Getting things done by procrastinating - <AUTHOR> http://quandyfactory.com/blog/1/productivity_and_procrastination

<comment><USER3> Looks interesting. I'll bookmark it to read later.

I can relate, especially to the bit where he says "I can only seem to accomplish anything when I have far too much to do, for the simple reason that I have no shortage of projects to work on as a way of not working on the most important ones." I think a lot of college students have this mentality, which may be why people think we come across as "lazy." I've found that the sure- fire way to get me working on some relatively unimportant task is to put a more urgent one in the pipe.

<comment><USER4> I think that's like putting a lot of targets in front of you and then firing without aiming. Sure, you'll hit something quite often, but that's not that intelligent.

<comment><USER5> it's also a shortcut to stressville. It's fine in school where semesters are short and assignments are shorter, but doesn't scale out to the workplace very well.

<comment><USER3> I think you're both probably right. It's a habit I've wanted to break, but I just haven't gotten around to it. ;)

In all seriousness, I think it probably -is- wise to eliminate the procrastination before I go from "intern extraordinaire" to "fully functional productive member of society" but it's just a tough habit to break. I've also found that it's not as bad when there's some passion behind the project. I know that's a pretty obvious observation, but it supports the "do what you love" folks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The essays linked to by the author are much more valuable than his own.

PG's: <http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html>

Perry's: <http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/>

</comment><comment><USER7> Yes! How to cure the fear of the blank page. One of the first articles that I've found how to deal with this problem.

You can't break procrastination head-on. It's gotta be tricked to defeat it.

</comment><comment><USER8> That is SO me. Many thanks for this excellent article, I will keep it in mind!

</comment><comment><USER9> Woo hoo!

I've found it!

This is the first article that give me a ghost of an idea of how to effectively organize my life.

It might even knock the procrastination out of me for a little while - <USER2> hopefully, just long enough to organize it effectively....

Thank you for posting it, seriously</comment>


Long Island Iced Tea Corp. To Rebrand as "Long Blockchain Corp." - <AUTHOR> http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/Long-Island-Iced-Tea-Corp-to-Rebrand-as-Long-Blockchain-Corp-Corporate-Focus-to-Shift-Towards-Opportunities-Strategic-to-Blockchain-Technologies-1011742303 <comment><AUTHOR> This is not a joke (or is it?): The stock is up 243.44% intraday at the moment.

<comment><USER2> Looks like it. I mean, the new website is only a day old, hosted with "Hostgator", uses a free theme ([http://websites.simplesphere.net/piupiu/](http://websites.simplesphere.net/piupiu/)) and NGINX has directory listing switched on!

That and all the news reports are syndicated from the same place, so its just propagating all over the place.

That - or I am mistaken, in which case - "All Hail our new Blockchain overlords" :)</comment></comment>


SO: Useful question detected. Initiating closing procedure ... - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/490420/favorite-clever-defensive-programming-best-practices#comment-54372546 <comment><AUTHOR> "SO: Useful question detected. Initiating closing procedure... Closed." \- Den Oct 22 '15 at 16:42

</comment><comment><USER2> Last edited in 2009. Closed in 2012. For those who didn't notice, it is now 2016.

<comment><AUTHOR> The comment is recent.

<comment><USER2> Exactly: I fail to see the point of "ages ago, this question - ancient even then - had been closed. WHAT INJUSTICE!!!!!one!!"</comment></comment></comment>


Dart: New AdSense Performance Reports - <AUTHOR> http://adsense.blogspot.com/2015/04/new-adsense-performance-reports.html

<comment><AUTHOR> This is one of Google's public facing Dart projects. AdSense is most likely the software service with the highest revenue by number of engineers (guesstimate).</comment>


Dev Tools with Free for Open Source Plans - <AUTHOR> https://www.scantosecure.com/blog/dev-tools-with-free-for-open-source-plans <comment><USER2> Github doesn't make the distinction between OS or not. It's free if the repository is public, that is not the same thing as being open source.

The codeclimate link goes to a signup page, not an open source project information page.

jClarity says "So we offer a free license for use on your _non-commercial_ Open Source projects". That's a interesting and hard to define restriction.

Lighthouse says "Create as many Open Source Projects as you wish on any plan". That's not saying there is a free plan for open source projects, there are no free plans in their case.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your comments. I'll update Code Climate link.

Yes, saying that Github, jClarify and Lighthouse have free for open source plans is technically incorrect. But given that they can all* be used by open source projects, for free, in ways that they could not be used by typical commercial projects I think the simplification is permissible.

* Lighthouse do have a free plan. "Create as many Open Source Projects as you wish on any plan! Even the free plan!"

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> To add to your devtools list as you asked in your article :

OAuth.io "OAuth-as-a-service" is also free for open source projects, by using directly the open source daemon oauthd for 80+ providers [https://github.com/oauth-io/oauthd](https://github.com/oauth-io/oauthd)

disclosure : I work for OAuth.io

</comment><comment><USER4> Travis CI is as free for Open Source as Github is; Notably, it also makes some of the other tools even sweeter (Like Code Climate, Sauce Labs, Github itself).

It's a little bit ironic that we can't alter the blog post about open source directly through comments, and instead have been asked to use Hacker News.

</comment><comment><USER5> Moqups[1], our HTML5 based mockup/wireframing app, is completely free for education, non profit and open source projects. To our great surprise, we get a fairly large amount of requests each week from many universities and from open source developers. Aaaand we're happy to fulfill all of them :-)

[1] [https://moqups.com](https://moqups.com)

</comment><comment> tyler-codenvy Codenvy offers free Premium subscriptions for OpenSource projects. [https://codenvy.com/pricing](https://codenvy.com/pricing)

We haven't completed our automated application form yet. But if you contact us directly, we can configure the accounts.

</comment><comment><USER6> You also forgot LiveCode, a RAD application that uses a variant of AppleScript to do quick UI and function prototyping for cross-platform open-source applications.

[http://livecode.com/](http://livecode.com/)

</comment><comment><USER7> Red Gate also offers free licenses for its products: [http://reflectorblog.red-gate.com/2013/07/open- source/](http://reflectorblog.red-gate.com/2013/07/open-source/)

</comment><comment><USER8> I haven't used them (yet, I'm planning on it) but Bugsense is free for OS.

[http://www.bugsense.com/pricing](http://www.bugsense.com/pricing)

</comment><comment><USER9> Gratis isn't enough. Free software requires free tools:

[http://mako.cc/writing/hill-free_tools.html](http://mako.cc/writing/hill- free_tools.html)

A great example of truly free code hosting, in the only sense of "free" that actually matters, is Rhodecode. Have them host it for you:

[https://rhodecode.com/](https://rhodecode.com/)

Or host it yourself, no possibility of vendor lock-in:

[https://rhodecode.com/docs/](https://rhodecode.com/docs/)

And it does both git and hg. We need more of this.

</comment><comment><USER10> Codeship - Hosted continuous deployment platform [https://www.codeship.io](https://www.codeship.io)

</comment><comment><USER11> Disclosure: I work for Excelsior.

Excelsior JET ([http://www.excelsiorjet.com](http://www.excelsiorjet.com)), a Java SE JVM with a native code compiler and deployment toolkit, is free for non-commercial use. Note that "non-commercial" != "open source", both ways: there is commercial open-source and closed-source freeware.

[http://www.excelsior-usa.com/jetfree.html](http://www.excelsior- usa.com/jetfree.html)

</comment><comment><USER12> wercker is a continuous delivery platform which is also free for open source (and private projects as well)

[http://wercker.com](http://wercker.com)

disclosure: I work for wercker.</comment>


ACLU files charges against Facebook for targeting job ads to young males - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1042042609781362689 <comment><USER2> Why on earth wouldn't someone looking for a job where 90% of the people are males advertise mainly to people that are also males? Also, I didn't know being advertised at was a civil liberty. I wish the ACLU would spend less time on inane things like this and more time on stuff that matters.

<comment><USER3> Is access to employment is an "inane" concern? Is it moral, or legal, for employers to algorithmically exclude arbitrary classes from receiving or discovering job listings?

Consider expanding this sort of technique to monster/linkdin/glassdoor/etc so that you aren't shown job listings because it can be inferred that you are probably over 30, or Republican, for example.

It seems that ACLU wants to use this as a test case to clarify what is or isn't legal before this practice becomes a pervasive part of the employment market.

<comment><USER4> How is access to employment improved by making job ads more expensive?

<comment><USER3> Would you care to make a more detailed argument or proposal? I'm willing, in general, to be persuaded by a good argument, but you'll have to show your work. :)

<comment><USER5> If roofing job advertisers are forced to spend half of their budget on a demographic that objectively clicks through at a drastically lower rate, they will have to spend 2X more money to reach the same number of workers that they used to reach.

Making advertising those jobs on Facebook 2X more expensive is an incentive for those firms to revert to alternative hiring habits that are even more nepotistic, reducing overall access to employment.

<comment><USER6> > spend half of their budget on a demographic objectively clicks through at a > drastically lower rate, they will have to spend 2X more money

This reasoning pre-supposes that only CPM-style ads are available, to the exclusion of CPC or CPA, but that seems unlikely on a platform as modern as FB.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The new, modern ACLU wants careful regulation of speech when it gets in the way of progressive goals.

</comment><comment><USER7> I really don't see how the companies placing the ads, aren't going to get hammered for it. But Facebook is doing nothing illegal, unless the ads, were placed for jobs with facebook. Just as newspaper/radio/tv aren't required not to post job adverts that violate the EEOC's rules.

For clarity, According to the EEOC ([https://www1.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/index.cfm?renderforprin...](https://www1.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/index.cfm?renderforprint=1))

Recruitment

It is also illegal for an employer to recruit new employees in a way that discriminates against them because of their race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.

For example, an employer's reliance on word-of-mouth recruitment by its mostly Hispanic work force may violate the law if the result is that almost all new hires are Hispanic.

</comment><comment><USER8> To play the devil's advocate, aren't there legitimate use cases for this?

e.g. you are paying men to be part of a test trial for a male contraceptive such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_inhibition_of_sperm...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_inhibition_of_sperm_under_guidance) , which is still in the trial phases in the US. You're looking for individuals with gonads, and having those highly correlates with being male. Why would you spend ad budget on women's impressions for the above?

Whether that falls under "jobs" category is not clear to me.</comment>


Everything I know about freelancing - <AUTHOR> https://andyadams.org/everything-i-know-about-freelancing/ <comment><USER2> > Your first interactions with anyone will set the tone for the rest of the > relationship. If you crush the first emails, phone calls, or meetings, your > reputation will be solidified for the long-term.

It is a weird world. The above has been consistent in the following:

1- In high school. If you just meet some new kids for a first time and mumbble stupidly, they'll think you are retarded and it'll be hard to change that view.

2- If you fail to impress your potential date in the first date, you are pretty much over. I think as a guy I'm more tolerable with girls but I might not be accurate or maybe an exception.

3- It still applies in adulthood. I think that's why doctors care a lot about their medical offices. I mean if you check a doctor with a messy office, no secretary and not so expensive equipment.

It sucks: The first impression matters a lot. You are allowed to suck (within limits) afterward but the first impression is a must.

> Until you're sure of your effective tax rate, set aside a minimum of 25% of > every dollar you earn for the tax man. Put it away, don't touch it.

Try to maximize your business expenses. Can you make your gym as a business expense? Your "personal" car? Your mobile phone bill? There are lots of things you can expense. Check with your accountant. Have a list and let him check what can be checked to the business account.

My advice will be: Don't touch the business money until next fiscal year. That might be hard if you don't have a full year reserve but you can do the math and "borrow" from your company.

<comment><USER3> I would be interested in hearing more from freelancers about tax tips they've found useful. One interesting thing I learned this year is it's common to setup a S-Corp LLC & then pay yourself a fair & reasonable wage. Anything over that you can pay yourself as dividends every quarter. Besides dividends being a huge tax savings (in the US) they also act as a sort of bonus. This also seems to help a bit with budgeting.

<comment><USER2> I'd do the following:

1- Push as much expenses as legally possible to the business. Lease (buy a car on a lease). Depending on the country, there might restrictions on how luxurious the personal/business car is. By leasing you deduct the interest. So there is literally no reason why you'd not do it.

2- Only "pay" yourself the minimum required. That is, how much is your personal rent, food and other. Pay yourself that. Don't pay yourself from dividends. Make yourself a salary. That can be helpful if you are getting a loan on the business and on your personal account.

3- Do not pay dividends if you made profit. Always re-invest or suck profits on some way or another. This will make your tax rate effectively 0 but you'll notice that the government has always ways to suck in taxes.

I'm not in the US, so YMMV.

<comment><USER4> Please take care with this advice

1) This may not be true. In most countries you would get a capital allowance that means you could make this saving even if you buy the car outright. There are also different kinds of lease that have different tax effects. In the UK VAT on a contract hire is 50% disallowed if you use the car personally for instance. Another reason this might be a bad idea, driving the companies car for personal use may be a 'benefit in kind' and taxable at a high rate. In many situations it is better to buy the car personally and record business miles and claim it on expenses at a government approved rate per mile. Talk to an accountant, it depends on several factors.

2) Many countries have minimum wage legislation. Don't pay less than that!

3) This is far too general to be true. If you can afford it and are planning an exit then leaving profits in a company can be great. This presumes that there is no better user for the money, which is not something you can generalize about.

Disclosure: I'm in Finance, but not a tax specialist.

<comment><USER5> You can pay yourself less than minimum wage as a director/office holder.

[https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/national-minimum- wa...](https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/national-minimum-wage- manual/nmwm05140)

Still, you're right. Talk to an accountant. I use these guys: [https://www.maslins.co.uk/](https://www.maslins.co.uk/)

<comment><USER4> And from the first paragraph

> The national minimum wage does not apply to company directors unless they > have contracts that make them workers as defined in section 54(3) of the > act.

I suggest if you are a single freelancer in the UK you may easily fall foul of that. Remember employment contracts can form without you writing them down. I know of cases where this has happened. If you only come into work for board meetings then sure, avoid minimum wage.

But then if you are a single freelancer in the UK you will already be talking to an accountant to discuss IR35...

<comment><USER5> Yeah, I've read it.

I'm not overly worried about an implied contract between myself and the company I own and direct. It's also generally the advice of accountants and legal professionals that it is fine to operate this way.

Also, snark aside, I get my contracts reviewed by QDOS, act outside and have an accountant. Anyone considering being a freelancer or contractor in the UK needs to be aware of IR35 and should get an accountant. Mines is [https://www.maslins.co.uk/](https://www.maslins.co.uk/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There is so so much good stuff in this article. A++ content. Incidentally, my hunch is that one way to build trust with clients is to write articles like this. I can tell you know what you are doing if you can write something like this.

> I'd estimate over half of freelancers disappear before delivering their > projects. Good for you: Finish your projects and you're already in the 51st > percentile of freelancers.

This matches my gut as well and I've been somewhat shocked at how many clients compliment me on answering my email in a timely manner! Clients seem to understand almost any mistake you can make if you are upfront about it and work with them to solve the problem and don't disappear. Though, I definitely agree on being very very careful about code that charges money (or sends email for that manner).

</comment><comment><USER7> I've been remote freelancing for ~20 years. Some good advice in that post but I would add in:

1\. You definitely don't need to form an LLC. I'm still a sole proprietor all this time and it's working out fine.

2\. Personally, I'd hold back 35%+ of your income for taxes and expect to pay taxes every quarter.

3\. 2 months of savings seems really low. People are wired different but I know a lot of people (myself included) who can't function with less than 6 months of runway when being self employed. It's not fun being in a position to take on low quality work because you absolutely need it.

4\. Billing style really depends on the job you're doing. A lot of my work is billed hourly due to the nature of what I'm asked to do.

<comment><USER8> > 1\. You definitely don't need to form an LLC. I'm still a sole proprietor > all this time and it's working out fine.

I did this for a while, but it starts to hurt around tax season. There are advantages to being incorporated and then hiring yourself as an employee for a minimal wage. With the way you're doing it, you're paying employment taxes on your entire income. With an LLC, you can pass the majority of it through without paying that.

> 2\. Personally, I'd hold back 35%+ of your income for taxes and expect to > pay taxes every quarter.

That would be the responsible thing to do. I just end up paying yearly, paying the interest penalty, and using January+February+March for taxes. Probably should get my house in order at some point.

> 3\. 2 months of savings seems really low.

Agreed.

> 4\. Billing style really depends on the job you're doing. A lot of my work > is billed hourly due to the nature of what I'm asked to do.

Yes, but I do pretty much everything I'm able to not bill hourly. Fixed Budget > Monthly Rate > Bi-Weekly Rate > Weekly Rate > Daily Rate > Hourly.

<comment><USER9> > I did this for a while, but it starts to hurt around tax season. There are > advantages to being incorporated and then hiring yourself as an employee for > a minimal wage. With the way you're doing it, you're paying employment taxes > on your entire income. With an LLC, you can pass the majority of it through > without paying that.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by this, but LLCs are pass through entities for tax purposes. That means your tax treatment is the same for an LLC as it would be if you were a sole proprietor without an LLC.

The reason to create an LLC is to separate your personal assets from your business assets and to protect you from liability for your employees actions. If your LLC signs the contract, in most cases the client can only go after the business, not you personally.

However, almost all lenders require a personal guarantee and an LLC doesn't protect you from your own negligence. Only from the negligence of your employees.

So basically - LLCs are unnecessary if you are the only employee.

See: [https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/limited-liability- pr...](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/limited-liability-protection- llcs-a-50-state-guide.html)

<comment><USER10> The tax benefits come from electing to be treated as an S corp for tax purposes, not from establishing an LLC _per se_. But as far as I'm aware, you need to establish an LLC or other corporate entity in order to be taxed as an S corp.

It's true that creditors can come after your personal assets if you personally guarantee a corporate entity's debt. But establishing an LLC does limit your personal liability in any instance where you don't provide a personal guarantee. I suspect that many individual freelancers who establish LLCs never take on debt or other liabilities that require personal guarantees.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > "Take your finely-calculated estimate and 3x it, both in time and money.

You should get really comfortable with "no"; Both saying "no" to bad fits, and hearing "no" from clients who can't afford you."

Two quick thoughts:

1) "It always costs twice as much and takes twice as long" is a benchmark that has never failed me. 3x? Probably could have helped 25% of the time.

2) The key to freelancing or even being an agency is...avoid the time sucks, the bad clients. It's not finding grand slams or hat tricks. Sure those are good to have. But the killer is the bad ones, the really bad ones.

</comment><comment><USER12> Not a freelancer, but I've worked remotely...

> It gets pretty dang lonely sometimes, particularly if you're working > remotely. I don't care if you're an introvert or extrovert, it'll affect you > either way.

I'm an introvert. I was lonely. It does affect you.

> But for maximum productivity, your routine should involve getting dressed, > brushing your teeth, and treating it like a "real job".

I had to do this. If I wasn't wearing street shoes, I wasn't "at work."

<comment><USER13> I think it helps to be married. I can honestly say I'm never lonely as a freelancer (2 years now, I almost never see clients).

<comment><AUTHOR> FWIW, I've been married the whole time I've been a freelancer, and the loneliness didn't settle in until year 5 or so. Your spouse will probably not want to talk shop all the time, and those types of conversations (tech, business, etc) were what I missed the most. But maybe I'm just excessively sensitive!

<comment><USER14> I've found tech meetups scratch that itch a little bit but I'm 2 years into remote (with a wife and 2 kids) so maybe more is coming... Just curious if you tried that and if it worked or not for you?

<comment><AUTHOR> I've only started going to tech meetups recently, as an attempt to socialize. It's definitely helped! I basically avoided it for the first 6 years, so I'd recommend it very much.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Really good post.

The main thing that sticks out is that the author mentions how referrals are the number one source of leads for basically every freelancer. The problem is that he only mentions it. Ok, that's great. How do I get referrals? The issue is that none of the other stuff matters if you don't know how to get referrals.

The author did a good job with the post, but I can't express how important it is to be a people person when freelancing. In order to get referrals you have to get projects. In order to get projects, you have to leave your house and meet other local business owners. That's very hard for freelancers to do and I think the post would be 100 times better if the author spent a little more time on that aspect of freelancing.

<comment><USER16> > In order to get projects, you have to leave your house and meet other local > business owners.

And so we come to one thing that rarely gets explicitly discussed in articles like this - the location. I don't blame authors for that, your environment is usually something you take for granted.

But if I were to go and talk to local business owners where I live (eastern Europe) they would invariably fall in the category of extremely-and-then-some- price-sensitive.

So most of the contracting around these parts is done under the umbrella of various agencies or Toptal. These have ongoing relationships with foreign clients and take advantage of the fact that local market prices for IT folk are nothing compared to western Europe and (especially) US. Not a bad deal, but not as good as fostering relationships with the clients yourself (and these clients are usually at least moderately price sensitive, as otherwise they would probably hire contractors at their location).

I'm sure there are plenty of people that freelance without middlemen where I live, it just seems a lot less prominent than in better developed economies. I know maybe one or two.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure, the article is applicable primarily to US-based freelancers. YMMV in other places.

If it's any consolation, I live in a tiny town in the US and have rarely met my clients in person. Many of them have no idea where I work from or that I occasionally wear pajama pants on video calls, because my webcam is from the waist up.

<comment><USER15> > I live in a tiny town in the US and have rarely met my clients in person

This is awesome. I feel like it's more of the exception than the rule though. Just out of curiosity, I assume you primarily work off of referrals now, but how did you get your first few clients? Or I guess a better way of asking is how did you get enough clients to where you had enough referrals coming in?

<comment><AUTHOR> 2 places:

1\. Premium job boards. AuthenticJobs used to carry much more freelance work, but basically I'd find places where people had paid to post a job, and I'd do my darndest to impress them with my opening email.

2\. My professional network. A couple of old contacts referred me to excellent agencies. Those connections still pay dividends today.

Hope that helps. These comments are giving me ideas for "Everything I know, part 2".

<comment><USER17> 'Everything I didn't realise I knew' :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Really good article filled with excellent advice! I actually started out down a similar path after leaving Netflix. For me, the biggest challenge for software engineers that want to go freelance will always be finding work (aka sales). It's just really scary to know that if you don't find another gig, you don't get paid.

Shameless plug: I ended up starting a company[0] to help freelancers/contractors with this. We are the sales and collections team for you. We focus on high-quality clients that can afford to pay for senior engineers. You pick jobs that appeal to you. We currently have way more openings for contract + remote jobs than we can fill and the clients are good (Vizio, Disney, Colliers). It's a great way to transition from full-time to consulting.

[0] [https://www.facetdev.com](https://www.facetdev.com)

<comment><USER18> Thanks for facet, it looks promising. Although it's limited to US candidates only?

<comment><USER9> US and Canada only right now - gotta start somewhere. But we plan to expand outside as soon as we are ready. If you are interested, but outside US and Canada, you can sign up and we'll put you on a waitlist.

<comment><USER19> This would be great. Highly considering a move back to Australia from the US and would be great if I could use my Microsoft experience to help fetch freelance work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Great content. I've been doing freelance machine learning work for a while, and it's hit or miss. Some clients are great, others are a complete pain.

Most recent gig I had, the client cut hours and then rates... all due to the fact that the CEO didn't manage the project properly from the outset, and they were hemorrhaging cash. That fell squarely into the "not my problem" category, so I quit.

It's a tough business, and one I've not completely figured out yet.

<comment><USER21> I have been a freelancer for 10 years now, and I noticed that machine learning gigs are a bit harder to find because they is usually proprietary info and they want to keep the "models" in house.

Has that been your experience ?

<comment><USER20> Gigs seem to fall into a couple categories: one group of clients has heard all the buzz and wants to get in on the action, without really knowing much about it.

The more serious types are indeed protective of their data, intellectual property, and processes. I have even seen paranoia around leveraging open source frameworks (Tensorflow, Pytorch) out of fear of their sponsor corporations coming for the client... not sure I see the logic on that one, but whatever.

Whenever I don't have much success in a venture, I try to look inward to see what I'm doing wrong. I suspect that there is a fair amount I have to learn about getting good gigs and being successful in the freelance game. Unfortunately, it's one of those "have to learn the hard way" type of things.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Been a freelancer since 2003, working from home, introvert living alone, not affected by loneliness. Darn, I must not like people !

Will try the shoes trick.

</comment><comment><USER23> "If a client previously posted their projects to Fiverr or UpWork, it's a signal they don't value expertise."

I disagree with this. Some clients just don't have any idea where to get something done other than a "site" they heard about or found on the internet.

But these clients usually are fairly technically clueless and require a lot of hand holding and/or have unrealistic expectations. Come to think of it I sort of have to agree with the authors basic point... not a great signal (although for different reasons).

<comment><USER24> You've gotta know how to filter on Upwork.

I hire a lot on Upwork, and have found excellent talent, with extensive experience, for my projects.

I've learned how to qualify candidates with a minimal process that has weeded out the "waste of time" people that I sunk a bit of time into when I first went there.

So count me as someone who's posting there that counts on expertise, and has been very happy with what I've found. That said, _my_ clients would probably not know how to use Upwork effectively. Hence, me.

<comment><USER25> Would love to hear what strategies you use to qualify candidates.

<comment><USER24> Some basics, and it varies a bit depending on whether you're hiring in India versus Europe/Eastern-Europe. I have found that a certain subset of candidates in India will be very aggressive with the frequency and obtuseness of communication. European and east-europeans candidates, in my experience, will often disqualify themselves by being presumptive about requirements or solutions, or dismissive about confounding aspects. I'm not generalizing overall, but in first/second interactions with remote freelancers on Upwork. This has been very consistent.

(I'm in North America, but have lived and worked in 3+ Western European countries).

Beyond basic technical qualifications, these additional steps have helped me onboard a good sized team of part-time and full-time freelancers around the globe:

* Include 1 very broad, and 1 very specific question in the job posting (don't make them required -- see who answers them of their own volition). You'll get a sense of reading comprehension, and the care someone will use in responding. The questions should not require an essay in response, but neither can they be fulfilled by a templated response.

* For higher level candidates, offer to get on a 5 minute video call and share a calendly/youcanbookme link. Ask for a problem synopsis and see how complete it is, and check how many unclear potentialities get called out in response.

* For lower level candidates, look for 5, hire and onboard 3. In a slack documentation channel, include an on-boarding document with 3-5 steps (update avatar, include available hours in spacetime, post a hello and basic introduction in #general, add themselves to #somechannel, etc). All my keepers very faithfully followed really basic requests. The people who most vociferously wasted my time could've been disqualified at this stage of the game.

For this last step, pay for their time and set a 1 or 2 hour max budget at the start. Don't train or lead anyone through this process. That's not a road you want to spend any time on, because it will become an expansive sinkhole.

I've found that there are plenty of talented professionals out there, but those who can be useful, engaged, remote resources are a special breed. You want conscientious forthrightness.

<comment><USER25> Thank you that is helpful! A lot of our hires have been short term and I suspect that doesn't help the situation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Well, it's definitely helpful. Let me tell my story, I had been working as a freelancer for 2 years. I mainly worked on Upwork. Most of the clients are cheap and micromanagement. And most of the jobs are short term. I think the big problem is how to find a good client? If you are an American, you may have networking. Your friends can refer you a good job. Or you can go to the events, and try to sell your business. But if you are not an American, you may struggle to find a good client. So I think this post is for those who are living in developed countries, not developing countries ( third world )

</comment><comment><USER27> As a new freelancer, this is so good!

> "If a client gives you a design to implement, make your implementation > pixel-perfect. It's crazy how sloppy some developers are; the client put > together that PSD for a reason."

Shamefully have to admit this was me when I started -- my mind says "the tool does the thing!" and the client says "it looks nothing like my design". Can't be afraid to charge for CSS.

<comment><USER28> I would first evaluate how much work would be involved with making their design pixel perfect. There are some platforms where making certain things pixel perfect is _extremely_ difficult (Sharepoint customization for example).

I would also give my customer feedback on whether the UI helps them achieve their goals. Sometimes people zero in on a visual design that has poor usability, and all you're doing is taking them further down a bad road.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes! If you see a problem with the design, share your expertise (politics carefully navigated). This is how you become even more valuable to your client. But if you've settled on a design and you're the implementer, make it look like the specs you got!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> > Take your finely-calculated estimate and 3x it, both in time and money.

This is so true.

<comment><USER22> In the nuclear power field, the usual multiplicator applied to project cost is Pi.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> > Don't work on promises. Get projects down on paper with clear terms, and > have your clients sign. Until you do so, all the talk in the world is > worthless.

I wish it expanded more on this. Some questions:

\- when you're remote, do you print the contract, sign it, scan it, send it, and have the client do the same? or do you send 2 physical copies via DHL or something? or do you just rely on a "looks good!" reply to an email detailing the terms?

\- what's the typical practice in the freelance market on using contracts? I mean, when you're working remote from a country different from your client's, I imagine it's pretty difficult to write good enforceable contracts since they involve 2 very different jurisdictions. Do people typically bother trying to make good quality contracts, or are they used on the assumption that both parties will act in good-faith?

\- when you're just starting out and can't really afford the services of a lawyer that can write international contracts, how do write such things on your own? some tips?

\- are there standard clauses in these contracts that people expect or are they really diverse?

It would have also been cool if this talked a bit about how the interactions typically are between a freelancer and a client. I mean, I imagine there's a general protocol, right? I imagine the freelancer should guide the interactions, but what are clients' expectations? For example, what's typically used for communication? skype? plain email? Are there some etiquette rules specific to freelancing?

<comment><AUTHOR> In the US, email agreements can be enforceable contracts, but I always take the step of getting an eSignature.

My take on international contracts: Working internationally, it's pretty much all based on trust. Once you get to the point where you have a large enough contract, sure, hire lawyers then. But how is someone going to pursue, for example, a Romanian developer for $10,000? It's just not worth it.

So, if you're unsure of the client and you have no way of enforcing a contract, you could "ramp up" your agreement: Get 50% up front, do a small project or 2, break larger projects into smaller chunks paid incrementally, etc.

I've never dealt with a large client flaking, so this is all speculation from me. I hope it helps.

<comment><USER30> Wow. Thanks for the prompt reply. Since it's been a day, I didn't have much hope of this getting one. Thanks for the blog post, too!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> > If a potential client tells you how something should be implemented, they > don't want you to think too much and don't value your expertise.

Not necessarily. My team has recently inherited a system developed by an outside contractor that has absolutely nothing to do with our stack, and taking over its operation ended up taking much more time than if we had developed the functionality from scratch.

<comment><USER32> Yes, if you are going to work as a contractor and the company is telling you precisely what stack or technologies you need to be working with, that's not a red flag.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Great article, Andy! I really enjoyed reading it. I wrote a similar piece about going freelance as a software engineer a while ago, perhaps you'll like it: [https://blog.classycode.com/going-freelance-as-a-software- en...](https://blog.classycode.com/going-freelance-as-a-software-engineer- some-advice-13c4064c72ce)

</comment><comment><USER34> To me this was a well written, no bullshit, super helpful piece. My thanks to the author, from someone relatively new to freelancing. I feel extremely lucky to have landed an 80-hour monthly retainer as one of my first gigs, but this article gives me plenty of ideas on how (and how not) to make sure things are going in the right direction over the next few years.

</comment><comment><USER35> I have experienced almost each and every point listed on your blog in my 9 years of freelancing. Learned a few today. :-) Thank you for keeping track of all those points/experiences and summarising for all the freelancer buddies out there.

</comment><comment><USER36> Reminded me that it's ok that clients say no to working with me because cost.

</comment><comment><USER37> The author is concise and writes with humility--very nice to read!

</comment><comment><USER38> Thanks for sharing this, I'm thinking of freelancing for a while and there were great tips, especially the part about setting up your rates.

</comment><comment><USER39> Good list. I recently started being an independent contractor and a lot of the material resonated and there were some good tips in there.

</comment><comment><USER40> Great write-up and a lot of practical advice.

I am freelancing for some time now and the hardest part is to score and retain clients.</comment>


George A. Romero, 'Night of the Living Dead' creator, has died - <AUTHOR> http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-me-george-romero-20170716-story.html <comment><USER2> Night of the Living Dead was one of my favorites, and really kicked off the whole Zombie genre running up to today. RIP Mr. Romero.

Fun fact: NotLD was immediately placed in the public domain upon release, due to a notice mistake by the distributors, which was required at the time for copyright.

<comment><USER3> Another fun fact. You don't see box sets of all the movies because Romero always had to raise money from different people so the rights for them (other than the first) are scattered.

<comment><USER4> Additionally, his indy "Night of the Living Dead" featured an African American protagonist when that was just not a thing people were doing.

Such an un-Hollywood ending too. Wow.

<comment><USER5> Not only that, but Duane Jones got the role solely on merit. The part was not written with an African-American (or a minority) in mind, but Romero decided after the fact not to update the script in any way, which gives the film this odd colour-blind/progressive trait for that time (1968)...

(Mild spoiler below)

...And then post-filming but before its release, Dr Martin Luther King Jr was shot, giving the film's treatment of Jones character an unexpected tone in context. Romero mentioned this in one of his interviews to illustrate another way in which the film was shocking to its audience (beside the then never- seen-before level of gore in the movie -- something that has gone mainstream since then and may get lost when watching the movie).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> When I was about 10, I saw Night of the Living Dead and it fully cemented my love of horror movies. I had watched Tales of the Crypt, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Twilight Zone, and similar, but NOTLD was incredible. Terrifying, creepy, realistic... it gave me nightmares and shook me to my core.

Most people who aren't into the genre think that horror is all Jason-style slasher flicks. Horror is so much more than that. If you want to try something that I recommend, The Void was just released on Netflix, which is genuinely scary in a non-slasher way (although it has a lot of that too).

RIP George A. Romero

<comment><USER7> Are you referring to this movie from 2016:

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4255304/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4255304/)

<comment><USER6> Yes

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What a truly sad opportunity for zombi jokes. I hope he stays dead!!!

</comment><comment><USER9> There is a song by a band called the "sprites" from a while back about him, its called "George Romero". Perhaps fitting on this sad day.

Its about learning how to survive the zombie Apocalypse because of his zombie movies.

(fan video of the song.. All I could find) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urvL9wUTg24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urvL9wUTg24)

" It's the end of the world We could gather half a dozen friends We'd live in hiding over at JC Penney Construct a wall to keep the mutants out

When it's the end of the world We'd land a helicopter on the rooftop Somebody breaks in through a boarded entrance Maybe we could make a run for it

I know all I need to know...

I know all I need to do...

I learned everything from George Romero, Dario Argento

Maybe Tom Savini, Stuart Gordon, and Sam Raimi "

<comment><USER10> I'll also toss in "They're Coming to get your Barbara" by No More Kings

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSpvvCK609c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSpvvCK609c)

"Driving slowly

Going to home to see their mother's grave

Walking closely There's an old man who's clothes are decayed

John can see that she's frightened

So he tries to lighten the mood

They're coming to get you, Barbara

They're coming and they'll be here soon

Don't be afraid

They just want your brain

And they're coming to get you"

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have to admit I think of George A. Romero as like I do Shakespeare.

I didn't like their work but appreciate what they did.

Well Romero's earlier work. His latter movies were just crap.

PS I'm a big fan of the genre of Romero's.

</comment><comment><USER10> It's a shame that he didn't get more chances to branch out and ended up having to squeeze his "zombie worlds" to make a living.

Frankly I enjoy Knightriders far more than NotLD. The characters are more developed and the situation more complex than the zombie movies. I'm sorry that it doesn't get more play - I almost never see it on TV. Glad I have it on BluRay - the commentary track is the best part.

</comment><comment><USER12> "George. George. They're coming to get y..."

oh, they got you.

</comment><comment><USER13> If you like NotLD/etc then try 'Martin' which is another Romero film and (IMO) an underrated classic:

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077914/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_12](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077914/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_12)

<comment><USER14> The Crazies [1] — about a virus that turns people irrationally aggressive and paranoid — is also quite good, and it's one of the few instances where the remake [2] is as good (in my opinion) as the original.

[1] [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069895/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069895/)

[2] [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455407/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455407/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Sometimes I wonder if HN needs to have it's own obituaries section.

<comment><USER16> Why does it need to be separate? Romero made movies that many of us enjoyed.</comment></comment>


What is Google's real market share in the US? - <AUTHOR> http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2011/08/what-is-googles-real-market-share-in-the-us.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+yegg+%28Gabriel+Weinberg%27s+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

<comment><USER2> I used to work on search quality at Google, but I think I can answer this just using public information. ;-)

I think the answer is that Yahoo and Bing have a much higher rate of navigational queries - queries like [facebook] or [twitter.com] that are just the name of a site. This class of queries does indeed send a much higher proportion of their traffic to a small number of sites.

The available public statistics seem to confirm this. One example is here: [http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2010/02/average-query- lengt...](http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2010/02/average-query-length- february-2010/)

I'm sure they're not perfect, but let's assume these numbers are reasonable. Single-word queries are a decent proxy for navigational queries. 27% of Google's searches are one word, but 54% of Yahoo's searches are one word. So if you were measuring on any site that didn't get one-word traffic, you would see Google's searches overrepresented by 1.5X already.

This makes sense if you think about it. The sort of person that searches on non-Google search engines is very different than the sort of person that searches on Google. People who search on non-Google are much more likely to generally not understand the internet. They are likely to just use the search engine that was preinstalled when they got the computer. They are likely to not understand the difference between a URL bar and a search box. And they are likely to only use search for typing in the name of a site and directly going there.

<comment><USER3> > I think the answer is that Yahoo and Bing have a much higher rate of > navigational queries - queries like [facebook] or [twitter.com] that are > just the name of a site. This class of queries does indeed send a much > higher proportion of their traffic to a small number of sites.

> This makes sense if you think about it. The sort of person that searches on > non-Google search engines is very different than the sort of person that > searches on Google. People who search on non-Google are much more likely to > generally not understand the internet. They are likely to just use the > search engine that was preinstalled when they got the computer. They are > likely to not understand the difference between a URL bar and a search box. > And they are likely to only use search for typing in the name of a site and > directly going there.

From observing non-tech savvy people using the internet, what I've found is that a lot of times, they know about Google and use it when they want to consciously make a search. But when they just want to access a site, they will type just the name of the site into the URL bar, which with modern browsers increasingly results in a search.

This method of searching uses the default search engine, which is often altered from Google even in browsers like Chrome due to these non-tech savvy people installing various software that changes the default search engine. But when these people want to do an "actual" search, they literally go to <http://www.google.com/> and type in the search query there.

What's interesting is that a lot of times, they'll accidentally search with the default browser search instead, and they don't even realize that they're not using Google, which leads me to believe that they don't realize that there are different search engines, or that depending on whether they use their browser's default search or go to <http://www.google.com/>, they will get different search results.

I would be really interested to understand what goes through the minds of these people when they use the internet, because these sorts of things just scream out at me when I watch them browsing the web, but they seem to be completely oblivious to it. I just don't understand how they can miss the completely different site layout and URL.

<comment><USER4> What goes through their minds? Probably something like "I want to see what my friends are up to" or "I want to post a picture I just took" or "I'm bored and want to play Farmville". They just want to accomplish their task and browsers/URLs/search engines/keyboards etc. are just a means to that end.

I could imagine a similar analogy would be someone who is a professional racecar driver or just really into cars would be driving on a road thinking "I'm going to ease into this turn, and stay close to the inside" whereas most other people would be thinking "I have to remember to buy milk at the store after I pick up Jimmy from daycare".

<comment><USER5> What is going through your mind when you type "gm" and then hit autocomplete? It's a memorized task.

Do you wonder how DNS resolves? Do you wonder how the certificates are validated? Do you know what's in your .pem file? Who cares? It works, right?

Maybe you could make it more efficient, with some launcher program. But tasks that are memorized are easy to do (from a cognitive perspective), so you don't bother trying to improve them.

The human brain can be the laziest organ in the body. Well, it can be hard working, but in many cases it gets crazy blind spots, and gets stuck at a locally optimum point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The article mentions "What makes this even weirder is Hitwise also recently came out with a report saying Bing/Yahoo users click on more links than Google users." This is a metric that Hitwise calls success rate and they say Yahoo has the most successful searches.

I did a debunk of Hitwise's "success rate" metric back in February: [https://plus.google.com/109412257237874861202/posts/A7d5joZ3...](https://plus.google.com/109412257237874861202/posts/A7d5joZ3tJJ)

In essence, I don't think Hitwise can tell a the difference between a click on a search result vs. just going to a different site. So doing a search and then leaving looks just like a success to them. For example, yahoo.com has a "Trending" box in the top-right of the page, and clicking on Rose McGowan will do a Yahoo search. If the user goes anywhere after that search, I believe Hitwise will call that a successful search. Likewise on msn.com, if you click many of the links, e.g. "Pencil skirts that will turn heads" that actually does a search on Bing. I believe going anywhere else on the web afterwards will again look like a successful search to Hitwise. I think a large amount of casual browsing on Yahoo/MSN is counted as "successful searches" by Hitwise.

</comment><comment><USER7> My programming blog gets 99.35% of its search engine traffic from Google.

AnyNewBooks.com: 96.44%

My math blog: 92.91%

OK, those are technical or for a tech savvy crowd. How about my wife's vintage blog which attracts mainly a non-technical female demographic? 84.08%. Or her Girl Guides' blog? 78.74%.

My father in law's local renovation site: 81.48%.

Not a single site out of a couple of dozen I've access to, shows anything less than 75%.

With these numbers at hand, I have a really hard time believing that Google's market share is anything below 75-80%.

</comment><comment><USER8> Not many people realize this, but wikipedia makes all their stat information public. [http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportOrigi...](http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportOrigins.htm) As a top 10 site with a pretty broad appeal I'd say they are one of the best gauges of internet users.

Google represents at least 90% of search engine references coming in to that site.

<comment><USER9> This is basically a measure of which search engine promotes Wikipedia links more heavily in their algorithm, not a measure of the search engine's market share....

<comment><USER10> If I'm looking for an article on something and Google thinks Wikipedia is one of the solutions it displays it amongst OTHER results. I click on it because I tend to like their articles.

I say the stat is what the stat it says it is. Wikipedia visitors tend to use Google more than other search engines to get there. I personally Google something with "wiki" thrown in as a keyword at the end so I can get to the correct Wikipedia article.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I saw traffic numbers $HUGE_ISP last year and google was pulling almost 85% in search. That was by number of bits shifted, not impressions - I'm not sure how that would change it.

If you're really interested, I'd reach out to sandvine. They are on net at several majors and they gather tons of information and are allowed to share it. They might take some time out from writing breathless press releases about netflix traffic to kick you some numbers, all good publicity. I think volume on a large national ISP is likely to be a much better metric than trackers.

</comment><comment><USER12> Could it be the result of Google lobbying for underestimating their search market share (due to antitrust concerns) and Yahoo/Bing are lobbying for overestimating their market share?

<comment><USER13> I don't think so (but your thought is very interesting anyway) because when Bing lobbies to get higher stats, they may get higher ads revenue but in the long run, particularly in the FTC investigation, they will run into bigger trouble.

But yeah, this is just my guess...

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> > That seems high indeed, but everyone I talk to "in the wild" who runs high > traffic sites actually sees a much higher percentage of their search engine > traffic coming from Google, usually from 80-90%.

Wouldn't the people that Gabriel Weinberg talks to be people who run websites much more likely to be frequented by the highly tech literate? Seems like a fantastically biased data set.

<comment><USER15> Nope, the people I was referring to for the most part run sites targeted at the general public not techies.

<comment><USER14> I have no idea who you talk to, but I'll say this: just because you target your website at the general public doesn't mean that your user bases isn't significantly slanted toward techies. It's not just the _subject_ of a website that can bias is like this; it can just be their size, or their newness.

<comment><USER15> You can generally tell by browser share breakdown as I mentioned in the post wrt to statcounter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Would like to see the equivalent of Japan ... Yahoo.jp has a ridiculous market share here (especially amongst the pre-smartphone market - which is huge).

Edit: best I could find was from 2009 which puts yahoo at 51% over google at 39%[1]. However, google seems to be partnering with yahoojp to help them improve their search technology[2].

[1][http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/3/J...](http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/3/Japan_Search_Engine_Rankings)

[2]<http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201012020342.html>

</comment><comment><USER17> well on most SEO conferences there is the agreement that a good search optimized site gets at least 90 % from its search traffic via google in the us market.

in other western markets (i.e. germany) google has a market share of 98% plus and we are fine with it.

said that, one of my sites only gets 28% of its search traffic in the us market via google, but it has a penalty on most of its pages (everything but the startpage and its blog is banned from google and with good reason) so its an outlier.

</comment><comment><USER18> as far as anyone is concerned Google does indeed have a monopoly on search...Bing spent something like 150 million to bump their share by a few percentage points

And it's not like Google's product is that much better than Bing...the difference is really miniscule...but that's the problem...Google is good enough so to beat them you really need to bring something truly revolutionary to the table

</comment><comment><USER19> Is it just me or is Hitwise acting pretty aggressively/misleading against Google lately? It started last month with some of their Google+ stat numbers, and it's been at least 2 more such cases lately.

</comment><comment><USER20> IMO, there is little question that Google's search numbers are higher. This is one reason why I think US antitrust probes are more justified given some of their actions (not saying they've done anything wrong necessarily, but prudence is advised).

This also explains why MS search revenue is lower than expected. People don't click ads in navigational searches.

</comment><comment><USER21> I'll share some figures for some gaming sites from google analytics, these are global though, does anyone know how to narrow down by country with ga?

site a: 110m page views past 30 days, 51% Search engine traffic, google is 95%+

site b: 90m page views past 30 days, 77% Search engine traffic, google is 95%+

</comment><comment><USER22> According to Google Analytics, Google is 97.3% of my search engine traffic.

<comment><USER23> Tech heavy site?

I'm doing 98.3% Google here. (ignoring the mysterious search engine called 'search')

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Traffic sources for the last calendar month as measured by GA: [google, yahoo, bing]

my blog about R, bash, and whatever crosses my mind: <http://blog.earlh.com> : [1.4k, 9, 9]

my gf's blog about her life and our dog: <http://danceswithcorgis.com> : [877, 37, 14]

edit: see also acangiano's blogs: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2881340></comment>


Achieving Goals Like a Mad Klingon - <AUTHOR> http://www.dextronet.com/blog/2011/04/achieving-goals-like-a-mad-klingon/

<comment><USER2> Maybe some good content here, but jesus, does it have to come off as an infomercial?

Although I thought 40 hour work week had some neat ideas in it, my biggest complaint is the army of Tim Ferris clones it has created. I am so tired of the posturing, the "I will flaunt my (real?) success to create success" and other random personality hacks.

I know nothing of the author of this post, but the tone and writing style just makes him sound like he should be screaming the blog post to me, telling me how it is a limited offer.

No offense to you Mr Successful author, this was just the straw that broke my back.

Please.. stop.. the.. madness..

</rant>

<comment><USER3> My thoughts were similar, the content was interesting but the Jeff Atwood writing style had claimed another victim. As a writer, I strive to have my words and ideas express themselves without the constant use of italics, bold and exclamation points. I understand it's a choice (and God knows, it's made Jeff Atwood famous) but there's only so many important things to say in an essay and chances are they don't need to be bolded as badly as one might think.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I totally agree with what he's saying. At the beginning of this year, I weighed 236 pounds (6'1") and felt terrible about how I'd let my body get so out of shape. So, I made a commitment (mostly with myself, but let everyone else know) that I wouldn't eat out at restaurants (one of my favorite things to do - I'm a big foodie) until I got under 200 lbs. That was the only commitment - all of the details, as in what to eat, how to work out, etc. I figured I'd optimize as time went on because I wanted to go out to eat again.

It's been 4 months and I'm at 203 now - so I've lost about 2 pounds a week (while gaining a bunch of muscle too), and am closing in on my (initial...) goal of 200 lbs. Going to have a bit of a celebration, and then set another one for 180 and some type of cardiovascular measurement / achievement. This has been one of the best things I've done in my life so far.

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't think the premise is bad, but we're pretty good about separating REAL consequences from contrived ones.

Example:

Several years ago, I put a $100 bill in five different envelopes (w/ no return address)... all addressed to a guy I really, really dislike. I gave the envelopes to my housekeeper and told her that every week, we'd measure my weight and compare it to the previous week. If I didn't lose weight during the week, she was to mail one of those envelopes. It worked for 2 weeks, but then I gained 1/2 lb during the 3rd week and I pleaded until she handed over my envelopes.

I think there might be a workable hack here, but it takes courage to make the consequences real and irrevocable.

<comment><USER6> You should have just given the money to the housekeeper. Than you would, presumably, have been less likely to renege to her face.

Even more fun, make two sets of envelopes, one set of $10 bills and one set of $100 bills. The house keeper always gets an envelope, but your weight determines which one. That way, she's not too disappointed when you succeed, and when you fail, you've at least helped out somebody you like.

<comment><USER5> Although presumably the idea is not to fail.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This works for something like doing an Ironman, where it's up to you and only you. That's how I did my Ironman.

But it doesn't work like that for things that don't just depend on you, like doing a startup or closing a deal, even of you "Commit to it like a madman. Plow through like a Klingon. No looking back. Celebrate." You have to be very careful about this, because when the "Celebrate." part doesn't come, you'll learn how low the lows really can get.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed, but the important thing to remember is that it's not about completing the goal, but rather working towards it. That's a very important distinction.

For example, you can still work on your startup even when others are sabotaging it, rejecting you, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> "Like a mad Klingon"

I was just thinking the other day about terms like "ninja", "pirate", and "rockstar" that are so played out at this point they make me cringe whenever I hear them. Isn't there something fresh to convey the concept of being a badass? "Klingon" works pretty nicely. For now at least.

<comment><USER9> I actually studied ninjutsu (Togakure-ryu) for a several years in the late eighties. The core of real ninjutsu is _adaptability_ , not the movie-ninjutsu that apparently supported the "ninja coder" silliness.

"Like a mad Klingon" would be "Fire-style" in ninpo terms; direct, forward focused; make yourself into an "irresistible force", or as close to it as you can manage.

A real ninja coder would be someone with a wide repertoire of techniques and tactics and a deep understanding of his craft, and who constantly adapts his approach to the needs of the work.

<comment><USER10> Is there a pile of rotting forshak in here, or is it you? Compared to a Klingon warrior, a ninja is but a bloodless p'tahk!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Brilliant! Now, to find a sadistic, cold soulless partner...

Oh, rats! I've surrounded myself with helpful supportive friends and family. I'm screwed.

<comment><AUTHOR> "Tough love". Ever heard about it? ;)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Anyone remembers the post "Fooling myself to work"? <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2456222>

This is another life-hack that has helped me immensely when building my startup.

</comment><comment><USER12> There's a RadioLab episode where they explore this type of self-discipline (among other things). When a woman wanted to finally quit smoking, she told her friend that if she ever smoked again, the friend should take $5,000 out of her bank account and give it to the KKK. She couldn't bear the thought of her money supporting that group, and she never smoked again.

Edit: Here's the episode <http://www.radiolab.org/2011/mar/08/> It's really quite good, like most RadioLabs.

</comment><comment><USER13> The author says this is not very effective but not bad advice. I disagree, this is perhaps the worst advice you could give someone:

# Publicly announce that you will work on your goal, and that you are going to post regular daily or weekly updates regarding your goal. Announce it on Facebook, Twitter, and tell this to everyone you see regularly, etc.

[http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/09_Gollwitzer_Sheeran_Se...](http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/09_Gollwitzer_Sheeran_Seifert_Michalski_When_Intentions_.pdf)

Anyway, I'm still skeptical of the madman hack since that seems like what most students do and most students still have motivation problems.

<comment><AUTHOR> Don't forget that you are quoting the "What doesn't work" section. That being said, it can still work for some people.

Regarding the madman hack: It is definitely _not_ something that most students do. How did you come to that conclusion? I have never personally met anyone who does it (beside myself), and I know a bunch of students. However, I've heard about some successful people that use it.

<comment><USER13> Yes, my phrasing is kind of weird, it is definitely a "doesn't work" thing. And as the study shows, it might work when the task isn't identity-related, but considering it's an actively harmful strategy (rather than just "not working") I wouldn't even recommend it in passing.

Perhaps not many students act like Klingons but the crucial part of this post seems to be about making a credible commitment, with this as the example:

"I will work on my Android app at least 2 hours every single day for 6 months, or until the app is released. Every day, I will send you an email report of what I've learned or accomplished that day, and how many hours I've roughly worked. If I skip a day, it's OK, but if I ever skip two days in a row, I will give you $2000, and do your laundry and clean your windows every week for the next 12 months. You are to hold me accountable, and demand that I hold my end of the deal. If I ever forget to send you an email, you are to call me and ask me about my progress."

While I suppose a lot of students aren't planning on day-to-day schedules for their work (though some certainly do), there is nevertheless a cost that can easily exceed $2k for failing in college.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> That post could be boiled down to a single concept: commitment. If you're committed to an idea, person, goal or objective, you won't have to trick yourself into doing anything, it will just happen. That doesn't mean it will be easy but the effort becomes the means to the end. Without the commitment, the effort becomes the focus.

<comment><USER9> _Best statement in the book is in the section on decision blockages - "The Big Fact is this: In very few instances is one decision actually better than another." Many different decisions can be made successful, given the investment in seeing it through._

From my review of _Overcoming Indecisiveness_ ; a very useful little book.

[http://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Indecisiveness-Stages- Effec...](http://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Indecisiveness-Stages-Effective- Descision- Making/dp/038069977X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1304097038&sr=8-3)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Reads like a HOWTO for burnout.

</comment><comment><USER15> There's a fatal flaw in this technique ... one that usually gets me.

What happens when you fail the goal, then manage to re-negotiate the terms of the agreement so the downside almost doesn't exist?

What happens when you know in advance you'll almost certainly be able to do this?

<comment><AUTHOR> Klingons don't re-negotiate :) Ok, seriously now: If you fail, you do what you've agreed to. And even if you cowardly re-negotiate, you will probably get a hard time from your partner, which is nothing pleasant.

If you know that you will be able to do it, all the better. You will be able to make a bigger commitment.

<comment><USER15> I meant being able to re-negotiate :P

And yes, in principle, I'm all for doing what you've agreed to ... but in practice I'd really rather give the partner a different offer we can both be happy with.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, if you know you are like that, just initially settle with your partner that no re-negotiation which would make it more pleasant for you is possible.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Is the Life You're Living Worth the Price You're Paying to Live It? - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2011/07/is-the-life-youre-living-worth.html

<comment><USER2> I love the comment at the end of this article by iangotts [Moderator]

"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for – in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." Ellen DeGeneres

The world seems to be full of paradoxes. Entrepreneurship is my answer - I get to wear jeans.</comment>


Show HN: Web app that makes conversations more fun - <AUTHOR> https://www.outofcharacter.io <comment><AUTHOR> It's a web-app that makes conversations more fun by giving participants different rotating objectives to hit while having a normal conversation. No one knows what the other participants are being prompted to do until the end and it is meant to lead to outrageous conversation. The demo is also here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhNJlGzTHEQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhNJlGzTHEQ)

</comment><comment><USER2> Love this idea - well done. I think some prompts/hints would help. For example, people might not know how to play "You are elon musk".

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting, still checking this out. It might be great for remote team building too.

I spotted a small misspelling: "Pass the conversation to someone who has been _quite_ ". I think it should be quiet.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, and good catch, I'll change that

That's a good use case, we've been having bi-weekly virtual team-building meeting that always feel awkward, I'd be curious if this could at all fill a niche like that. --camaraderie is hard to create virtually</comment></comment>


Laid-Off Foreigners Flee as Dubai Spirals Down - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/world/middleeast/12dubai.html?_r=2&hp&pagewanted=all

<comment><USER3> Dubai always looked to me like it was some sort of Las Vegas without gambling, alcohol or sex. i.e. a hollow shell.

Now it turns out that it isn't even that.

Can't say I'm sorry.

<comment><USER4> Surprisingly, there's plenty of alcohol and sex there. Gambling is a separate story.

<comment><USER5> ... Compare it to Vegas. Alcohol is banned most places in Dubai. In Vegas there aren't even open container laws, you can walk around with a cocktail. As for the sex side, how many strip clubs are around? How many escorts? You can't walk down the strip without being offered cards for call girls. In Dubai you can't even kiss in public.

<comment><USER4> At any rate, for a country in the Middle East, they are a lot more open to Western values than anybody else on the peninsula.

<comment><USER6> Are you referring to drinking, gambling & prostitution?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Not surprised...Dubai has sounded way too good to be true for a long time. I doubt you really get cockroaches coming out of the plumbing, but I would believe that the palm island is sinking. I wonder if it was really a con (which implies intent from the beginning) or if they just got carried away and were then in denial that they were seriously overextended.

 _"Before, so many of us were living a good life here," Mr. Thiab said. "Now we cannot pay our loans. We are all just sleeping, smoking, drinking coffee and having headaches because of the situation."_

Dare I suggest that all the coffee and smoking may be responsible for the headaches?

<comment><USER6> I'm not sure if they meant con in the premeditated, organised sense. But there are probably all sorts of shady dealings going on.

Economies like Dubai's (& Hong Kong & other gateways) tend to attract money launderers, scams & other such 'cons.' There were probably builders that knew it couldn't last but built anyway.

<comment><USER8> Hong Kong is a working city and a great place.

<comment><USER9> I'm a year or two away from eligibility of permanent resident status here in HK and, while I obviously haven't hated living here enough yet to pull up stakes and move, I can't really agree with your assessment of HK as a great place.

The pollution is frighteningly terrible most of the year (some from vehicles here, some from coal-fired power plants here, and about 60% from industrial activities across the border on the Mainland), about half of the population endure a desperately low standard of living and live in sprawling public housing estates because they simply cannot afford to purchase or rent apartments of their own, the economy is run by a handful of tycoons that dominate every sector and drive the price of each and every good and service up, elections for the chief executive (local equivalent of mayor/governor) are "small circle" (a few hundred people, mostly pawns of the tycoons or pro- Beijing folks cast votes last time), etc.

It's a third world city with some British traditions that are being systematically expunged or, when that would likely draw too great of an outcry, gradually eroded under Beijing's rule.

<comment><USER6> It's a place run by it's own rules for completely utilitarian reasons. Without pretence of ideology. That's also a similarity with Dubai.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> _A new draft media law would make it a crime to damage the country's reputation or economy, punishable by fines of up to 1 million dirhams (about $272,000)._

That'll inspire confidence.

<comment><USER11> By my reckoning, if the law passes it would immediately apply to the people who wrote the law. Now that's leading by example.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> "Lurid rumors spread quickly: the Palm Jumeira, an artificial island that is one of this city's trademark developments, is said to be sinking, and when you turn the faucets in the hotels built atop it, only cockroaches come out."

Absolute garbage reporting, Robert Worth and the New York Times should be ashamed of themselves. I read the NYT for quality articles with solid investigative reporting backing them up, not FUD and gossip trash like the quote above (regardless of it's merit)

<comment><USER13> It's reporting that there are rumours = telling you something about how the locals feel. That's the reason for newspapers and reporters (and spys) instead of just reading raw data feeds. What people are saying - true or not - is the important news.

<comment><USER14> This is the line of reasoning Fox uses to justify reapeating innuendo without bothering to corroborate stories or check facts. It's an embarrasment to journalism.

<comment><USER15> Isn't calling them "lurid rumors" enough?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> While in the hindsight Dubai turned out to not make sense as a "global" city, it still might make sense for its vast "region".

I mean for the 2.1 billion living between Europe and South East Asia, (with a combined economy worth $1.8 trillion in terms of GDP, growing until recently at an annual rate of 5 per cent.) namely: North and Eastern Africa, the Levant, the Caspian, the Indian Subcontinent and the GCC States.

Dubai is not Las Vegas/Miami/New York, but for these 2.1 billion, a tuned-down version of these, even blended chaotically in a small city-state, would still completely make sense.

I am long Dubai.

<comment><USER17> This makes no sense. Vegas is popular because it is a central destination that is both cheap to get to and has a wide "scalability" in terms of spending. You can go as lavish or as run-down as you feel like, and that's part of the charm.

It's pretty darned expensive to get to Dubai from southeast Asia, and not to mention if you're talking about "hub of entertainment" you already have major cities like Shanghai and Macau. Why would the 1.6+ billion people living in China head all the way out to Dubai when there are plenty of "global" cities right on its doorstep?

Not to mention these cities are _actually_ based on real industries, real exports of real goods, and have an economy that doesn't rely on hype and speculation.

Dubai has no future. It doesn't even have that many oil holdings, nor does it sit in the middle of a large industrial economy. It has no reason to exist at the scale that people seem to think it deserves.

<comment><USER13> It's a safe (politically, legally, physically) place in an unstable region to base your headquarters or send your workers for R+R. Monaco has survived for 500years for similar reasons without a great deal of mineral wealth.

<comment><USER18> All of those things you describe need to be underwritten by solid economics. Rather than Monaco, think Switzerland. Or better yet, Malta.

<comment><USER6> Economies are complex. It's simplistic to think of Dubai as simply smoke & mirrors.

I would have said Singapore or Hong Kong. IE, Dubai is (was) a comfortable outpost for the (extremely profitable in good years) companies doing business in the region. If you need a base from which to conduct your dealings with Saudi or Iran, Riyadh or Tehran aren't as attractive as Dubai. Beijing wasn't either 25 years ago.

Then you have the second level of the economy. The financial services & the like servicing the companies that chase their customers out there. Then you have a large number of cashed up expats with less family, more income & fewer vestige expenses. You have the industries catering to them (real estate, entertainment). Then you have the industries that are comfortable extensions of this local luxury entertainment market. Tourists, tax refuge, criminals (eg money laundering).

There is n doubt that this was an obvious bubble. Especially in real estate. But directly selling commodities is not the only way to make a buck. That's compounded by the fact that no-one is sentimental about Dubai. If luxury apartment population starts to drop, that's it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Dubai has _debtors' prisons_! Wow.

<comment><USER20> As a mental experiment, let's imagine there were debtors' prisons in the US.

Do you think this would restrain consumer credit card/mortgage borrowing and prevent people form getting into the current mess?

<comment><USER19> Very few people borrow money with the _expectation_ of not being able to pay it back.

<comment><USER21> Not in the UAE/Dubai. It took a little to google up this story I read a while ago. The story of a guy who lost his job, fell behind on his loans and ended up in prison:

"She puts me in touch with Richard, a twinkly fortysomething who came to Dubai as a salesman with a multinational company. 'And then, in one month, I had a car accident, lost my job, and my marriage fell apart.'

Richard fell behind on his car payments, his bank loans, his credit cards. 'Everybody lives beyond their means here. It's all front. It's like Dubai - <USER2> totally false appearance to what it actually is.' He was charged by the police with defaulting on his loans and his passport was confiscated. 'So I couldn't get another job and I couldn't pay the debt, and I couldn't leave the country... and to cut a very long story short, I got 12 months.'

It's quite a story. He's only been out two weeks, but he's still managing just about to smile. But not even the judges are Emiratis: they're on short-stay visas like everyone else, and the only thing he had going in his favour, he says, is that he wasn't Asian. 'Tons of them are in for practically nothing: jaywalking or owing £10.'"

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/05/middleeast.gende...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/05/middleeast.gender)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Funny how about less than 3 months New York Magazine came out with this article "Escape to Dubai": <http://nymag.com/news/features/52180/>

</comment><comment><USER23> An article about foreigners in Dubai managed to get written without interviewing a single Indian - amusing. I was under the impression that Indians constituted a large portion of the foreigners in Dubai.

<comment><USER24> The Indians usually work in more menial jobs and aren't in a position to flee.

<comment><USER25> Don't confuse "menial" with "low paid". I'm sure there are many Indians working in Dubai that do just as much non-menial labor as others and simply get paid a lot less for it...just as in other parts of the world.

Also, try not to degrade "menial" labor unless you've spent a few years digging ditches yourself. Your perspective may change.

<comment><USER26> I don't think he was degrading the work. The definition of "menial" is:

"of or relating to servants"

He was saying that many of the Indians there are working under conditions that can make it impossible to leave weather they would like to or not. That is not a comment on Indians in general nor on the value of digging ditches. Rather it seems to be a comment on the terrible societal problems in Dubai.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> As the old saying goes, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is."

<comment><USER28> what if it never seemed good at all?

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Halliburtan just moved their headquarters to Dubai. I wonder what they are going to do now.

</comment><comment><USER30> This is why you stay away from these countries. You don't have the same rights and can't expect sane legal proceedings like you can in America.

<comment> tsetse-fly Make sure you're an American though, or else you might end up at Guantánamo- well, pre-Obama you might have.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/us/nationalspecial3/02gitm...](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/us/nationalspecial3/02gitmo.html)

</comment></comment><comment> daniel-cussen It's Potosí for the new millenium. Super ghost town.

If they knew their history, they'd know that having beautiful architecture can't save you if there's nothing to do.

</comment><comment><USER31> No amount of money would lure _me_ to a foreign country with debtor's prisons, where people go to jail for having a tiny speck of marijuana leaf found on the bottom of their shoe:

[http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23436226-details/...](http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23436226-details/Briton+jailed+in+Dubai+after+officials+find+cannabis+weighing+less+than+a+grain+of+sugar+under+his+shoe/article.do)

I do wonder what people were thinking.

<comment><USER32> Some of the prescription meds I take would have me arrested upon landing in Dubai.

Scary stuff.</comment></comment>


The Misfit Economy: Lessons in Creativity from Pirates, Hackers, Gangsters - <AUTHOR> http://www.misfiteconomy.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> Full Book Title: The Misfit Economy: Lessons in Creativity from Pirates, Hackers, Gangsters, and Other Informal Entrepreneurs.</comment>


Go Meetup Munich, 24.04 - <AUTHOR> http://www.meetup.com/Munich-Gophers-Go-User-Group/events/175786132/ Hi, I'm organising this event for the Go programming language, 24.04 in Munich. If you happen to be free on this evening and enjoy go, beer & pizza feel free to drop by. As this is our first meetup it's probably going to be a pretty small round :). Everyone's welcome! <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, I'm organising this meetup for the Go programming language in munich. Everyone is welcome, you don't necessarily have be a full blown go coder to enjoy the talks, beer & pizza :). It seems to be a pretty small round as of yet. If you happen to be free this evening, feel free to drop by.</comment>


Privacy Is Not Secrecy; Debunking 'If You've Got Nothing To Hide...' - <AUTHOR> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110524/00084614407/privacy-is-not-secrecy-debunking-if-youve-got-nothing-to-hide-argument.shtml <comment><USER2> What meaning have (intellectual) property if even what you store in a safe box can be extracted at will and used in not disclosed ways because they are secret, like giving them to a competitor?</comment>