success was due to luck.
Vastly increasing the housing stock by massively building upwards would knock down big city housing costs, but those who currently own real estate will fight that and vote out anyone promoting such a solution. NIMBY. It's a shame, but it is democracy in action. The people who would benefit from lower rental costs need to get out and vote in politicians who will solve the "rent is too damn high!" problem.
An example of this is the movie "Pursuit of Happiness". Having family/friends to lean on can help in many cases. However, many people are simply too overwhelmed by life to work on improving their situation or even trying something like...
Has anyone with plenty of contacts at FAANG companies ever thought to leverage those contacts into a business? As in... Can't get a response from Google/Facebook, etc? Tell us (the helpful folks at WeHaveSomeCloutWithFBAndGoog.com) about your problem, and we'll get in touch with someone who can (hopefully) provide a remedy!
I googled your question, and doing that turned up plenty of blog posts with advice on how you might proceed. Here's one such blog post, but I'd read a bunch of articles before you spring into action on this:
If remote hiring is an option, and you are okay with a big time zone difference, Eastern Europe has plenty of great software developers who will gladly work for the sort of wages you are describing. Of course, remote hiring is incredibly difficult. However, if you do some thorough googling on the right way to hire remotely, and you're extremely careful, you might be able to find some hungry developers.
Avoid becoming addicted to anything (e.g., don't consume unhealthy illicit substances). Get enough sleep, sunlight, and exercise. Also, make sure you adopt a healthy diet where you remember to also consume things that will improve your gut bacteria so that your body thoroughly absorbs all those healthy nutrients. Of course, if you don't care how long you live, you can ignore all of the above advice. Some people say they don't want to live forever, but I've yet to encounter anyone who was happy to exit this world like a satisfied diner at a restaurant.
If you add annual maintenance costs, then your calculator would be something I would recommend to people who are considering purchasing a house. I've seen suggestions that the annual cost would be 1% of the total house value, but I've also seen a value for that as high as FOUR percent!
The mortgage market is very lucrative when it comes to adsense and other monetization strategies. If you could find a way to market what you've created, you could manage to generate significant passive income (a.k.a., the gift that keeps on giving).
What domain-specific experience do you and your future co-founder have? The two of you might have all sorts of knowledge about all sorts of unsolved problems within the subject areas that one or both of you have worked in or have pursued a hobby in. Before looking for ideas to pursue, the two of you should take an inventory of your areas of expertise beyond just programming.
From some of the comments here, and from talking to people in the past month, it occurs to me that 2020 seems to be causing people to remove their rose-colored glasses. It's hard to believe that the web page for the link below may, in some ways, have actually underestimated just how bad things would get in 2020:
Of course, only some of the disasters of 2020 have been beyond our control. However, in the face of so much calamity, it's soul-crushing that so much of the suffering in the USA in 2020 is self-inflicted. Think I'm overreacting?
This looks like great news, but I have zero medical knowledge, so I'm still left scratching my head. Rather than read what doctors have to say about these results, I instead decided to see what these results did to Moderna's stock price. Including the after-hours pricing, it looks to be up a whopping 40%! Looks like Wall Street is convinced that most of us will be willing to roll up our sleeves in 2021.
I didn't mean to imply that I flagged this. I think the story is relevant and not spam. It's just a shame to see people on HN trying to cancel the story of someone who got cancelled.