Ask HN: My new startup idea: Let hackers build for you - <AUTHOR> So, my idea is to create a website where entrepreneurs or product owners will post their challenges along with constraints (product/services/requirements) and hackers will devise solutions which work within these constraints and community will vote and decide which one is best. Hackers will earn reputation and experience.
There are plenty of consultants offering special help. But many times you are not able to afford them or you don't know whether consultant really has the experience they claim under their belt. Well, with my startup idea they can easily verify by looking at hacker's history.
So, I need some feedback. What do you think about this idea? Do you've any suggestion for me? <comment><USER2> This post comes across as a diabolical plan to get quality work done for free. There's PLENTY of validation platforms for quality of vendors (Upwork, Github stars, etc). And if you REALLY want the best talent, there are companies like [https://www.toptal.com](https://www.toptal.com) that guarantee quality.

Your scheme to exploit quality developers isn't practical.

Are you a developer yourself? Would you like to work for free for someone else, for "reputation and experience" while they milk your labor for profits?

</comment><comment><USER3> I suggest you do this startup for free without getting paid, so you can improve your reputation and experience.

</comment><comment> middle-out this isn't supposed to be snide. apologies if it comes across that way.

try switching the words (and relevant phrases) "hacker" and "business people" to see if it still works.

as a hacker, i'm not overly optimistic that a marketer (ie. business person) would work on my idea for "reputation" or "experience", but perhaps i'm wrong. there are certainly hackers that work on open source, but that's probably for different reasons.</comment>


The Raspberry Pi 4 Is Now Available with 8GB RAM - <AUTHOR> https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2020/05/raspberry-pi-4-8gb-ram <comment><USER2> I'm actually very happy about this for a collateral reason: there's a lot of confusion "out there" regarding the 1.0 and 1.2 version boards (the former being those with the USB-C power 'bug', the latter being those that correct it) and very little clarity by sellers (at least in my neck of the woods) as to who is shipping what.

At least if one orders an 8GB unit (which was previously unavailable and therefore never released with the flaw to begin with) one has no risk of getting a flawed unit.

And this kind of points to a general lack of transparency that they should figure out how to address in the future.

</comment><comment><USER3> Curious to hear what sort of workloads people envision using this for. I'm a huge fan of raspberrypis and have used them for lots of projects over the years. Nothing remotely memory intensive though, mostly basic microcontroller stuff and for a cheap/easy way add a network connection to audio projects and the like. Don't know what I'd do with all that memory but I'm sure other folks will find plenty of cool ways to use it.

</comment><comment><USER4> Official raspberrypi.org blog post/announcement for anyone interested:

[https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/8gb-raspberry-pi-4-on- sale-...](https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/8gb-raspberry-pi-4-on-sale-now- at-75/)

<comment><USER5> Also noteworthy: "Not to be left out, today we've released an early beta of our own 64-bit operating system image."

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Still not enough to run Android studio ;D

<comment><USER6> Android studio runs fine on my 8GB Laptop, On pi bottleneck would be CPU not RAM.</comment></comment>


CYNK Trader Says Short Squeeze Cost Job After SEC Lethargy - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-15/cynk-short-squeeze-blamed-by-trader-for-costing-him-job.html <comment><AUTHOR> Discussion about the run up. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8015713](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8015713)</comment>


Bank of America analysts think there's 50 per cent chance we live in the Matrix - <AUTHOR> http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/bank-of-america-the-matrix-50-per-cent-virtual-reality-elon-musk-nick-bostrom-a7287471.html <comment><USER2> They're likely privy to some inside information on this matter. :-)</comment>


Why songs get stuck in our heads - <AUTHOR> http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2009/12/cant_get_you_out_of.html <comment><USER2> Title's a little misleading. From the article:

"...the reason why such tunes keeping buzzing around our conscious mind is still a mystery."

<comment><USER3> Title's a _lot_ misleading. It doesn't answer 'why' in the slightest, it just mentions that earworms exist, and that's about it.

Note that the article itself does _not_ have a misleading title. To the submitter: please don't editorialize titles.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> What about getting _part_ of the song stuck in your head? I've got the "Bravestarr" theme running circles up there, but since I don't know the lyrics, it's just "Bravestarr... Bravestarr..." over and over.

I wonder if this is more or less common with songs designed to appeal to small children? "Bravestarr," for instance, is one of those late-80s toy commercial programs a la "Transformers." In my experience, the other easily stuck songs are mostly pop or classic rock, and almost never classical. Perhaps Knuth's "The Complexity of Songs" ought to be recommended reading for these researchers.

Edit: of course, if one of you has Rachmaninoff or Bach stuck right now, my point isn't so valid.

<comment><USER5> It might also depend on the musical experiences of the person. (Edit: I finally got the article to load, and this is essentially what it's saying, I guess.) I can easily get fugues by Bach or Shostakovich fugues stuck in my head, or Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs), but I've been a student of music. For example, I had this stuck in my head, and I can - in my mind - hear this all the way through:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgre8dqZYa8>

But what always gets me the most, it seems, are doomsday-calibre earworms like We Built This City or It's a Small World Afterall.

<comment><USER6> I think it is harder to have more complex tunes stuck in your head. I will sometimes recall fondly shotakovich (symphony 11, movement 3 usually) in my head for about a half hour or so, but that is nothing compared to the unrelenting mind-invasion that old-time (traditional appalachian folk) tunes have.

Regardless of the individual variance in the complexity of the "earworm", one of the very interesting things is this interplay between short-term auditory memory and the loop being replayed. It will be even more interesting to see if their are ways to exploit this to effectively keep more things in working memory.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I can't remember where I first heard this, but I've always been able to get songs out of my head by singing them like Bob Dylan. I don't have to actually sing them out loud, but if I change the voice and cadence of the singer to Bob Dylan, the song goes away.

If it's an instrumental song, however, I'm screwed.

<comment><USER8> Do you like Bob Dylan, or is that a form of aversion therapy?

Have you tried "Bob plays harmonica" for the instrumentals?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> My personal experience is that "earworms" are caused by not hearing the ending of a song. For me its usually the song that is playing when I walk out of a store, or the song thats playing on the radio when I turn it off.

If I know the song well enough and I am able, playing it out to the end in my head gets rid of it.

</comment><comment><USER10> Four words: Smoke on the Water.

More often, though, I get a Bach Fugue - they can last for days. If I'm really serious about removing an "earworm" I recite poetry, ad I've specifically memorised a few poems for that purpose. It was one of my earliest "Mind Hacks".

<comment><USER11> Strange but true: James Kellaris, one of my marketing professors from college, is the guy who coined the term "earworm" - it's his primary research topic: <http://www.business.uc.edu/earworms>

<comment><USER12> In a sense, but "earworm" is a literal translation of the German "Ohrwurm", which predates it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> "Come Sail Away." But it only lasts for 37 seconds.

On a more serious note, it would be interesting to find out how many "earworms" (read the blog entry) are viral (almost all, most, few,...). Sing a bit and get it stuck in someone else's head.

<comment><USER2> Or you could just mention the title. Thanks a lot :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I found an earworm-killer. It's a more 'powerful' piece of music you really like that _isn't_ an earworm. Just play it, it 'reverberates' for a minute or two, and voila.</comment>


Ask HN: Great Interview Answers? - <AUTHOR>

There are many posts of the hopeless answers candidates give at technical interviews, and they are good for a laugh.  Now for something positive and inspiring ... What were the question you asked, the best answers you got and how the interviewee (I'm assuming they were good enough to be hired) turned out to be in the long term? <comment><USER2> Assuming their answers are all honest & display competence, I've found that the quality of _questions_ a candidate asks are a better long-term indicators of likely success.

<comment><AUTHOR> You mention the quality of the candidate's questions. Do you find those questions are general or an indication that they did some research before coming to the interview and thus specific to your company and/or the technologies that you use?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Maybe it's just me but I don't remember any but I definitely remember the bad ones.</comment>


Leaked pics reveal Google smart debit card to rival Apple's - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/17/google-card/ <comment><USER2> What's the point of this? Currently you can link your credit cards to Google Pay. Google has access to all transactions regardless if purchases went through Google Pay.

I would think that Google would be more interested in the data than potentially splitting transaction fees between the bank and payment processor. Why not put their resources to convince more people to use Google Pay?

</comment><comment><USER3> The dot pattern looks like some kind of machine-translatable grid. That could be fun when people start posting images of their cards online...

</comment><comment><USER4> If it's a debit card they'll have to convince me that I can use it to buy gas without blowing up my bank account.</comment>


What can entrepreneurs learn from an F1 World Champion? - <AUTHOR> http://rookieoven.com/2012/05/17/eie12-keynote-speaker-sir-jackie-stewart/

<comment><USER2> _"Hang out with the crows and you may get shot, hang with eagles and you will soar"_

That's a rather mundane statement in my opinion. "Surround yourself with the best and success will follow".

If that's true, the interesting question would be how you identify and attract the best.

Secondly, who are "the best and the brightest"? To me it almost seems like that if you are successful, these labels naturally will be used to explain your success. Apparent success makes other people attach these labels to you, your team and your company.

In this the entire construct of "attract eagles and you will soar" seems to be a tautology. If you soar, other people will think you are an eagle. But you might be lousy crow who just got lucky that it didn't get shot.</comment>


Visualize Your Taxes - <AUTHOR> http://datavizchallenge.org/ <comment><USER2> I went to one of their meetups about this but am just lost/uninspired as to what compelling story can be pulled from this data-set. It's just federal spending amounts broken down by very general categories and organizations which - without any other axes of data attached to them - make it hard to discern any kind of meaningful correlations.

You're also restricted to this and only this data set (and any data you can gather in the course of an interactive visualization's run).

<http://whatwepayfor.com/></comment>


Where or hiw do you find nice people that can give feedback of your work? - <AUTHOR> This. I'm trying really harder to connect with people to talk about technologies and how to achieve things. I send emails all days and I'm starting to think that this is impssible. Nobody seems wanting to spend a couple of minutes reviewing code from someone inexpert like me.<p>What can i do to improve? <comment><USER2> Check out [https://codereview.stackexchange.com/](https://codereview.stackexchange.com/) or the code review subreddits. If you follow their posting guidelines you're likely to get feedback on how to improve your (working) code.

I recommend you start with the free options above, but if you need more in- depth feedback we offer paid code review at [https://www.pullrequest.com](https://www.pullrequest.com). It's code review as a service for every popular language that can help you improve your code quality.

</comment><comment> 100-xyz Hi,

For code reviews, find a forum focused on that area. HN is designed for broadly popular subjects. If it doesnt fall in that category, you posting will just fall off.

What languages are working with?

Good luck.</comment>


PeerTransfer Attracts Financing From Spark Capital - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/peertransfer-announces-first-round-of-funding/?ref=technology

<comment><AUTHOR> Link peertransfer.com. Sounds promising.</comment>


Where are all the hardware companies with excellent culture? - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/creating-hardware-culture/hardware-software-94fb91aeefd8

<comment><USER2> Sony Ericsson Mobile Communication's culture was excellent, however I don't know either way about Sony Mobile, the result of Sony buying out Ericsson's interest.</comment>


25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning - <AUTHOR> https://dev.to/dechamp/25-years-of-coding-and-im-just-beginning-442n <comment><USER2> What every salary-person has to show for it: a life lived; bills paid; food on the table; health; a roof over your head; a body not ravaged and damaged by hard labor; the ability to relax and have some entertainment in the evening; a place to sleep; comfort; relative stability; the ability to make a living using mostly just your brain.

Yes, perspective is important, and I'm not saying one should not strive to make more of an impact if you want. Just don't overlook the fortunate times you live in and the benefits you enjoy every day.

<comment><USER3> You forgot to mention millions of dollars of value created for other people.

<comment><USER4> A lumber jack cuts down a tree and sells the wood for $500 to a high end furniture maker. This furniture maker then produces an armoire that he sells to a rich person for $7000. Was that lumber jack exploited because he only made $500 from the wood?

<comment><USER5> Uh huh and who are these artisans multiplying value (not just selling but literally adding value) of software systems by 14x?

<comment><USER6> I think PG said[0] it well:

Suppose you own a beat-up old car. Instead of sitting on your butt next summer, you could spend the time restoring your car to pristine condition. In doing so you create wealth. The world is-- and you specifically are-- one pristine old car the richer. And not just in some metaphorical way. If you sell your car, you'll get more for it.

In restoring your old car you have made yourself richer. You haven't made anyone else poorer. So there is obviously not a fixed pie. And in fact, when you look at it this way, you wonder why anyone would think there was.

[0] [http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html](http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html)

<comment><USER7> I'm guessing Paul Graham has never restored a beat up car to pristine condition. Your pristine condition car that will fetch you less than the new parts you put in when you sell it at what the market will pay for it. Restoring beat up cars to new state is a losing game unless someone pays you to do the work, except for some rare collectibles, which I am assuming are not your personal beat up car. And even then chances are just about even that you'll end up losing money on it. It's fun to do, you'll learn lots but please do not think you will make money this way, especially not if you put any value on your time.

<comment><USER8> As with all car analogies, this is _NOT_ about cars - it's telling a story about wealth creation...

<comment><USER9> But if it does not work he should have a better example.

Still remember the paper about the externality of bee farm and apple farm. Obvious issue of apple not paid the bee farm but no such issue - all paid and in fact have contract what kind of bees etc.

A bad economic example is bad example.

<comment><USER10> > Obvious issue of apple not paid the bee farm but no such issue - all paid > and in fact have contract what kind of bees etc.

What are you trying to say? This sentence is nonsense.

<comment><USER11> There's a famous economics paper by a guy called Meade that gives some examples of externalities (i.e., situations where what one person does affects another in ways not represented by market transactions); one example is of a region where some people keep bees and some grow apple trees, and the bees get food from the apple trees and/or the apple trees are pollinated by the bees. The beekeepers' productivity may be affected by the apple farmers' choices, and the apple farmers' productivity may be affected by the beekeepers' choices, but (in Meade's hypothetical situation) they don't trade with one another so the market doesn't do anything to push them towards making choices that work well together. (In which case, e.g., you might want the government to step in somehow -- regulating those choices, or arranging taxes or subsidies that encourage mutually beneficial behaviour, or whatever.)

But allegedly it turns out that in at least some cases where you have beekeepers and apple farmers near to one another they _do_ trade with one another -- with e.g. contracts stipulating what sort of bees the beekeepers are going to keep -- and the market _does_ do its thing, and the result _is_ efficient allocation of resources.

Here's a paper by Steven Cheung about bees and apples in the Pacific Northwest. It claims (I haven't checked any of its empirical claims or its theoretical analysis): [https://www.jstor.org/stable/724823](https://www.jstor.org/stable/724823)

<comment><USER11> Oops! I accidentally the last sentence. It should say something like: "It claims (I haven't checked any of its empirical claims or its theoretical analysis) to find the effects I described in the paragraph above: there are contracts, the market does its thing, and the result is efficient resource allocation."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Speaking from 40 years of programming (not counting before 18), OP needs to move to a life that's not about just programming.

The idea that OP has nothing to show from programming is short sighted, in that it's assuming that all one can or should created in life is code.

Do you have stories to tell? Tell them.

Do you know more about how to create solutions now? Become a better problem solver.

Do you know how to talk to a client about the "why" and not the "how" of a project? Be a creator of solutions, not software.

Also, the OP should start thinking of personal projects in a new way. Learn to fish, start a garden, volunteer somewhere, write, create art, travel, learn to play an instrument, learn to mediate. Anything that's not programming.

<comment><USER13> This response echoes my sentiment. I've been coding for 20+ years and have found that literally writing the code becomes a smaller and smaller portion of my day-to-day as my career moves forward. The solution design, guidance for less-experienced team members, pull-request reviews, solution design with customers/partners, etc. becomes a larger portion of my daily responsibilities.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'm a musician, and I've been one for, well, 20 years now.

Without a doubt, my most productive years were from year 2-6. At year two, I had mastered the instrument enough to be productive, and for the next four years, I'd practice up to 12 hours a day, writing and record stuff as I progressed on.

Lots of times, I re-visit older stuff, that I now felt I could do much better - having progressed as a musician and songwriter. Suddenly I noticed errors or things I hadn't done before.

As the years went on, and I got better, I (for some reason) lost that creative fire I had as a novice. I became much more critical, wanted everything to be "perfect", and would essentially stumble on more challenges.

And then, out of the blue, I'd hit a writers block - or just lose motivation all-together. Suddenly I could go for a year or two without writing or recording anything - zero output.

Even if I don't practice as much as before, I'm still a much, much better musician than I used to be. But my creativity and drive is nowhere the same as when I was transitioning from beginner -> intermediate -> good musician.

FWIW, I've noticed this with a lot of my peers, both in the world of music, tech, and other. Sometimes it's because a hobby has turned into work, or sometimes it's just change in interest.

It's hard to be passionate about something 24/7/365 for years and years, and when you're not passionate, it becomes a grind.

When you're a beginner, it's fun to re-invent the wheel over and over again, as you get a sense of ownership. YOU made it, even though it's been made millions of times before.

Sure, I could spend my evenings pushing out apps just for the sake of it, but it wouldn't give me any pleasure. And besides, that's what I do for a living.

<comment><USER15> Interesting! In some ways, you're describing the difference between art and craft, which might help explain why I often enjoy early albums more than later ones, or at least appreciate them for different reasons.

I've always loved programming, but whenever I'm asked why I don't switch from ops to development, my answer is that I don't want to destroy my hobby by becoming a professional. I've seen it happen, not only to photographers that shoot weddings and anything else that pays, but accomplished artists who can't afford to not spend their time and talent to "create new artwork for our HQ reception and conference rooms, since the old artwork doesn't match the new logo". It can be heartbreaking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> To start with I've been writing software for 32 years now. I went through what this guy did, at around the same age as him, give or take. And I got past it, as I imagine he will.

Today I work with people half my age who, and this is so obviously apparent it's actually funny, are convinced they have a better grasp of the problem and solution domain than I do. To be fair there was a young lady once who did, and it was amazing to be humbled like that, but it's hardly the norm.

Anyhow, when I hit my mid-40's my ego (which was substantial) just kind of... left. I still love tech, programming, solving problems. But this has taken second place now to enjoying myself, my son, life. I now live for moments - snowboarding, scuba diving, restoring an old BMW R80.

My biggest lesson to my 20-something self would be to get the hell over myself. Life isn't a competition.

</comment><comment><USER17> Fascinating comparison of comments. If you read the comments to the article, 100% of them are "same with me". If you read the comments in HN, 50% of them are "set your expectations correctly."

I read this and I felt like I needed to talk with the guy. It doesn't matter if you "don't have anything to show" for 15 years of work. It doesn't matter. Where is it written that programmers must have a hand-coded website or a open source project to their name?

I also never buy the "I'm too much of a perfectionist" line. That's not a thing.

You got bored. You didn't have motivation to complete. Sure, happens all the time. "Too much of a perfectionist" is not a thing.

<comment><USER18> This is an article on dev.to. The home of frustrated redditors trying to make a name for themselves. I'm starting to see too many of these on HN and have never seen anything posted there worthwhile reading.

<comment><USER19> Is dev.to the new quora? I haven't looked too much at it but it didn't seem to be the worst.

<comment><USER20> I wouldn't say it's a home for frustrated redditors, but having hanged around there for a while, it feels to be a place mostly made of junior webdevs teaching junior webdevs.

<comment><USER21> Yep.

The blind leading the blind.

But that's most blogs regarding development nowadays, most are garbage advice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> What is this obsessions with leaving something behind, or doing something noteworthy? Be selfish. Programming is my selfish pleasure; I love it therefore I do it.

Just remember, we are a tiny, insignificant speck in the history of our own planet, let alone the universe. If you truly believe you can improve people's lives with code, go do that. But don't make it about proving yourself to other people, or creating a lasting legacy. Ask yourself, if everything I made or affected disappeared when I died, would I still be doing this?

Fight Ego.

<comment><USER23> For me it's not ego, well not primarily I like to think. I find, after programming for 30 years now, that programming is deeply flawed and that it is basically a huge disaster waiting to happen (in many cases it's happening already). I want to try to at least progress the field a little bit further so it's not this bad anymore.

<comment><USER24> I would love to hear more about why you believe programming is deeply flawed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I've been coding for 30 years and I can't count the number of times my stuff has just disappeared into the ether. All the CP/M apps I wrote, the DOS apps, the risc/OS and the Windows and OS/2 apps, the BeOS stuff, the Linux stuff, the iOS and Android apps which no longer work yet will never be updated to 64-bit "just because", etc.

The industry doesn't promote longevity - and neither do its participants, who graduate from wherever they learned a career skill to enter the market and make waves - by writing new shit that will change everything, and guarantee that the work that was there before they came will become irrelevant and archaic "ASAP".

You need not blame yourself. This is normal.

<comment><USER9> If open source them trust me someone may take that up and use it. I did. Try to learn something and dig github and find something similar to start with. A basic old turbo bridge program. Just reading it now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I was applying for graduate school a while ago and the application form says: GitHub link to your programming portfolio.

Portfolio? I don't have a portfolio. My work is jealously guarded by the people who paid for it. I've been able to kick some stuff out as open source, but it mostly isn't mine or especially good. (The victory was overcoming the culture of fear.)

Of course, the form is for people who had just graduated recently. But it made me question myself.

And then it made me question whether I was wanting to study the right course. Were they open to having students who had more life experience than they did? People who have been in the field building real systems? Other stuff came up and I didn't end up finding out how it would go.

</comment><comment><USER27> It's a bit of a side point, but this is one reason I almost insist on incorporating some of what I do at work into open source projects. I realise there are places that make this very difficult. Sometimes you have to do it in reverse - find an existing open source project, get that in the door at work, then contribute to _that_ project. Done that way it doesn't seem like the same giving away the corporate crown jewels as open sourcing existing things originated in-house.

But the result is you don't end up 25 years downstream with nothing to show for it. You end up with a collection of open source projects to your name that you can keep working on and re-deploying over your lifetime.

</comment><comment><USER28> I get the sentiment but if you want to be able to point to things that you built years ago software is probably the worst career to take. We shutdown, delete, replace, and rewrite our work all the time.

The small amount stuff that lasts over five years gets called legacy and is made fun of.

<comment><USER29> _" if you program and want any longevity to your work, make a game. all else recycles, but people rewrite architectures to keep games alive."_

Why The Lucky Stiff

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I am in a somewhat similar position, although I can't say that I have a solid career. I've started through working on a startup and then miserably failed, wasting three years.

Then worked for a small company making money saving and useful services for them, but nothing extraordinary.

Then I tried again. And I failed again. I was disciplined. I planned and worked hard for half a year, having nothing to show for it in the end. To the point, when I just sat and said that I won't do anything code related until I understand where I lack understanding.

I've come to understand that my main problem is fear. Fear of rejection of things that I do. Fear that anything that I can share is of not enough quality to be shareable. Fear of being not appropriate to the people online, or expressing opinions that I have no right to express.

So, now I am working directly with fear. Will see where it will lead me.

<comment><USER31> FFS this comment resonates so deeply. I don't understand how to work directly with fear except for being completely occupied so as to make rumination impossible. Can you share any pointers?

<comment><USER30> Several things that I am working with now:

1) Doing what is difficult. (Started commenting on here, planning to share some of my work here and on Reddit).

2) Asking myself whether I am doing the right thing or avoiding it. (That is when you can spend 3 months in refactoring when you really should just make a landing and share the thing everywhere gathering feedback and iterating along the way)

3) Constant exposure. I am planning to take some work in sales (which I dread). That should help with breaking barriers.

4) Observing the mind. A form of mindfulness approach that warrants its own larger explanation.

Now, I am nearly at the beginning of this journey, but I think I will be able to figure it all out.

Hope this helps.

<comment><USER31> Thank you

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I got my first TI-82 about 19 years ago. Never had to study for a math test again. I've built some things since then as an employee, as a contractor, as an owner and even as a donor, but never really "hit it big" by SV standards. Still, it's hard not to be thankful for the way my life has gone so far. My single greatest asset is that I have the confidence to take on basically any technical project imaginable. I've started from the bottom of a new tech stack enough times and worked with enough different teams and bosses that I no longer have this fear of being enough or doubt my abilities the way I did even 5 years ago.

There is a lot of value in confidence, ability to execute and knowing the value of your own hour of effort. My advice to anybody out there who feels like the OP is to get our and expose yourself to new things, take a few measures risks and force yourself to grow.

<comment><USER33> > confidence

That confidence to handle any technical work seems to stem from gradual development abstract thinking w.r.t problems . Top notch problem solvers see beyond the technical details and focus on more abstract aspects of the problem. To them the problem at hand has a few key sub-problems that are very critical and thus, when those are solved, everything else is just minor details. Identifying those critical sub-problems seems to be the key. And that is usually developed over a good amount of real-world experience. There are genius people out there who can think in these lines in their teens, but those are few and far between.

All those years of working, those long hours, those brain wracking problems, those moments of sheet delight at having solved one, all of that _is its own reward_. I may not have anything to show for my 15 years in a field, but I have plenty of self-satisfaction and the _experience_ living those moments.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> There are two kind of life - swim in the sea and walk the mountain.

Swim in the sea you enjoy but nothing left behind. We call the people good at this guys with wisdom.

Walk the mountain you left a path. If the steps repeated made a path to ease late comer. But if not continue walk the path will be covered and gone.

When you walk you follow path not known who made it in many cases. Or create your own. We call them people of righteous.

Are you a swimmer or a walker?

<comment><USER34> The tradition of the camp-fire faces that of the pyramid.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> I cannot express in words how much I feel I relate to this post. Big thanks to the author of the article and OP for posting it here.

A few thoughts:

* Don't compare yourself to others, nothing, absolutely nothing, good comes out of it. Ever. I know this is especially hard in times when anyone can brag about their accomplishments in a blink of an eye on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else. Follow those people, learn from them but don't compare yourself to them.

* Even if you did not finish your projects you still have learned something which makes you a better programmer.

* Programming is just a tool. Nobody will care much about your code as long as it does its job - be it a great application, service or a useful library.

* Your job pays your bills, if you earn more than others (a very common case if IT jobs), donate money to charity, to a good cause.

* The author has taught a person to program and he created a website. This is not something to be jealous about, the author should be proud of himself. It sounds to be that the author is a good tutor, maybe there's an opportunity to participate in local meetups, organize workshops or start a career in that direction?

* As others already mentioned, programming is not the only thing in life. Maybe there can be other hobbies like painting, carpentry, or gardening?

EDIT: formatting

<comment><USER36> Thank you! I appreciate you saying this. I will take your points and apply them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> As article author did, I code since I was eleven and yes, that's 25 years too. I feel for him, because perfectionism along with need of exhausting everyday grind (especially when you have kids) quite reduces our ability to spend productive time to create Next Big Thing. But for me, the biggest showstopper is that I love to code, but just to code. I don't care much about sharing what I did, nor I want to get approval from someone who uses my work. Maybe I will overcome my issue one day, as author did overcame his. (edit: spelling)

</comment><comment><USER38> My father-in-law is a carpenter. When we talk about work, he talks about things we can drive around and see: porches, houses, parts of big buildings, housing projects. I have nothing to point to that would mean much of anything to him. At least I didn't up until the last ten years or so.

I used to focus on the code. People wanted stuff and the code had to be "correct" so that they could get what they wanted. I found "correct" to be endlessly complicated, but heck, that was part of the fun of it.

Then I focused on the people. How am I interacting with the people I'm trying to help such that I have a better idea of what "correct" means? I found that people don't know what they want, they don't know how their desires might change, and even if they did they are incapable of describing that to me in a way that would provide significant architectural guidance.

Finally, I balanced them. I created a definition of good code. _Good code is code that does something for people that they value that I can walk away from and never touch again_ If the code doesn't do anything valuable or I can't walk away from it, it's not good code.

This made me realize that as much as I knew about people and programming, I suck at good code. I get wrapped up in the people part, not figuring out value or being able to scope it well. I get wrapped up in the coding part, building out things that I'll only need in my imagination.

It made me feel a little better to see that so many other developers suck at my definition of good code also, but it was a terrible blow. Humbling.

I'm happy I made the change. I don't feel the way I used to a decade or two ago. My journey is not this author's journey, but I feel the pain he expressed in his essay, and because of that pain I began mine. Best of luck.

<comment><USER39> I like your definition of good code. In the industry we are brainwashed to think that code is something that needs constant maintenance. Good to see someone who haven't succumbed that mindset.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> _I guess I didn 't realize just how many people out there are seeking anyone who knows even a little more than they do. They don't care if that person has 25 years or 25 minutes more education than they do. They only care if they can learn from this person and build a communication line with them._

In the business world it's the same with software. At one place I worked they were paying thousands of dollars a year for a software product that was buggy and barely worked. It was _slightly_ better than a shared spreadsheet. But it was better, so they paid for it. Most non-technical people are pragmatic, and also jaded about software. They expect it to be arcane and difficult and spitting out errors and warnings. They just learn how to get through it in the ways that do work, and as long as it's a net time saver they'll accept it.

</comment><comment><USER41> I recommend "The War of Art". For me it holds up to multiple readings and gives me a kick in the pants each time.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1319.The_War_of_Art](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1319.The_War_of_Art)

<comment><USER42> I read this based on some HN comments, I found it to be pretty motivational but not much else.

Was there anything else you gained from it that I may have skipped?

<comment><USER43> The whole thing is concrete examples of thinking deeper about a problem. I guess it can be motivating if you're ever in position to corner an enemy army.

I'd say it's examples of game theory, that worked, without any sort of sense of game theory existing. It's kind of the root of a weird synthesized way of thinking about the world.

<comment><USER44> I think you are confusing "The Art of War" with "The War of Art". I've partially read both and the second one is purely motivational and not much else.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Hi there, programmer since age 4, professionally for about 27 years. You haven't heard of me. There's a fair chance you've used something I've worked on, but more likely you haven't. I'm over 40 and haven't had my zillion dollar Californian exit. In fact, despite extracting some rather generous sums from clients over the years, I still often struggle financially due to the people, animals, and causes I care for.

I know people who've had exits. Some of them have a family they neglected for it. Often there's an abused (or just cheated-on) spouse. Many of them are just pure sociopaths who would shank their own mothers, and literally gave all to pursue an exit. If you really wanted to join them, you know you could. But you haven't. This shows that despite your doubts about your career, you have some degree of integrity. And yes, I'm aware not all people with the Grand Exit achievement are this dirty, but having had a front-row seat enough times, I can verify it's substantially easier when they are. I should also mention I know some genuinely nice, and not incredibly talented, people who sort of stumbled into the Grand Exit and have been horribly alienated by the ruthless financial demands of entitled "friends and family."

You've chosen your battles, be proud of your choices. In just a few more decades, you and I and the overachievers will all be equal below the surface of the planet. Their names and works will be forgotten too.

Till then, let's have fun and maybe lift a couple other people up with us.

<comment><USER36> wow, this gave me cold chills. I seriously ran through scenarios a million times of what happened if I made progress on my projects and they sold for big money, is that even something i want? No, it's not. I just want to code cool things, and maybe share my knowledge with those who are interested in it. Have my family close to me. What I really want is just to feel like I have a story to share with others. To have my knowledge and skillset appreciated by others. I don't need to be rich or have the coolest projects. Money is great, but you're right, it brings out the devil in some. My aunt's husband just died and his own kids are after the money... it's sad. So I'll take your advice. I'll be grateful for my family, and for my experience. That I get to code, that is my reward. Thanks again for this post.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> I think one of the most important lessons I took from the coding boot camp I went to was the value of the MVP. There, the first step was to deploy an index.html with "hello" before doing anything else, before even npm init. Then, get your framework running with another hello. Then, the barest functionality possible - if we were building a GitHub analysis thing, make the frontend capable of listing repos before building the server that did analysis on those repos (or vis versa).

Through a couple group projects I refined the concept of KISS and feature prioritizing, siloing, and escalation.

</comment><comment><USER47> Programming is a means, not an end.

</comment><comment><USER48> > I only have websites for clients, which most are no longer up; or businesses > I have worked for as an employee.

This is the worst and contributed to me doing different things, for me it was apps whose API servers were no longer responding.

It is very hard to keep your portfolio up to date, when you aren't able to show even the public facing side of it.

<comment><USER49> 1\. Make a video, showcasing results. If you need approval delete sensitive data first

2\. Take lessons from work apply to opensource. You take your lessons learned with you everywhere

<comment><USER36> I like this idea, thank you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> The key is to be open to understanding yourself. Have people praised your intelligence in the past? That can be paralyzing over time. Or did they praise your effort?

I recommend giving a book called Mindset a read. It helped clarify behaviors of a fixed vs growth mindset, and how having talent still means working hard and putting themselves out there.

This book appears well researched and is the first audio book in a whole that has been able to hold my attention.

[https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S- Dweck/dp/0...](https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S- Dweck/dp/0345472322)

</comment><comment><USER51> Some suggestions I have for the author is to participate in open source or write a blog, which allows you to benefit others with your work and gives you "something to show for it".

<comment><USER36> Totally agree. That is part of the fear I've dealt with. Would these developer even accept or want my help? I realize now, I have to just do it and learn to improve until they do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> I have been in this same space for a while. But the problem I am solving is lot more complex for a individual part time contribution. I am aware of it and I keep pushing it and it is now into final testing / deployment though a million things can be polished. I am dying to release it, but the problem itself to be solved reasonably well kept me at it.

<comment><USER36> Just do what I did. I cut a new branch, removed all the parts that weren't done and released it. Then I wrote a post about my fear about it, and the comments have motivated me so much that I already did a whole new layout just in 1 night!

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> "I've worked on software/apps that pull in millions and millions of dollars and have hundreds of thousands of users. So when it comes to work, I'm solid and secure."

Sorry but nope. Just because you've worked on something that is popular doesn't mean that it is of good quality or well developed or secury or that the particular devs are competant or good.

<comment><USER36> I meant emotionally, that I'm solid and secure. That was not a reference to my code. The point of me stating I worked on projects that make millions and millions with thousands of users, is that, if I can do that and work on that with confidence (not ego), then why am I so scared to work on a tiny project and even release to just a few people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> Just realized that I have 29 years of experience

</comment><comment><USER55> He's only 36. pfft.

</comment><comment><USER56> I feel this same thing with coding every day. Architects and Engineers design building/bridges that last lifetimes, Doctors cure people, Lawyers can advance our legal system.

We crank out code under deadlines for projects that get shuttered/replaced within a couple years due to changing tech business.

</comment><comment><USER36> OP here. Perhaps I should have clarified what I meant by "having nothing to show for it". I meant in the sense of my portfolio. If you asked me to see what I've built, I'd have nothing to show you other than corporate websites.

</comment><comment><USER57> When the first thing I learn about someone is how long they've been doing their job, a little red flag begins to climb the pole. It usually announces some deeper insecurity about their competence at said job.

</comment><comment><USER58> Sounds like a good healthy dose of imposter syndrome.

It's a struggle a lot of us have.

Thanks for writing this.

</comment><comment><USER59> Pretty cool site so far, the background noise feature is pretty soothing

</comment><comment><USER60> Sounds like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midlife_crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midlife_crisis)

</comment><comment><USER61> I feel cheated by the TL;DR - you can listen instead of _" read"_. But it takes longer, where's my summary!

I think the tension between perfectionism and pragmatism is intrinsic to programming. You need some perfectionism to be able to do it, but there's no limit to how overperfectionistic you can be.

20 years ago, the "pragmatic programmer" addressed this issue. [https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pragmatic_Programmer](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pragmatic_Programmer)

</comment><comment><USER62> Jordan Peterson has come up with this rule: "Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today". Aside all the controversy that surrounds him, this is really deep and solid advice IMO. You don't live the life to impress others, so who cares if you have to show "something", you did a tones of projects, you got knowledge and experience from those projects, that's what you can (and should) show - and if you also got yourself a normal, stable life, family, friends - what else do you need really? Fame, boosting your ego by getting stars on github, is that really such a big deal?

<comment><USER63> Pretty sure that Jordan Peterson didn't come up with that.

<comment><USER62> I can't claim that he did or did not, I quoted him simply as I first heard it from him in this form. And it's not really important who come up with the idea first, in some way it is really an obvious thing, but we all forget about it too often. With the rise of Internet we stopped comparing ourselves with people around us locally, instead now you compare yourself with the whole damn planet. Instead of competing with few hundreds or thousands, you've now set yourself against billions of people - and that's a recipe for depression.

<comment><USER63> You actually said he came up with that, so I corrected you.

<comment><USER62> I meant that it's one of the rules from his book 12 Rules for Life.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER64> As a relatively new coder, I feel like I took a lot away from this article. There was a lot that they mentioned that made a lot of sense to me and I will try to hold on to.

</comment><comment><USER65> People seem to assume that once they get a computer science degree, and when they become good programmers, they will automatically be wise in all domains of life. The cockiness and gigantic egos of programmers is very clear evidence of this. Some of the weakest people I encounter, in terms of the thoroughness and completeness of their existential philosophy, are programmers. Having a feeling of content or completeness when you identify as a "programmer" is a trap that only the weak-minded seem to fall into. Just look around the peninsula now.

</comment><comment><USER66> You are not coding from the age of 11 !! , you are coding from the day you paid to code

</comment><comment><USER67> I'm glad you had a long career and continue to do so. You sound similar to engineers I've interviewed with 1 year of experience for 15 years. Good luck on your journey.

</comment><comment><USER68> No offense, but you claim you have been "officially coding for 25 years now". You state you are 36. Were you really, officially doing anything at 11 years of age. What does that mean? I was a solder tech at 13 years old. I NEVER throw that out there in any blog or write up, even though I was _literally_ getting a paycheck from a company. Does that make me an official solder tech? Hell no. When people ask how much experience I have as that, I usually start from the time I was 18. Why? Most of the world does not care what we did as kids. I find it strange you would throw out "official coder" at 11. Really, what does that mean?

<comment><USER69> Wow. Downvote. When I was 11, I was writing assembly to modify SEGA Genesis games, writing my own C++ functions for SRB2, a modification of the DOOM 2 source engine, and experimenting with my own raycasting 3D engines.

People can do really serious programming at virtually any age. I'm 29. I've been coding for almost two decades, extremely seriously. I got my first job as a software dev for Chase banks directly out of high school, and I'm currently employed at one of the top banks in Canada.

I would argue part of my curiosity as a kid really blossomed my coding ability, especially in terms of stretching limited hardware to its limits.

Don't discount kids. They are the future.

<comment><USER70> Aaron Schwartz, well known case in point.

Many of us were doing things in our early years. That crap is for the people who will consider it.</comment></comment></comment>


Computer program claims Shakespeare didn't work alone - <AUTHOR> http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/article6870086.ece <comment><USER2> _Stanley Wells, chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, said: "I am sceptical, frankly, that we have yet reached a stage where these computer- assisted investigations can prove authorship._

While I'm not an expert in the field, I question Stanley's knowledge of the subject. To me it feels like a situation where someone refuses to accept that a "mere computer" can figure out something about literature that humans are still questioning.</comment>


Gmail Finally Appeases The Tab Addicts With A Dynamic Unread Count Favicon - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/25/gmail-favicon/

<comment><USER2> FYI, the Better Gmail extension to Firefox has had this capability for at least a year now (amongst other useful features).</comment>


The Man Behind 'Solarized,' the Most Important Color Scheme in Computer History - <AUTHOR> http://observer.com/2015/02/meet-the-man-behind-solarized-the-most-important-color-scheme-in-computer-history/ <comment><USER2> Interesting article. I really like Solarized for the longest time, but these days I prefer Zenburn; it's less harsh on the eyes, although certainly not pretty to look at.</comment>


Command and Control film: A worker drops a socket at a Titan II missile complex - <AUTHOR> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/command-and-control/ <comment><USER2> The film is based on the book "Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety" by Eric Schlosser. This should be required reading for every engineer. Also a ripping good yarn, just aching for the Hollywood treatment.

A nice companion read is "A Review of Criticality Accidents" a report put out by Los Alamos National Laboratory [1]. Fairly technical and a fun read. And by "fun" I mean both scientifically fascinating and seriously disturbing in equal measures. Who knew that the wrong shape container could kill you just by standing near it...

1\. [https://www.orau.org/ptp/Library/accidents/la-13638.pdf](https://www.orau.org/ptp/Library/accidents/la-13638.pdf)</comment>


Defining the "level" of a programming language? - <AUTHOR>

I understand that a lot of programming languages belong to certain "level". Like Assembly which is defined as "low level". What standards or factors should we consider to define a language to be certain level. What traits should a programming language have in the future that we can define them as higher level compared to current programming languages? What language is most likely to be the next "higher level"? <comment><USER2> The "level" of a programming language is largely based on a function of the degree to which the language provides abstractions that separate the programmer from the details of the implementation in machine code. A low-level language provides few or no such abstractions; higher-level languages provide increasingly more abstractions that separate the programmer from implementation details.

Obviously, the lowest level language is machine code itself, which has no abstractions at all, and is just sequences of numbers. This is just about as low as it gets. Assembly language provides one level of abstraction: instead of dealing with opcodes directly, the programmer uses mnemonic names for the instructions, which the assembler converts into the opcodes. The assembler will generally also allow the programmer to give memory locations names so that they can be addressed in a symbolic way instead of by their numerical addresses. But the programmer still has to write each machine instruction himself or herself, keep track of what is in what memory location and in what register, and so forth. Assembly is therefore the "middle level" of programming languages.

The next step up introduces abstraction at the instruction level. Instead of specifying the exact instructions to be used, the programmer specifies what operations are to be performed and the compiler figures out the best way to do that. Programmers no longer have to keep track of what is in what register from instruction to instruction; the compiler does that for them. This also allows for programs to be written that do not depend intrinsically on the underlying instruction set of the computer. A program written in FORTRAN (the first language at this level) should run the same way on literally thousands of different architectures (although you'll run into issues with the definition of "number" being different). This is arguably the gravamen of a "high level" programming language.

Unfortunately, once you go past this level (the level at which FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, and C all live, along with other relics like PL/I and Modula), it gets confusing, and often argumentative. That's because beyond this baseline, languages add different additional abstractions. Not all further abstractions are compatible with one another, and different abstractions provide different solutions to similar problems. It's not possible to arrange them into a hierarchy. Is Haskell higher level than Prolog? Is Clojure higher level than Ruby? Where does APL fit into this picture? SNOBOL? FORTH? (I've been around a while and have probably forgotten more programming languages than a lot of today's programmers know.) These questions can't be meaningfully answered because the languages are on different branches of a very complicated tree that has lots of interactions between its branches. In some cases you can make a coherent argument, such as when one language is a clear evolution of another, with additional abstraction layers added. So, for example, it is fairly reasonably arguable that C++ and Objective C are higher level than C, because both are evolved from C, and add abstractions that C lacks. But you can't really say which of C++ or Objective C is "higher level". And when dealing with languages that are not well-related to one another (such as, say Clojure and Ruby) it's quite impossible to say that one is "higher level" than the other. All you can do is enumerate the ways that they are similar and different.

So, while I've seen people try to create definitions for levels beyond "low", "middle", and "high", these definition usually reflect value judgments by the person making the definition (e.g. "functional languages are higher level than imperative" or "languages with intrinsic memory management are higher level than those with explicit memory management").</comment>


Latency is a Killer - <AUTHOR> http://mike.bailey.net.au/blog/?p=38

<comment><USER2> Here's a list of Australian VPS providers. <http://www.vpsau.com/>

Unfortunately they don't all provide self service and some even have a setup fee!

The amount of traffic you get varies. For $40/month I've seen 5GB up to 60GB traffic on a 256MB VPS. I'm one of the people shocked by the true impact of choosing cheaper overseas hosting. I'm also running 12 VPS's at home on a DSL connection and they're super fast for Aussie users.

</comment><comment><USER3> As an Australian I can confirm that the AUS to US latency (or AUS to anywhere really) does indeed suck. I REALLY notice the difference when I on an Aussie site.

However hosting over in the US is a lot cheaper than it is to buy locally. Still, I'd urge application developers to buy hosting in the country of your target market.

</comment><comment><USER4> Are there any Australian startups here and if so, are any of you primarily targeting Australian users?</comment>


How to Use Game Mechanics for Good and Evil: The "Gamification" Trend - <AUTHOR> http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2010/07/14/gamify-this-seattle-web-experts-give-pointers-on-using-game-mechanics-for-good-and-evil/

<comment><USER2> _"While he proudly says there's nothing he can't gamify"_

 _"This is probably a 10-year trend," he says. "Then it will morph into something else."_

I'm not sure I agree with game mechanics only being a 10 year trend. Who knows what the internet will look like then. It will for sure look different than it does today, but people will still want things to be fun. I don't think our natural tendency to turn things into competitions is going away anytime soon.</comment>


Vineyard of Silicon Valley VC hit with $4m in penalties after bulldozing wetland - <AUTHOR> https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/9858279-181/vineyard-of-silicon-valley-investor?sba=AAS <comment><USER2> There is a good chance they knew that and the fee is cheaper than spending money to convince the county to allow them to build (ex. paying for environmental studies and permits)

<comment><USER3> They're a VC. Managing risk is what they do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> 3 million is pittance for people like this.

They should have a fine _and_ be required to fully restore the land they destroyed.

We don't let someone who stole a tv keep the tv, not should we when they're stealing public resources.

Otherwise the message is very simple: breaking the law only adds to the construction cost but let's you keep the construction.

<comment><USER5> _They should have a fine and be required to fully restore the land they destroyed._

No, they shouldn't simply be fined and required to restore the land.

In addition to all of this -- they should be _put in jail_.

That's the only way these people will begin to get the message.

<comment><USER4> These people inevitably hide behind companies. The obvious solution is to make executives of companies that commit criminal acts themselves be held criminally liable. After all they've spent decades arguing their grossly disproportionate incomes is due to the "risk" they're taking.

But in the US especially it seems unlikely law makers will ever hold the people who pay them culpable

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> That was probably a smart move on the contractors part. They would have never been able to get permits for that stuff and it would have taken years. Filling in wetlands is almost always the right thing to do economically

<comment><USER7> Sure let's fuck over the habitat of migratory birds because it's "the right thing economically". Who cares the consequences?

What a psycho thing to think. Fuck off.

<comment><USER6> Incentives drive behaviors, this is true everywhere. If the fines are less than the benefits X odds of getting caught then the behaviors will continue. In this case they should have been forced to restore wetlands in place or forfeit the land. This minor fine is just the cost of doing business</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is there any place to read about Payment system pitfalls? - <AUTHOR> We are adding payment system into our product. We want to know what kind of pitfalls we may encounter while building such system. Patterns used while developing payment systems. What kind of architecture are used by other systems and so on. (We don't have guys with prior experience with building scalable payment system, other than integrating Stripe or similar things) <comment><USER2> These pitfalls sound specific to payment systems, but really they're just software engineering pitfalls viewed through a payment lens.

Be careful around the types you're using to represent monetary amounts. Strongly typed languages will give you some defense against accidental rounding errors (don't use floats).

Are you adding a payment system to a product or are you creating a payment service that your product will use? Coupling your product / business logic with your payment/billing code may work for now... but in a year you may need to add another consumer or extend the billing code in a way that won't be possible if it's too tightly coupled with the business logic. Will you need to support multiple payment options per user? Subscriptions?

Also, if you're planning on using a single CC processor, Stripe is a pretty good choice. Just be careful about the coupling I mentioned earlier, you don't want to be too tightly coupled to any external services (like Stripe or another processor).

Another thing to keep in mind -- what does downtime look like? Will your payments fail, will you lose customers? Or is it designed to handle and recover from downtime.</comment>


Firefox CSS Hacks Selector - <AUTHOR> https://mrotherguy.github.io/firefox-csshacks/ <comment><USER2> The text needs to have more contrast on the main page to make the content more readable - that's my only comment. Thanks for building this!</comment>


Supercharge your Google+ social results: Google+ Suggested Users. - <AUTHOR> http://www.recommendedusers.com/peoples-choice/ <comment><AUTHOR> After writing a post about how much value the Hacker News Google+ Circle added to my search results for technical queries when google turned on social results (<http://thesash.me/how-google-got-its-groove-back>), I got to thinking about how that could be applied to other interests, and then came across this. It seems to me that despite all of the hand-wringing surrounding the launch of social results and the implications for SEO, following experts in a variety of areas adds a pretty impressive layer of value to search.</comment>


Why I Silence Calls Even When I'm Free - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/why-i-silence-your-call-even-when-im-free.html?src=rechp

<comment><USER2> "This is [because] I am always on offense and never defense."

[http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/my-phone/2013/03/dave- mori...](http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/my-phone/2013/03/dave-morin-path- facebook-apple)

<comment><USER3> "I have two iPhones, one for day and one for the night. When the day phone runs out, the night phone takes over. I never have to worry."

talk about wasteful...

<comment><USER4> At launch, an unsubsidized 32GB iPhone 4 cost $599, let's be pessimistic and say you get two years of use out of it and are unable to sell it for anything, that's $25/month. Not exactly an extravagant business expense.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, because this guy will sit by and use an iphone for two years while watching the new versions come out...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hmmmmm. A rant....

This might be culture, or just the people I know, but...

There seems to be an expectation that I'm supposed to respond immediately to any call or text, and if I don't, some how I'm an arse. I have a mobile, there for apparently I'm never possibly parted form it, have the instant ability to stop anything I might already be doing, and its damn rude not to answer with in 3 rings, or reply to a text the second I receive it.

As such, I have come to view my mobile as some sort of pocket Nazi, who insists I will do as told.

Well, no.

I didn't get a mobile phone so that others can dictate my life and it's schedule. So, no, I don't immediately pick up ever call or immediately respond to texts. I do so as and then I see fit. Obviously Im selective about it based on context, but there is no way Im going to allow that little pocket Nazi rule my life.

It really gets to me how I might be in the middle of something with another person, and any time their phone rings, what ever we are doing must be paused so they can take the call or respond to a text. Its like the phone has a priority over an actual person one might be with. Its just plain rude. I see it all over the place, and it appalls me.

Ahhhhhhhhhh HN therapy. :)

<comment><USER6> Get new friends and/or coworkers. Seriously, reasonable people do not expect an immediate response.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> _the new rules of engagement: Call only if truly necessary. Text first._

These new rules of engagement are also old rules of engagement. In older times people called only if truly necessary. They hand-wrote letters otherwise.

I wish people started writing letters again. There could be a startup idea waiting to be discovered around this.

<comment><USER8> email?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I have unplugged my work phone. No one has noticed or mentioned it. Most messages are emails and texts on my cell. I don't answer the cell unless I know who is calling.

</comment><comment><USER10> I always pick up because I'm excited that someone wants to talk to me.

<comment><USER11> I remember feeling like that. Sigh.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> It's funny, I'm often exactly the opposite. Sometimes I'll just call people up...without warning, without scheduling. It'll catch them off guard at first, but I find it hands-down more efficient. Often times five minutes on the phone can garner a resolution easier than eight hours on an email chain (only to end up scheduling a call for the next day).

I really wish that people were more open to this; it's strange because it's how most of the world operated 10 years ago, but the thought of just calling someone up is almost ludicrous now...

<comment><USER13> Wish they understood that in the USA South. Just recently moved here.. In the north, yes -- people understood not to call. I get so annoyed as everyone calls me for the most silly reasons in the south! NEVER is there a text first.

<comment><USER12> I'm from Alabama...this might explain it :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> "And yet, I watched the call come in without touching my phone."

Pro tip: Hit the volume rocker to mute the ringer without cancelling the call. Works on at least iOS and most Androids.

<comment><USER15> The top button on iphone will mute the ringing and let it "ring out" as if you're away.

I feel sneaky using it as opposed to declining the call, but Italy's best rule for warfare as always been "the best defense is to not be there".

<comment><USER14> It can be sneaky or considerate, depends when you use it. The problem with the abrupt "hanging up" button is it's binary like a car horn - there's no way to do it nicely. If you're in a meeting where you can't take the call, it's a gentle way to let the caller down.

<comment><USER16> I think you're confused about the function of the sleep button on the iPhone. When an iPhone is ringing, pressing the sleep button one time silences the ringing and vibration, but does not "hang up" the call. Pressing again, however, will "hang up" the call.

<comment><USER17> No, he agrees with you. He thinks pretending like it rang and rang without you noticing it could be considered a considerate gesture under certain circumstances.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This kind of sickens me, who treats their family like that?

<comment><USER19> She's a horrible excuse for a relative. Yea, I get the point that "nobody picks up the phone these days", but it was her own sister calling.

<comment><USER20> You forgot "and then wasn't even bothered to listen to the voicemail".

Why would you even want to talk to her, with that monumental level of disdain?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> It is only proper that I refuse to read the article.

</comment><comment><USER22> I have a habit of doing this too, actually. Talking on the phone just feels too much like work.

<comment><USER19> Even when a relative calls?

<comment><USER22> When my mom calls, I always pick up. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> We should all turn off our phones until a Bruce Springsteen song makes us burst out crying: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c)

I'm joking, of course, but Louis makes some insightful points that go along with the author's argument.

</comment><comment><USER24> I think this is a side effect of the Internet. Smartphones give you unlimited information at your fingertips. With all the distractions online, it's easy to become detached from your friends and family. I have the same problem.

<comment><USER25> It's a side effect of being an inconsiderate person.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> > Last Download: Mailbox.

> "I use [it] to keep things at 'inbox zero.'

Well, only 129 to go.

</comment><comment><USER27> I think this is more about the control you lose with a phone conversation vs. a text conversation.

</comment><comment><USER28> Sounds like a developing anxiety complex. I know three people who started out like this and justified it in different ways, then going straight to no pretense, just hating the phone, then eventually a full blown anxiety disorder.

This was the first of a few symptoms.</comment>


Not even wrong - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@rafhatim/not-even-wrong-caa093c8023f <comment><USER2> Not even coherent. What are you on about?

<comment><USER3> Agreed ... this is a horrible article (I didn't bother finishing it). And what's with the lack of capital letters? Perhaps the author has a broken shift key they should deal with first?</comment></comment>


Hellbanned from Hacker News - <AUTHOR> https://jcs.org/notaweblog/2012/06/13/hellbanned_from_hacker_news/ <comment><USER2> Nine times out of ten, the cabal makes good calls about hellbanning people, and the bans improve the site.

But when they get it wrong, boy, do they ever get it wrong. For instance, Paul Graham personally hellbanned Maciej Ceglowski for calling Sebastian Marshall a "prolix douchebag". Maciej's comment was not a high point of Hacker News decorum and in that instance probably degraded the site slightly, but no reasonable person could have looked at 'idlewords comment record and not come to the conclusion that Maciej is someone we want on the site. Sometimes, you take the bad with the good.

There have also been times where it's apparent that there is, if not "automatic", than at least "mechanical" banning for reasons other than nasty comments. I don't know or care what the abuse mechanisms being tripped are --- I buy into the idea that in this case, obscurity is making some baseline level of security cost-effective for Graham and his team. But it's important to know that whatever mechanical process is banning people for abuse, it's imperfect.

Ultimately, I think Graham is in a bind here. A more typical forum site would enlist more community support to help police the site. Graham can't do that, because HN also runs important parts of YC's (very sensitive) applications and communications process.† I have a hard time holding this against him. Managing a sprawling forum site is a hard problem. Doing that while having the site do double-duty as the front-end for your startup seed fund system must be a nightmare.

So I'd generally say: assume good faith; don't make a production of the mistakes; but, know that the mistakes do happen, are pretty annoying, and are worth at least remarking about.

† _(It's worth knowing that YC members also have some silent perks on HN, beyond the job ads)._

 _e45f8d80989cd423c9bfa66738395f8d71c89d8f_

<comment><USER3> _For instance, Paul Graham personally hellbanned Maciej Ceglowski for calling Sebastian Marshall a "prolix douchebag"._

No I didn't. If I had, his comments after that would be dead.

Edit: tptacek points out that he was briefly banned, though not long enough to cause any of his comments to be killed.

<comment><USER4> <assuming notion="your edit is in regards to tptacek's response">No, what tptacek actually said was: "he did have comments killed; that's how we noticed he was hellbanned".</assuming>

I personally remember seeing a few that were dead after the "prolix douchebag" one when I was looking into it. (I am known in my friend circle to maintain a database of users that are hell-banned; so, when Maciej, a long-friend-of-a- close-friend, seemed to be hit, I was notified almost immediately.)

I also remember those comments mysteriously being un-killed when his account became un-banned. (So, if you are using the current status, that isn't accurate anymore; or, if you are relying on us to not have seen the temporary status, we did.)

<comment><USER3> Yeah, that must have been it. When I unban someone who was only recently banned, I often unkill the stuff that got killed while they were banned.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I only banned him while I was waiting for a reply to the email I sent him. In fact I thought I'd already unbanned him, though I noticed just now that he was still banned. What a tempest in a teapot.

Incidentally, this post and its predecessors illustrate perfectly why the site guidelines ask users to contact us about problems with moderation rather than posting on the site about them. Though nearly empty of content, they get upvoted faster than anything else.

<comment><USER5> I would assume they are typically upvoted for a reason. Obviously you have access to data I'm not privvy to, but 400+ upvotes in that little time would, I imagine, represent a _significant_ portion of people who read the post. Obviously the site is no democracy, and I think we all understand that. But I would also guess that user feedback is appreciated (hence the request to send feedback via email). I would also think that many users have the same questions, but do not bother with an email because it is not really worth the hassle, and upvote a thread like that just to voice their agreement [else they would not upvote, unless they were simply trying to troll].

The whole scenario is fairly minor, but it seems to raise at least a small concern among what I would guess is a respectable portion of the userbase.

edit: grammar.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I can relate. I posted a story about Apple's disruption at the POS talking of how the new retail App allows for purchases in store without ever having to contract a store rep. I posted that alongside why I believe this is important considering the missed opportunity that was GoogleWallet. The post got front page before getting sunk by mods. I dont know why, but there was nothing sensationalistic about the title or the content. And this is a space that I have considerable capabilities in. And I was not trolling.

Since then none of the stories I post under this handle ever see the light of day. They cannot be voted up and they just face a slow death. I stopped spending any time posting on other threads since then because I cannot see the value in contributing to stories if my stories are not allowed to play fairly.

<comment><USER7> The alternative is becoming like reddit so I personally like the heavy moderation, warts and all.

<comment><USER8> False equivalence. It doesn't have to be one or the other.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> During my hellban about two years ago (I posted an article which had been silently banned, and was flagged for spam, I guess?), I was anonymously advised that the HN moderators were "capricious and tone-deaf", and that my recourse was to contact PG directly.

After a curt and unpleasant email exchange, I was back on my feet. Pretty stupid that I had to bother PG at all, and even stupider that my one interaction with him was so needlessly distasteful.

<comment><USER10> Not this time I guess, it was pg personally who hellbanned him. I hope he listens and drops it.

I think it's massively disrespectful to users to hellban and delete from view strongly upvoted posts, or to silently mass-downvote them. Pg and mods, respect your users' opinions a bit more than that, please...

<comment><USER9> PG has the right to curate HN posts as he sees fit. I just think a little more transparency would go a long way. Hellbanning is, by design, sneaky. The fact that it's the predominant ban method is extremely frustrating for a non- malicious user.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Got to say that this all looks pretty bad for the mods.

\--

Edit: [http://www.reddit.com/r/NewsForHackers/comments/v0f8u/overmo...](http://www.reddit.com/r/NewsForHackers/comments/v0f8u/overmoderating_on_hackernews/) is this worth discussing outside?

<comment> guard-of-terra Violent moderation leads to people being annoyed, some questions, more moderation; a minor outrage, bans;amajor outrage spilling to social media, nuclear wipes. Damaged community, sometimes even dead community.

If you see a flamebait post, you delete it. But if you see a question about where the original post go, and you delete it: then you just started a toxic flame war with your own hands.

And "guidelines" never help. When people are outraged they would not observe same rules they supported a day before. Sorry, not going to happen, so don't blame flame war on public.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I consider hellbanning a rude and deceitful tactic that should only be used against users who immaturely refuse to accept a regular ban. Having hellbans as the only type of ban is rather odd.

<comment><USER13> It's hard to detect whether someone refuses a regular ban. People use proxies. It's more trouble than it's worth. A account hellban is the simplest ban that works.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Whenever you give some people more power than others, in _any_ form, abuses of that power will eventually happen. Police, prison guards, bosses, government officials, parents, website moderators, etc, etc, etc. The system becomes dysfunctional.

Power just amplifies people's egos, personal insecurities, and prejudices. We can't deal with it.

</comment><comment><USER15> Hellbanned for violating a site guideline, huh?

 _Though the most successful founders are usually good people, they tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye. They're not Goody Two-Shoes type good. Morally, they care about getting the big questions right, but not about observing proprieties._

If neglecting to observe proprieties is a characteristic of the most successful founders, surely we can shrug off a minor violation of the site's rules that led to what many thought was an interesting discussion.

</comment><comment><USER16> you gotta be kidding me! Just this morning I started writing an article about my experience being hellbanned.

I will still post it at some point, but seriously I mentioned that yesterday <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4102431>

edit: (since I cannot add new comment): also, you cannot upvote this post since its dead (I just learnt that and decided to share)

edit: as of 4:35 est, article is not dead anymore. 5 min ago it still was dead...

edit: 4:43 dead again.

edit: now its back from dead again. but you can't upvote it (arrow dissapears, score remains the same).

</comment><comment><USER17> Basically you can't use HN to discuss itself. Although I'm not a believer in the "wisdom of crowds", I think many-to-many discussions about HN could be more productive than many-to-pg private emails. Maybe there are some lessons to be learned from MetaTalk here.

</comment><comment><USER18> Tell me about it. My old "_ck_" account was killed and I still have no idea why.

</comment><comment><USER19> Is it just me or did this get post just get banned for a few minutes and then return?! Admins can't make up their minds now? Regardless, glad to see it back.

Update: Yup, had the dead one in another tab still and now it's back. For now...

Update 2: It's now dead again. It looks like it only came back for about five minutes.

Update 3: And it's back again. Really wish I had put times on my updates now. Oh well. I wonder how long it will take until it gets pulled yet again.

</comment><comment><USER20> Hellbanned from the internet as well, apparently; notsomuch as a google cache available.

</comment><comment><USER21> Those guidelines are silly, life always finds a way... to bypass guidelines.

</comment><comment><USER22> PG posted an excuse (<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4103210>), then the thread he posted it on was killed - <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4102907>

</comment><comment><USER23> Anyone else notice that this post was dead for a few minutes, just a few minutes ago? Seems it is back now...

Ok, and now it's dead again. Looks like it only came back for a few minutes and in those few minutes PG posted...

</comment><comment><USER8> I've had plenty of time where I was hell-banned through IP ban or something to that effect, never knowing what the hell the reason was. Often, I could just browse it with Tor, but obviously few, if any, sites are worth doing that.

Is this some kind of weird flood control or a opaque and stupid moderation policy I am not aware of? I am not the kind of person to call people names, and I have often received the supposed bans after I have written some of my most popular posts or threads.

</comment><comment><USER24> Moderators may make mistakes here and there; they are human so just deal with it. It's what makes this place great. The hand of god's helpers has always been here, most of the time you don't know it.

Can you imagine how snarky this place would be without it? I don't think (reddit * intellectuals * anonymous) would sustain for very long.

</comment><comment><USER25> looks like it's down.

</comment><comment> guard-of-terra My old account was banned too, in orwellian style: ilyak does not exist; ilyak never existed.

Some of my comments were surely flamebait but so am I; at least they were honest. But I still do not know the exact reason, obviously.

</comment><comment><USER26> Smell ya later.</comment>


Sergei Krikalev - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Krikalev <comment><USER2> Sergei is a machine. At JSC, played volleyball with him on weekends. He ran there. I'd leave after a couple of hours, shower, meet someone for lunch. Sergei would run by. We'd go to a movie, Sergei would run by as we left. Then a dinner date, pulling out from the lot, he would run by. Once almost hit him as he cut across a lot and he smiled and waved. Date asked who that was and was "yeah, sure, a Cosmonaut." Then a couple hours at the bar, walking home, Sergei would run by again.

And this is all summer in Webster, TX. 95 degrees and 95% humidity.

He was just a ubiquitous mobile fixture of the area and supernice guy.</comment>


Novel Coronavirus: Highly Contagious and More Infectious Than Initially Est [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.07.20021154v1.full.pdf <comment><USER2> > Results show that if as low as 20% of infected persons are asymptomatic and > can transmit the virus, then even 95% quarantine efficacy will not be able > to contain the virus.

Heavy statement coming from LANL and not some random twitter user. I am firmly in the "very afraid" camp now.

<comment><USER3> Have you noticed the "if" in the sentence you quoted ?

<comment><USER4> Do we have statistics about how many infected people are showing symptoms?

<comment><USER3> No, it's pure speculation. It might be above 20, it might also be under 20.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is beyond troubling. Especially given how conservatively the Canadian government is reacting, for the sake of political correctness. They should implement travel ban from china and get all Canadians out of China ASAP.

Edit: the confidence interval on the Ro is incredibly high, from 2.8 to almost 11. Further, data used was the official numbers, and we know from reporting from the ground that there is a lot of doubt in those numbers. For example, wuhan government limiting the number of test strips to prevent the case count from skyrocketing.</comment>


After using Linux for 10+ years, I made a video (Chinese with English subtitle) - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp2b3-Guej0 <comment><USER2> Damn, I love the "cd" command feature expansion</comment>


Web Development… How to get started in 2017? - <AUTHOR> https://blog.hellojs.org/web-development-how-to-start-in-2017-b2357febe8ba <comment><USER2> Django should be placed on async branch for Python frameworks too as django- channels became an official Django team's project.

Channels is now stable and provides out of box solution where all of your existing logic goes under 'http.request' channel and you may just append new websockets functionality to your existing projects.

Development server ('python manage.py runserver') would do the job of running both Daphne server and workers, and in the production you could keep your existing wsgi configuration (nginx + gunicorn, ...) and use Daphne and workers just on particular urls (or configuring specific headers).

</comment><comment><USER3> The front end decision tree looks pretty solid, except I would make gulp optional given webpack can do everything gulp does.

The back end one is trickier, there are so many languages in the "choose one" category, and so many hidden trade offs behind such a decision! I actually think the textual advice is good here, "start with NodeJS because you already know JavaScript from the front end". Hence I think JS should be yellow. I would also add NodeJS v6 here (given PHP has a version specified).

Shame Elixir isn't in there. ;)

</comment><comment><USER4> Why not include Web2Py since it's straightforward for beginners?

</comment><comment><USER5> This is beautiful.</comment>