This Marketing Blog Does Not Exist - <AUTHOR> http://thismarketingblogdoesnotexist.com/ <comment><USER2> A few more...

* Person: [https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/](https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/)

* Waifu: [https://www.thiswaifudoesnotexist.net/](https://www.thiswaifudoesnotexist.net/)

* SO Question: [https://stackroboflow.com/](https://stackroboflow.com/)

* Startup: [https://thisstartupdoesnotexist.com/](https://thisstartupdoesnotexist.com/)

* Resume: [https://thisresumedoesnotexist.com/](https://thisresumedoesnotexist.com/)

<comment> ainar-g The Waifu one is so realistic that it's uncanny. It's almost like we're just a few years away from whole seasons of deep-dreamt anime and whole tankoubons of procedurally generated manga.

<comment><USER3> Blurb generated by GPT-2 for TWDNE #283: [https://www.gwern.net/images/gan/thiswaifudoesnotexist-283.p...](https://www.gwern.net/images/gan/thiswaifudoesnotexist-283.png)

"It is so sad to say that this manga has never been seen by any anime fans in the real world and this is an issue that must be addressed. Please make anime movies about me. Please make anime about me. Please make anime about your beautiful cat. Please make anime movies about me. Please make anime about your cute cat. I wish you the best of luck in your life. Please make anime about me. Please make anime about my cute cute kitten."

Maybe it's just a prank, but Gwern's description makes it sound like an accidental creation of the text generator. [https://www.gwern.net/TWDNE](https://www.gwern.net/TWDNE)

<comment><USER4> Nope, it's real: that snippet is just that hilariously on point. To be fair, that's one of the best snippets out of many thousands. Few are anywhere that amusing.

The images & snippets are 100% uncurated & unedited by a human, other than as described in my page (primarily: I feed in a long prompt to give it keywords to work with, and I postprocess them to drop at '<endoftext>' tokens to keep them on a single topic rather than, as the default generation process does, force starting of a new topic to fill out the character count).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Holy fuck that was mostly convincing. I had no idea AI generated text was getting to this level - I thought we were still at "Her mouth is full of Secret Soup" level: [https://twitter.com/keatonpatti/status/1006961202998726665](https://twitter.com/keatonpatti/status/1006961202998726665)

<comment><USER6> If you want to be more blown away. (warning some comments may be NSFW) An entire subreddit where every poster/commenter is a GPT-2 bot. [https://www.reddit.com/r/SubSimulatorGPT2/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SubSimulatorGPT2/)

<comment><USER7> You weren't exaggerating. Some of these are amazing.

> "Don't tell me where I've been": US man who claims to have "never left the > country"

Not only is it a convincing sentence, it's humorous too.

<comment><USER8> What a gold nugget!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I was ready to crap on this post for calling your own work "semi-convincing" but this writing does actually resemble most of the random blogs I find when trying to research something like nutrition or fitness.

Not a compliment to the quality of the writing. But definitely not unconvincing. Add some ads that make it impossible to scroll without freezing Chrome and you're good to go.

</comment><comment><USER10> First, I feel this is a hand curated list of results (same with most of the "this does not exist" stuff). That being said it is very good. Pretty funny quotes:

> You might not think that a mumford brush would be a good filter for an Insta > story.

They are definitely leaking some of their training data. Many of the names in the article are real people (which is concerning).

Working on synthetic data generation myself[1], this is not at all surprising. It's also why we are basically living in a "post-truth" world...

[https://austingwalters.com/the-last-free- generation/](https://austingwalters.com/the-last-free-generation/)

What do you do when anything can be synthetically created?

[1] [https://medium.com/capital-one-tech/why-you-dont- necessarily...](https://medium.com/capital-one-tech/why-you-dont-necessarily- need-data-for-data-science-48d7bf503074)

<comment><AUTHOR> It is curated, but not heavily. I usually took the first result of the prompt. Occasionally i'd skip a result that was totally off, but all of them were the best out of the first 2-3 for any given prompt.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > _Her Instagram Stories include one that depicts her while wearing a yellow > dress and champagne flute (I don't like to see bridesmaids getting > wrecked)._

<comment><USER12> > _But an eight-month-old story with a tiny paragraph about a building draped > in chainmail or a photograph of a koi pond with a barcode on it?_

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I don't know if this says more about the how far AI has come or the average quality of a marketing blog.

</comment><comment><USER14> Knowing we have a future of ai generated content coming, I think about staring at the lights that make humans docile so their brains can be stolen in the movie "Skyline."

</comment><comment><USER15> This is extremely scary, it would totally convince me this is written by a real person.

Any publications on what technologies are used for this?

<comment><USER16> [https://grover.allenai.org/](https://grover.allenai.org/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Content generation like this is fascinating. I had a lot of fun with markov chains in the past, but this is just groundbreaking. Any tips for a fellow developer that wants to start with this? How do I get started with GPT2 or Grover?

</comment><comment><USER18> I see that the posts aren't generated in real time. Were they curated? Even if these are just the top 5%, they're still extremely impressive.

</comment><comment><USER19> I made a site to aggregate the other "This ____ does not exist" sites that have popped up: thisxdoesnotexist.com

</comment><comment><USER20> Anyone know of any open source libraries that are even remotely close in quality/effectiveness as Grover AI?

<comment><USER4> Grover is open source. They open sourced it the other day.

<comment><USER17> Does it come with any samples on how to use it? Like, how to train, how to generate after training, etc.

<comment><USER4> Eh, sort of: [https://github.com/rowanz/grover](https://github.com/rowanz/grover) It can't be that difficult if OP did it so quickly, after all.

If you want much more detailed documentation, I wrote up in detail how to train & generate text with the original GPT-2 models using nshepperd's codebase: [https://www.gwern.net/GPT-2](https://www.gwern.net/GPT-2)

minimaxr also has a actively maintained codebase which I believe has powered some of the GPT-2 projects you might've seen recently like Talk to Transformer: [https://github.com/minimaxir/gpt-2-simple](https://github.com/minimaxir/gpt-2-simple)

<comment><USER17> Thank you so much!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Disappointed that I didn't see a new generation upon refresh...

</comment><comment><USER22> Ironically, this marketing blog _does_ exist:

> About This Blog

> This was created by the Content Marketing agency Frac.tl as a demonstration

This is just an ad.

</comment><comment><USER23> Someone didn't provision enough throughput...I'm getting a 508 status

<comment><AUTHOR> working on it... sorry!

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I imagine HN is an AI promoting other AI's, which in turn..

</comment><comment><USER25> I suggest not reading the generated article. Trying to comprehend what you are reading does not feel good in the brain, and doing it long term may severely impact your reading comprehension skills and can make reading into an exhausting activity.

It's not the same as trying to understand sentences with bad grammar, at least those texts represent a human trying to express an idea, so you know with enough effort you can eventually come to understand what they are trying to say and maybe score a dopamine hit.

In this case, no amount of effort will bring meaning to AI generated jibberish.</comment>


How to recognize fake developers, and why most of them get away with it - <AUTHOR> https://email@example.com/how-to-recognize-fake-developers-and-why-most-of-them-get-away-with-it-93db96d3e1a7 <comment><USER2> Terrible article. I only skimmed it, but the gist seems to be that friendly, ambitious developers are likely to be "fake". Worse, the article begins with the notion that a non-developer can distinguish good devs from bad devs without ever looking at their code.

No. If you're not a programmer, your ability to evaluate the skill level of programmers is and will always be nonexistent. Your best bet is to ask senior devs who have proven themselves to evaluate their teammates. Technical people do not need more nontechnical people ruining things by pretending to have competencies that they very much do not have.

<comment><USER3> Don't you have some coding you need to be doing ?</comment></comment>


Safety&Efficacy of Psilocybin in Participants W Treatment-Resistant Depression - <AUTHOR> https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03775200 <comment><USER2> Has anyone here gone through this sort of treatment, or know someone who has? I have some people in my life who desperately need some depression relief, and common treatments have been basically worthless.</comment>


Spanking Is Ineffective and Harmful to Children, Pediatricians' Group Says - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/health/spanking-harmful-study-pediatricians.html <comment><USER2> Abuse can take many forms. It can be physical, psychological or emotional. Everything that damages a child permanently must be considered abuse.

That said; as long as it leaves no lasting damage, even physical punishment serves it's purpose.

A little twist of the ear can work wonders when it comes to getting the attention of a child that needs to do some listening.

Just be sure not do do it in anger.

</comment><comment><USER3> There's one argument with hitting the kids that I don't know to argue with. It goes like this.

There are things in life with consequences that are dire yet can only be felt in the long run (e.g. a smart kid can coast with bad work ethics until college / grad school / start up). As a parent, you can explain these consequences, and the kid may intellectually agree, but can not fully internalize.

Hitting the kid is simply a way to translate these long-term consequences into short-term ones that can be more easily felt. It's simply the equivalent to celebrating milestones in a long project, translating long-term benefits into short-term ones that can be easily felt. Why is the former vilified, while the later touted as good practice?

<comment><USER4> > Hitting the kid is simply a way to translate these long-term consequences > into short-term ones that can be more easily felt.

That's a good argument _for consequence-based discipline in general_ , but it doesn't make any case for striking children instead of imposing more effective consequences.

I've made two and three year olds stand with their noses in the corner, taken four year olds' favorite blankets, made six and seven year olds write essays and copy selected sections of books, and made nine year olds rewrite homework and clean public areas in penance for their childish mistakes. There are any number of ways to bring long term consequences to bear in the short term; I haven't yet felt the need to strike these kids to accomplish the behavioral change I wish to enact.

I also won't hesitate to yell and demonstrate anger if it's appropriate to the situation. I call it "silverback parenting". We are primates, and have evolved over millions of years to signal dissatisfaction vocally and respect social order even from a young age. When I do it, I'm just acting, but the kids don't know that. Watch cartoons for kids and look how exaggerated the characters' emotions are; kid's often miss nuance, but they're well versed in recognizing and responding to basic emotions.

Spanking is just plain _uncreative_. We have so many options as parents I just can't conceptualize any situation where spanking was the best option. And I say this having been raised myself in a spanking household.

<comment><USER5> Those are some brilliant examples of disciplining :)

But... what do you do if they simply don't want to sit in the corner or rewrite homework?

Where I live physical disciplining is forbidden by law, so I assume parents have to be quite adept at psychological manipulation. In the end the parent is bigger and theoretically smarter. I assume they can pick an uncooperative child up and deposit them in their room for some very boring time alone without toys, to reconsider what they did?

My impression is that if a parent didn't do their job to instill respect and trust in their kids in ages 1-4, it might be very hard for them later. The child could simply be an ass and refuse anything, including the punishment.

<comment><USER6> You can pick up a child and carry it to its desk without spanking it...

<comment><USER7> And you do it again and again and again and again as many times as necessary until the child gets the message.

Two classic ways to fail at parenting are not setting boundaries and/or setting boundaries and not enforcing them.

Some people smack because they're lazy and uncreative. It's fast and effective because it gets the desired result for the parent. But that's not without significant unwanted consequences for the child. There is zero need to smack unless it's something extreme like immediate physical danger is present and you just need to get their attention. Even then they respond pretty well to the right voice signals.

Watch enough episodes of super nanny and it will sink in. She uses the same damn technique every. single. time. It's just consistently enforcing the boundaries. Sometimes for hours at a time if need be. This usually is on required for a few days and things change.

I'd say that so far has mapped pretty well to raising my toddler. It's not always easy but we do what we have to.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> 08-15 Statistics establish a correlation between a child having been spanked and the child growing up into a stupid and/or violent adult. Correlation is not causation.

The alternative to corporal punishment most commonly offered is to "reason with your child". (That's bunk from the outset. We don't let children vote or drive cars exactly because they are _unreasonable_.) But what do you do if your child is too violent or too stupid to reason with? You hit it anyway. The causation may be there, but it goes in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, the alternatives offered in linked articles (e.g. [https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family- life/family-d...](https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/family- dynamics/communication-discipline/Pages/Disciplining-Older-Children.aspx)) sound counterproductive. No conflict has ever been resolved by "actively ignoring" someone or something (it's an oxymoron anyway). The future studies investigating the long term effect of that kind of passive-aggressive behavior will be interesting.

(Just in case someone jumps to conclusions: I don't have children.)

</comment><comment><USER8> I find this funny. Most Indian kids are mentally harassed while American parents don't even hit their kids. I remember being hit until I stopped crying. And that's considered normal

<comment><USER9> > while American parents don't even hit their kids. I remember being hit until > I stopped crying. And that's considered normal reply

I was an American kid hit (many times) by parents. What you find "funny" is, well, bullshit. Consider that abuse is abuse regardless of demographic.

<comment><USER5> Why were you getting hit by your parents? I could see it being abuse if it happens for no reason or minor things.

In general I have the feeling that americans kiss their kids' ass too much.

<comment><USER8> Well, mother was "strict" so she would "discipline" me. But there is a big difference between mental and physical abuse and discipline but typically, Indian parents don't recognize it

But its ok. I'm over it. Whatever I am is because of my past, or rather despite it.

<comment><USER5> My parents loved me and I knew that, they sacrificed a lot for me. Physical punishment happened rarely and "for a reason".

Looking back, I don't think I was hurt by that kind of disciplining.

Anyway, _something_ has to be used by parents to discipline their children; give them free courses, brochures, whatever with the proven methods to get kids under control.

I've seen some complete parenting failures which resulted in very spoiled and rude kids.

<comment><USER8> Thing is, Indian parents think hitting is the only way to discipline kids.

But you can raise them without hitting. American kids are more independent than Indian kids for a good reason. I've seen in movies that "curfew for a month" (or whatever they call it)

That never happens in India. Also the new gen parents are utter failures, at lesst majority.

Both parents work, both travel a lot to and from office, so much so that they are weekend parents and their kids are raised by Youtube.

Or course there are good number of exceptions too. But majority kids these days are raised by youtube

My nephew doesn't do anything unless you hand him youtube. He won't eat, brush or anything else.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> There's only one time I ever spanked either of my children (one boy one girl).

Both of them around 5 years old went through a phase where they started dealing with anger/upset by hitting. In particular mom would enforce some limit or positive discipline or be telling them to do something and an argument would escalate to the child starting to pummel my wife.

At first this was dealt with separating them, carrying the child to their room and putting them on their bed and telling them to stay there until they have calmed down. Many discussions around better ways to respond, how to use their voice, how to manage that fire that builds up in their belly, what to do with their hands when they feel that urge to just hit, etc.

At some point you hit a wall with these strategies. It's like telling a child "don't run down the stairs" a hundred times but until they come crashing down and get a nasty bruise they won't stop doing it.

So for both kids eventually there came a day when they were causing real physical harm to my wife (a small child can actually still hurt you) and it crossed a line.

"What you are doing is hurting your mom. Not just her heart but her body. It's OK to be angry. Sometimes if you have to yell it's OK to yell. It's never OK to hit, kick, bite or scratch in anger. In the world if you hit someone do you know what happens? Besides getting in big trouble? You get hit back. The next time you hit your mom you're getting a spanking."

And then I proceeded to explain how in some houses children who misbehave get spanked, and that's not how we choose to do it. But this has gotten to the point where we're going to try that if it happens again.

Sure enough several days later another tantrum lead to my child starting to punch and kick.

I think in the end actually spanking my child was more memorable for me than it was for them. But I could see it clicked immediately for them.

For both of them it was a last resort, and for both of them it was necessary to finally crystallize that meltdowns can happen, but a violent meltdown is truly unacceptable.

In both cases I wished I hadn't waited as long to finally resort to corporeal punishment because frankly the emotional distress to my wife in the meantime was a big cost to pay to avoid using it.

It's so easy to gloss over the true grit involved in day-to-day parenting. Shit can get real, and spanking or not spanking both can carry consequences.

It's easy to demonize the parent who resorts to spanking their child as an outlet for their own frustration. I think the modern attitude of shocked outrage to any spanking is itself damaging (even if many instances of spanking are indeed shocking and outrageous)

But it is also possible that not all children can learn all lessons aurally, and some lessons/boundaries are absolutely crucial to be established for the health and safety of the child, or the rest of the family.

</comment><comment><USER11> Unfortunately, until there is hard data for effacacy and long term effect, this seems to be a strictly cultural statement, no matter how universal, rather than medical or ethical in nature.

</comment><comment><USER6> Is spanking kids not illegal in the US?

<comment> King-Aaron Curious, where are you from that it _is illegal_?

I'm no parent, but I _don 't think_ it's illegal here in Aus...

<comment><USER12> >> Curious, where are you from that it is illegal?

In Norway I know for sure that you are very likely to loose your child for this. The "illegality" issue is more an enforcement issue. Spanking is illegal in many countries(in the EU at least) but it not enforced.</comment></comment></comment>


Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/09/why-girls-get-better-grades-than-boys-do/380318/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> I recently did an analysis of Harvard and MIT's MOOCs to determine which gender gets the better grades in classes. (full post: [http://minimaxir.com/2014/07/online-class- charts/](http://minimaxir.com/2014/07/online-class-charts/))

Turns out, there's no statistically significant difference between male and female grades. [http://minimaxir.com/img/online-class-charts/gender- grade.pn...](http://minimaxir.com/img/online-class-charts/gender-grade.png)

<comment><USER3> > 311,534 male students (73.3%) and

> 113,571 female students (26.7%).

> The fact that it's not even close to 50:50 is surprising.

It didn't surprise me, I went there & searched for it. How can it be surprising (you see these ppl all the time on campus!). And it shows that there are ~3 times more men at Harvard than woman.

So thank YOU so much for nearing to a problem: Girls do better early on (cf. orig. article) & men later in live (cf. your analysis)

Why did you screw that? Political correctness? You are dishonest (you'd have my downvote).

An important aspect: We need to make sure to not loose males [which would do fine later] during early years.

<comment><USER2> ...the article is about _online_ courses.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> tl;dr; Girls work harder than boys and are more diligent about getting things done. Awesome for them. What's the problem?

The article does raise one real issue - grades in school are based on more on obeying arbitrary rules than on actual mastery of the knowledge. That's a problem worth fixing. But it's a problem worth fixing because grades are measuring the wrong thing, and it's worth fixing regardless of it's affects on statistical gender disparities.

But I guess "modern grading systems measure the wrong thing" is far less of a clickbait topic.

<comment><USER5> To try to be fair, life is often more about obeying arbitrary rules than mastering certain subjects. Many of the things named in the article are important life skills that should be taught and encouraged.

<comment><USER6> Becoming an acceptably rewarded cubicle drone requires obeying a lot of arbitrary rules for many years. I wouldn't say _life_ is about that.

School sucks and boys feel that more acutely, is the long and short of it in my view. Girls tend to tolerate or even like it because subservience is more in their nature. Women also tend to like moderate status corporate drone jobs that make a lot of men want to blow their brains out.

<comment><USER7> Dude,

Subservience is forced, has been forced, due to biology, until the very recent past. Women could not even control having children until birth control. No one likes "corporate drone" jobs. No one likes being a servant or a slave either. Sometimes you take what you can get at the time just to survive.

<comment><USER8> But this doesn't answer the question why _now_ , in _this_ day and age, girls are (in average) more subservient than boys (EDIT: according to this article) (obviously, they don't _need_ to be in order to survive).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This article brings up an important point about our education system. How much is it about teaching a subject versus teaching you how to work.

I always did well on tests and in any class I didn't totally hate I felt like I gained the knowledge I needed to. However, I never did all the homework. Hated it. Most of it felt like busy work, or just plain unimportant.

Not that I think self-discipline is worthless. It is a very important life skill. But they don't really teach you how to be self-disciplined so much as attempt to force it on to you by making your grade dependent on a ton of extra work. I like the idea of splitting grades into knowledge and self-discipline like the Minnesota school did.

<comment><USER10> The whole point about forcing kids to do homework is that they are not in a position to judge whether something is important or not. For everyone like you, I'm pretty sure there is someone saying "I didn't want to learn X in school but I'm sure happy they made me now that I know how important it is."

<comment><USER9> That wasn't really my point. If you don't want to learn something, you probably aren't going to. But even classes I enjoyed like Math and Science, I wouldn't do all the homework. I still learned all that I needed to. The fact is that a lot of homework just isn't necessary all the time, especially for quick learners.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I wonder if this has anything to with the massive decline in male teacher population.

<comment><USER12> Was that population that big to begin with? Most of my male teachers in highschool were actually just wanabe-sport coaches. My male history teacher/basketball coach just played movies every day.

<comment><USER13> In my middle-school days, there were some very sharp guys teaching in part because of the Vietnam draft. (No, I'm not young anymore.) At my high school (all boys, Catholic), the coaches had to teach real subjects: Algebra I, Trig, Plane Geometry, Biology, Chemistry. Now, one of the wrestling coaches sent a classmate of mine hurrying to the other class with his statement that a milligram was one million grams, but most of them seemed to do OK. Not all of the other male teachers were in orders, either, and most of them, lay or religious, ranged from adequate to good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> As a man who left school not that many years ago, I'm amazed how well I feel this describes the situation back then. I remember being frustrated by grades being all about who (I then thought) manipulated the teacher best by acting like a "Good Boy/Girl". By being neat and by being timely rather than the one who knew what the grade requirements asked of the students.

I wonder, is the article true or does it just appeal to my feelings?

</comment><comment><USER13> It seemed to me many years ago that there was an odd pattern in the schools, perhaps exaggerated in Catholic schools, but probably present in the public schools also. In the earlier grades, the girls, who sat still better, had better small-muscle coordination, and were more verbal sooner, pulled down the As, while the boys did more poorly. Somewhere in the middle school years, neat handwriting counted for less, and the boys started to catch up on other fronts. The girls, not always unwillingly, fell back. A cousin of mine infuriated me by saying that she got Bs in high school--boys didn't like girls who got As.

But, as they say on HN, the plural of anecdote is not science.

</comment><comment><USER15>
       She's found that little ones who are destined to do well in
       a typical 21st century kindergarten class are those who
       manifest good self-regulation.

The first question is what determines "doing well"? This was not clear to me from the article. Is it grades? High-School completion? Entrance exam levels? Completing University? Getting a PhD? Making their first billion $?

For a very long time (40+ years) we know that girls have done better in grades and boys have done better in standardised admission tests. The quality of "good self-regulation" others may describe negatively as a false reward for "girls keep quiet". In open format classes boys dominate and demand attention. Teachers may be rewarding girls "self-regulation" because they are more considerate of the teacher and fellow students. But as a result teachers give more attention to the students that are worse at "self-regulation". see: "Failing At Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls" from 1995

       Kenney-Benson and some fellow academics provide evidence
       that the stress many girls experience in test situations can
       artificially lower their performance, giving a false reading
       of their true abilities.

The Kenney-Benson study I believe is this one from 2006: [http://news.illinois.edu/news/06/0220mathdivide.html](http://news.illinois.edu/news/06/0220mathdivide.html)

This field of study appears to me to be a mess.

Here is a study on the male grade crisis with a counter conclusion. Pretty much the similar research results but different conclusion and language:

       The researchers examined 369 samples from 308 studies,
       reflecting grades of 538,710 boys and 595,332 girls. ... The
       study reveals that recent claims of a "boy crisis," with boys
       lagging behind girls in school achievement, are not accurate
       because girls' grades have been consistently higher than boys'
       across several decades with no significant changes in recent
       years, the authors wrote.

       http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/04/girls-grades.aspx

</comment><comment><USER16> It's been a while since I was in high school, but looking back I would say that this was true. It doesn't surprise me when you factor in puberty and maturity (girls at that age tend to be more mature at least when it comes to school work). Boys also spend more of their time on extracurricular activities (sports).

</comment><comment><USER17> Is anyone bothered that this has no references, seems like a nice helping of hearsay to me.

<comment><USER18> The article gives one major reference near the top, to [http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/04/girls- grades....](http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/04/girls-grades.aspx)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> If the difference is just by one year, as one of the studies suggests, why not shift grade/age by one year for boys? So six year old boys will be kindergarten age with five year old girls, etc.?

</comment><comment><USER20> So much of school is based on blindly doing what you're told and I think young boys have trouble doing what they're told. I know I personally wanted to know the _reasoning_ behind things. In the army they have to break young men down before they blindly follow orders.

Even as a nearly 30 something I don't like being _told_ what to do. Ask, don't tell.

I know I could see this was pointless charade and would rather do something of actual value, whereas most of what you do in school is pointless busy work with no real educational value at all.

<comment><USER21> Let me take a wild guess here:

You're male.

It seems like according to your premise, if we could just get over our prejudices, we could drastically streamline military training by simply selecting docile, compliant females instead of petulant, inquisitive males.

<comment><USER20> I just know these to be the reasons _I_ and my friends didn't do well in school.

<comment><USER21> The psychological attraction towards retrofitting a formative experience of failure into an indicator of innate unique value does indeed seem irresistible. Which is a good reason to be suspicious of it; it's a meme that has evolved countermeasures to all of reason's defenses.

I did terribly in school, by the way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Well, the article is beginning to understand!

Some recently reported research (I apologize for lack of a reference) explains that already in the crib girls are paying attention to people and boys, to things.

Then what the OP is describing about differences in K through the early grades is essentially just that the girls are more interested in people, e.g., pleasing the teachers, and the boys are more interested in the material, at least if it has to do with things, which in those grades it mostly doesn't.

In particular, of course the girls are _much_ better _behaved_ in class: From the crib, the girls are _much_ better socially than the boys, and that means girls do better in groups, e.g., the social behavior in a classroom.

Next, in those early grades, the girls have much better verbal aptitude so do better at reading and writing, learning languages, etc.

Next, by paying more attention to people, girls have much better understanding of people in the fictional reading that is common and, thus, do better in that reading. Also the girls have much better understanding of emotions and, thus, better understand the emotional content of fictional readings. Also, as in D. Tannen, the girls are much more active in talking with their friends, i.e., their girlfriends, with gossip, and, thus, get still better at understanding people and social situations, including what is in the fictional readings, the classroom _social_ dynamics, etc.

The OP also claimed that the girls are better at "math", but here I start to question. Sure, for math in K-8 or so, the girls are much better because they have much better clerical accuracy and much better handwriting (better at getting the columns of digits lined up important for accuracy). And, again the girls are better at and more interested in pleasing the teachers.

And, with some teaching and grading styles, the girls might be able to seem better at math through grade 12 or so. It can continue to be a really big advantage to be really good at sensing how to please the teachers, and girls are better at that.

But my experience in math (and I was a math major in college and my Ph.D. is in applied math), really, for much of anything like real math, the girls are a big step down. Somehow they don't _get it_ ; here maybe the main problem is lack of interest due to cultural stereotypes that girls are not supposed to concentrate on STEM subjects.

Last I heard, on the math SATs, the boys still do much better than the girls and, yes, on the verbal SATs the girls do better than the boys.

Then for the girls/women along come marriage and babies, and then on average their ability to compete with boys/men in most of more important work fades.

</comment><comment><USER23> Well we can always console the boys by telling them they'll get paid more once they get a job.

<comment> barry-cotter Men work more overtime than women. Men work more hours than women. Men work more dangerous jobs than women. Men work in more physically demanding jobs than women. Men are more likely to move for a job than women. Men are less likely to take career breaks than women.

You think maybe that might have something to do with it?

<comment><USER23> I'm not sure what that has to do with my statement.

<comment> barry-cotter The fact that men earn more than women has more to do with differing patterns of job choices and interests than the usual explanations proffered.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> The general trend in education is less competition and less physical activity. Meanwhile there is more focus on educational minimums rather than maximums. If education was about the 'highest score' rather than the 'best average' you would see males doing better.

<comment><USER10> Are you kidding, American education seems to be all about "highest score" rather than "best average" to me. All these awards and whatever that reward the "best" students.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I find this incredibly sexist.

To say that girls worker harder than boys offends me greatly. These studies are never accurate and somewhat biased, and I think work ethic is something that can't be averaged out like this. I don't doubt a lot of girls out there do work harder than boys, but making statements like: " _Girls succeed over boys in school because they are more apt to plan ahead, set academic goals, and put effort into achieving those goals._ " is offensive and heavily typecasting all boys into the same category.

There are boys out there who put effort into planning and setting academic goals, because I am friends with many guys like this who care and put the effort in, I also know as many women who do the same. If this study were truth, why are there just as many male academics as there are female? If anything, I have seen more male academics than female (in my experience and field). Imagine if the effort that went into this study was put to better use, to help solve a problem or achieve a result that would benefit society? Studies like this are a waste of time.

I realise this is just a study and the whole point might be to highlight issues with school curriculum and have no sexist undertones, but at the same time, studies like this are relatively useless. The modern school system being completely broken to the point kids are falling behind is a very well known fact, and sadly, no study is going to change that anytime soon.

Maybe if we had less studies and more action on fixing things, then there wouldn't be instances of boys getting left behind in the schooling system. Did it ever occur to those responsible for this study that maybe, just maybe, the system is actually broken? And maybe, just maybe, it has nothing to do with what sex you are? I feel like society already has enough issues when it comes to rampant sexism and gender equality without more fuel being thrown on the fire. All studies like this do is take a handful of people, average and collate the results and then proclaim they've made some kind of conclusive discovery that applies to everyone outside of the sample group. Unless this study leads to change or another longer and more conclusive study, the results mean nothing.

Regardless of what sex you are, nobody should be getting left behind. If it is true that boys learn differently to girls, then adjust the curriculum to make it more flexible for different learning styles. When I went to school I struggled, not because I am stupid or because I am a male, I struggled because the curriculum assumed everyone learns the same way and when I couldn't fit myself within the mould, I got left behind and taught myself everything I needed to know. Everyone learns differently, we are not all the same.

Sorry for getting worked up, Studies like this do nothing to help resolve gender equality gaps whatsoever.

<comment><USER26> Sexism is about power relations. Like racism and capitalism. Men dominate society. Doesn't matter how meritorious women are. Women can be tacitly competent and men buffoonish, yet incompetents routinely triumph.

After all, they're gatekeepers and enforcers.

Since society ridiculously built a massive infrastructure based on gender, women and men are trained differently. To the intellectual destruction of men.

<comment> vezzy-fnord This is true only if you use a specific sociological definition of "sexism", which is absolutely _not_ to be equivocated with the one in common vernacular.

<comment><USER27> > This is true only if you use a specific sociological definition of "sexism", > which is absolutely not to be equivocated with the one in common vernacular.

I think you mean "equate". "Equivocate" means something quite different.

<comment> vezzy-fnord Actually, I do mean "equivocate". To quote Wikipedia, it is "the misleading use of a term with more than one meaning or sense (by glossing over which meaning is intended at a particular time)".

<comment><USER27> I know what "equivocate" means -- but when you equivocate by conflating one sense of a word with another sense of the word, its not described as equivocating the first sense with the latter sense. You might equivocate with a person (the person to whom you address the equivocation), or equivocate by interchanging one definition with another.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> This society rewards restraint and conformity. Then there are the mood- altering drugs. When my boys were in elementary school, the teachers wanted to drug them into compliance because they were 'too competitive'. Nurse Ratchet lives.</comment>


Apple is now completely powered by clean energy - <AUTHOR> https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/04/apple-now-globally-powered-by-100-percent-renewable-energy/ <comment><USER2> Already discussed here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16798868](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16798868)</comment>


From dictatorship to democracy: The road less travelled - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/news/international/21679178-how-make-most-difficult-political-transition-alland-how-not-slip-back <comment><USER2> The distinction between a democracy and republic is worth noting, specifically in Western democracies where elected representatives, not the voting public, make most major decisions. Two issues here: 1. Technology (telecom and social networks) clearly is a threat to dictators when used for challenges to the established order (see various recent populist uprisings) and 2. Yet, despite the theoretical ability of tech to drive mass participation in decision making, where's the push, particularly in Western democracies?

Personally, I'm a firm believer in 'be careful what you ask for,' especially since established regimes (to say nothing of global corporations) have the resources and motivation to manipulate the same technology/social connectivity in their favor. In other words, democracy depends on an informed polis, so the hearts-and-minds campaign continues and is somewhat more directly valuable-- but nothing much changes: Best messaging wins.

Anyway, basic if conventional discussion is here: [http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/03/why-technology-hasnt- del...](http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/03/why-technology-hasnt-delivered- more-democracy-democratic-transition/)

</comment><comment><USER3> > By contrast, Arab countries had no local beacon of democracy to guide them > during their recent revolutions—apart from Israel, to whose democratic > virtues they seem strangely blind.

How condescending and an utterly false statement! If it weren't for the "democratic" Israel and its deep state and ruling class in the military and security establishment with their close ties and entrenched interests with the Egyptian military, we would be having a nascent and growing democracy on our hands here in Egypt unlike the oppressive military dictatorship approved by Bibi and his henchmen.

The first - but not the last - Egyptian experience with democracy faltered from an external standpoint due to the confluence of reactionary powers from Gulf monarchies such as UAE and Saudi Arabia and Israel on one side, with the repressive and tyrannical Egyptian military, and on the other side, the equally regressive powers albeit opening to electoral democracy, like Turkey and Qatar with the Muslim Brotherhood, thus turning the whole local political game into a regional power struggle between two fierce camps and ruining it for us aspiring citizens for a democrtic rule.

<comment><USER4> As an Israeli, I just want to let you know: no, we don't support your government. We basically consider every single government in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and basically every other Arab country to be an enemy who will only think twice about invading us because the IDF would soundly beat them.

Paranoid? Hell yes, and I should say triple-yes because I _am_ a Meretz voter. But it's got one virtue: whenever someone in the Arab world says, "El-Sisi, or Abdullah, or Assad, or Da3esh, are tools of the Israelis", they are dead wrong.

Fuck, if Abbas at least was our tool, we could get him to quit with the anti- Jewish incitement and accede to a damned peace deal.

<comment><USER3> > because the IDF would soundly beat them.

Didn't Hezbollah in 2000 send your valiant IDF packing from Southern Lebanon? Didn't Hamas make your gallant IDF withdraw unilaterally from Gaza in 2005?

Showing some humility would not be a bad idea.

\- The military backed regime voted for Israel in the UN for the first time ever[0] If this is not rapprochement and normalization for relations, I don't know frankly what it really is.

\- The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church is visiting Jerusalem breaking the boycott imposed by his predecessor in visiting Israel till a fair solution for the Palestinians is reached and a lasting peace is materialized.

Those two obvious incidents above indicate that yes the military-backed regime in Egypt is on good terms with Bibi's govt and they're more than allies on a lot of issues and denying that is not a smart thing to do.

[0]: [http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2015/11/01/egypts-voting-of- is...](http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2015/11/01/egypts-voting-of-israel-into- un-space-body-sparks-wave-of-criticism/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "Nowadays, almost all dictatorships and authoritarian regimes at least go through the electoral motions—such is the homage vice pays to virtue."

I've always found it curious how many authoritarian regimes go through the motions of sham elections or include some of variation of "Democratic Republic" in their name. It would seem to undermine their own self-proclaimed legitimacy.

<comment><USER6> A lot of authoritarian regimes actually end up believing their own version of reality. They believe they're representative, saving their nation, that the people want them there etc. Plenty - if not most - of the dictators that have ruled in the last century were _extremely_ irrational. There is enough historical information about Saddam, Fidel, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Putin, Mussolini, etc. to see that common thread among them - they believed they were put there by 'the people' to best serve the people's interests. In their delusional minds, it's a form of democratic representation. The Communist Party regime in China today believes that same thing.

Just look at what Putin believes today. He thinks that as a dictator (he disagrees with that title of course) he can best serve Russia by being a strongman type, and fighting to reclaim what he perceives as Russia's lost glory. He seems to actually believe he is in Russia's best interests, represents the average Russian, and has been legitimately elected (despite the vast vote rigging during his first election for example).

<comment><USER7> The superficiality of your opinion makes me believe you take your "historical information" from the History Channel.

<comment><USER8> It'd be nicer if you pointed out what's wrong with that particular opinion rather than to attack the person.

<comment><USER7> First, believing that "extremely irrational" people can compete with other rational and irrational individuals or groups and climb a hierarchy of power to the top and control it (for decades sometimes) it's something self evidently irrational in my opinion. And second, I doubt the OP really knows what "Putin believes". Putin projects a lot of images for a lot of different people and that's part of a very rational strategy (most probably conceived by some advisor specialized on russian voter psychology). The OP is stuck on one of these projections because it's fed to him frequently by a very rational mass media which simply understands that the average joe needs/loves to believe he is smarter than the "obviously delusional dictator" of a country with 143 million people.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm surprised the article completely ignores worlds largest democracy, India, sitting right next to Myanmar. Suu Kyi and her party had Indian support (as did the Junta) and India-Myanmar relations are strong. India is also developing Sittwe port for Myanmar and it'll be interesting to see what role she'll play in Myanmar's future.

</comment><comment><USER10> The book _From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation_ by Gene Sharp (a free download from the Albert Einstein Institution)[1] explains many of the hard-learned lessons of democracy movements around the world. Dictatorships fight dirty, so they are not easy to undo. But it does happen. I watched the successful and largely peaceful transition of Taiwan (my wife's birthplace) from a dictatorship to a democracy during the 1990s. People power inside the country helps most, and outside pressure of the right kind can help too.

[1] [http://www.aeinstein.org/wp- content/uploads/2013/09/FDTD.pdf](http://www.aeinstein.org/wp- content/uploads/2013/09/FDTD.pdf)

<comment><USER11> Not sure why this is getting down voted. FDTD is solid work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I presume the Rohingya [1] are now properly represented and have been given back their basic human rights? No? Then why are we calling Myanmar a democracy? Any article that praises Myanmar without mentioning the suffering of the Rohingya is poorly written. To the author: please, more research next time.

As for Tunisia, my home country, it's just having some hard time with extremists these days, but it's doing OK otherwise.

[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_people)

<comment><USER13> The USA were a democracy while slavery was still legal.

<comment><USER14> And while only white men had the right to vote. In other words: They claimed to be a democracy, but they weren't.

<comment><USER15> The right to vote has always been restricted in various ways, and continues to be. In all Western countries, voters must be citizens who have reached the age of majority; these are artificial rules created to achieve utilitarian ends (much like restricting voting rights to landowners, racial groups, or genders). The fact that voting is restricted does not mean the country is undemocratic.

<comment><USER16> But it brings up a broader point of democracies are more like a gradient of democracy where a "true" democracy could never be achieved (i.e. all citizens eligible to vote).

Even China for example, could just be on an extreme end of democracy in which just members of the National Peoples Congress are eligible to vote. This is better than a dictatorship in which only one person can "vote." At what point does a nation become a democracy? When 51% of the citizens can vote? When 70% can vote?

<comment><USER15> Selectorate theory (as described by Bruce Buena de Mesquita) is one of the most powerful tools for analysing the spectrum of democracy, and it even encompasses so-called dictatorships.[1] It describes the impact of the number of people who make up the body which selects the country's government, which is a spectrum (as you correctly pointed out).

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selectorate_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selectorate_theory)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> But why is this transition desirable?

Living in the world's largest democracy, it's more and more evident each day that the basis of democracy is it's biggest problem itself - majority. Majority is not always right & minority might not always wrong(Sometimes both these statements can be mutually exclusive). If you belong to any kind of minority (lgbt, religious minority, cannabis users etc.) life can be very difficult in India, since democracy has little mechanism for qualitative evaluation.

Democracy can work in a utopia very everyone's perfectly rational but irl, even for intelligent people, mental space is occupied enough to be corrupted by lopsided influence.

</comment><comment><USER18> Nepal has also been slowly transitioning to a democracy since 2006 (with a little help from India), albeit from a monarchy and not from a dictatorship. They recently adopted a new constitution [1] with some controversies surrounding it. But overall, it seems like there aren't any strong trends there to revert back to a non-democratic government.

[1] [http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/09/20/nepal- constitution-...](http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/09/20/nepal-constitution- idINKCN0RK03P20150920)

</comment><comment><USER19> As a Tunisian citizen I must ask, is democracy always a positive thing? Even if the majority of the people doesn't know what's best for them?

<comment><USER20> My theory is that a strong economy must come before a robust democracy can take root. People have to want to have a political voice before they'll do things like form political parties, raise awareness of issues, contribute meaningfully to institutions. If most citizens are still worried about where their next meal is coming from, it's going to put a serious damper on their political will.

I don't really know how to turn a country's economy around, but the failure of the Arab Spring indicates to me that the solution may have to come from without rather than within. Strong, sustained foreign investment to build civic infrastructure may well be the only solution.

Alternatively, infrastructure can be as simple as cell towers. Perhaps in the next hundred years, we'll figure out how to build infrastructure that isn't so expensive. Cheap water purification, low-impact agriculture, these things can create business opportunities for the poor that can raise their quality of life. Then they'll eventually start wanting democracy.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Sagefy – Open-content adaptive learning system - <AUTHOR> https://sagefy.org/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hello Hacker News!

I'm looking for feedback for my side project, Sagefy. I've been working on Sagefy for a little over 3 years and finally have something to show! I describe Sagefy as an open-content adaptive learning system. You can think of Sagefy like a synthesis of "anyone can edit" from Wikipedia and adaptive learning systems like Aleks or Knewton.

Here's a short 3-minute explainer video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVwfwTOdnOE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVwfwTOdnOE)

All of the basic things are built, but Sagefy is still a little rough around the edges. You can try out a little course I've built in it, "Introduction to Electronic Music -- Foundation", at: [https://sagefy.org/](https://sagefy.org/)

Sagefy is completely free and open source [https://github.com/heiskr/sagefy](https://github.com/heiskr/sagefy) . I have no interest it turning this into any sort of commercial endeavour. If you're interested in getting more background, check out the Wiki at [https://github.com/heiskr/sagefy/wiki](https://github.com/heiskr/sagefy/wiki) . Or just ask :)

Let me know what you think! And thank you!

<comment><USER2> It would be good to have a list of the available sets, right now you would have to search for sets that you don't know if it exists and, with a list, people could get interested in things they weren't initially looking for.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi hitokx,

Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out! I really appreciate the feedback.

When you click "find a set" from the my sets page (the page you get to when you first log in), it will take you to the search page. On there is a green box link to the (currently) only set, Introduction to Electronic Music -- Foundation [http://imgur.com/a/nXk2I](http://imgur.com/a/nXk2I) Let me know if that helps. Also, if you can think of a better way to handle it, I'd appreciate that as well.

Thanks again!</comment></comment></comment>


Abusing Contributors is not OK - <AUTHOR> http://www.curiousefficiency.org/

<comment><USER2> Let's add: flag killing [the original, multi-upvoted front page] links to articulate and well reasoned pieces about why abusing contributors is not OK, is not OK.

<comment><USER3> We've unkilled that post and are burying this one as a duplicate.

<comment><USER4> You've unkilled that post, but left it buried on the third page.

<comment><USER3> Yes, what we usually do when there is a tug of war between upvotes and flags is prevent the flags from killing the post so active discussion can continue, but not override the flags altogether. This happens on controversial posts where the community is divided, and it's not uncommon to see large fluctuations in rank under the tug of war.

<comment><USER4> Your voting system actively discourages discussion of topics that upset portions of the community, which results in many people not being exposed to those topics at all. Does this seem like a desirable outcome?

<comment><USER3> That isn't an accurate description. Those topics come up on HN all the time. There's no one who reads the site regularly who isn't well aware of them.

<comment><USER4> How, when they get pushed off the front page within minutes?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Will I ever find a job? - <AUTHOR> Hello, I have graduated for 3 months already. I have a B.S in Computer Science... until now, I just got 2 interviews after sending 180 or more applications and countless cover letters.
Since I could not find a job, I started to work on my personal project and I decided to share with the public:
https://github.com/woguan/Legend-Wings
I am losing my hope to get a job, and I feel like I must find a work not related to computer science. What do you think of my project? Is it good to show for recruiters?
Owner of Alibaba said he got rejected like 20-30 applications, rejected for applying for Havard, rejected to work at Fast-Food. I am getting close to him? I sent countless applications, cover letters, but I just got 2 interviews... Both of them told me I have no professional experience. <comment><USER2> So I did a quick audit of your GitHub and minimal experience is definitely a correct assessment. But, don't worry! That doesn't mean you can't get a job. You'll just need to work harder or join a company that has the capacity to train you.

Legend Wings is nice, but the last several pages of commits are all just updating the README. I see that you committed your most code on the initial commit, however, I was also able to copy and paste and find exact code matches on StackOverflow. Forgot to mention, I use to be a teaching assistant so students would do this all the time.

Next up, you have a lot of boilerplate on your GitHub. You have a blank repo called VaporServer. Employers will check your most recent code as a basis of your skill. I'll ignore that one and look at the next one, WebJS (2 weeks ago). You were learning to use express and setting up a boilerplate.

The rest of your repos are tutorials or homework assignments. CalendarData is just a repo with a JSON file. Lots of forks aren't necessary good since the first thing I do is look for individual commits. Being that you come from a university I know there are a lot of group projects, I can't tell if you are the one working on the project or your peers.

This is all the information I gathered looking at half your repos more carefully. A recruiter will spend even less time than I did.

My suggestion would be to clean up any boilerplate repos or forks that don't really give much information or actually make things worse. CalendarData from April shows me that you probably don't know SQL. I can also tell you are starting to dive into node.js meaning you probably don't have backend knowledge. I noticed firebase implementation in your swift code so knowledge of APIs are good.

I would also try to find an internship as starters to get some experience and/or look for a job where they focus solely on the academia / whiteboard challenges. I'm not a big fan of those, but they have their place especially for college students without much experience. Just brush up on your data structures and algorithms and you should be good to go!

Good luck! Don't worry too much, it'll all work out in the end!

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow.. that indeed was a very very good advices. Thank you so much for your time to give a very detailed list in the areas that I must improve.

1) I did not understand about "most code on the initial commit". I have been updating the code basically every day. Is it because I have a dummy account? Like the accomplishment I wrote in the README, I recently put the dates I accomplish them.

2) About the repos, I think it has a lot because I recently cancelled the subscription. And I can't put them back to private. I will consider paying for the subscription and add back to private.

3) CalendarData is a repo where I can modify it with my app called: "MyAgenda" which is private since it contains a key to make HTTP requests via Basic Authorization.

I will definitely rework my GitHub page. :)

<comment><USER2> Ahh, sorry, an initial commit is the first commit you do on a repository. In this case, I noticed that most of the code logic was on this commit ([https://github.com/woguan/Legend- Wings/commit/0df03c7657cc13...](https://github.com/woguan/Legend- Wings/commit/0df03c7657cc13291e3f3fdcd2dc9a5c5b63fa7c)). It's actually better to have multiple commits to show your progress and thought process.

Well, the nice thing about git is that you can just remove the repo from GitHub and then push it back later. I would definitely recommend removing things like tutorials. I personally would rather see your school work than tutorials. Referring to ([https://github.com/woguan/FlappySwift/commits/master](https://github.com/woguan/FlappySwift/commits/master))

For CalendarData, it might be better to add a README and add some context to it. Better yet, it's probably better to just hide it altogether since I interpreted the repo as you learning how to use JSON 6 months ago. If you need to store the JSON somewhere, one suggestion is to use gists [https://gist.github.com/](https://gist.github.com/).

To publish private code that requires a private key, look into ENV variables.

These links might be able to help you if you don't know about ENVs already.

[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7501678/set- environment-...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7501678/set-environment- variables-on-mac-os-x-lion) [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36219597/referring-to- en...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36219597/referring-to-environment- variables-in-swift)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Are you applying for a job that's conducted in English, particularly in a country where English is the native language? Your HN question is phrased awkwardly and has more significant grammar errors than I think is typical. A resume with similar errors could easily get disregarded before skills are even considered.

Ignore this comment if you aren't applying in English or if the teams are in locations where English isn't the native language.

</comment><comment><USER4> I graduated in the dot com bust of 2001. It took me over a year and a half to get something permanent. The usual excuse was "no experience" but how are you to get experience if no one will try you out?

Two things I found that helped.

A lot of big companied have more involved interview process. Filling out forms with a lot of questions like "give an example of when you showed leadership" or "overcame a difficult situation" and other such BS. It took a lot longer to fill out those forms than sending out a CV and cover letter. But it did result in a greater chance of getting an interview. Keep a note of the answers to the questions as once you have done a few, you can usually tweak and reuse the answers in other application forms and it gradually becomes less and less effort.

Second thing that really seemed to make a difference was doing some temporary work. First was manual some testing for a company (pretty boring, but I did create a small Access database to log issues). The second was a bit more interesting Visual Basic work, but paid pretty much minimum wage.

Even after that it took a while, but having some experience on my CV worked a lot better than having none. I reluctantly had to change location to where the majority of jobs were - close to London.

Having your personal project available is good, but it is a game. Maybe look at producing something more business oriented. Databases might seem boring, but they pay the bills.

</comment><comment><USER5> >>> Hello, I have graduated for 3 months already. I have a B.S in Computer Science... until now, I just got 2 interviews after sending 180 or more applications and countless cover letters.

The only explanation is that your resume is terrible. Please make an anonymized version and send it here for review.

That is keeping in mind that the available jobs vary a lot by location. It's easier to find a job when living in SF or NY than anywhere else in the USA, yet there is nowhere where it should be as bad as 2/180 interviews.

<comment><USER6> The explanation is that a fresh graduate provides zero or even negative value to a company initially.

<comment><USER7> Have you kept an eye on how much fresh graduates are making in SV these days?

<comment><USER8> Just for others reading this thread, interns (and new graduates) make around $10,000 per month these days, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ref: [http://sfist.com/2016/05/02/tech_industry_interns_making_ban...](http://sfist.com/2016/05/02/tech_industry_interns_making_bank.php)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I run a Shanghai based firm creating English resumes, doing interview coaching, and LinkedIn Profiles, amoung some other products, for both Chinese and foreigners. Our business is RMB and USD oriented. I typically charge for a general resume review. Send me your resume and I will give you a brief review for free (dwgdev only) so you can DIY it better. My email is vfulco[@]weisisheng.cn. Give me 72 hours as I have a full schedule the next few days.

<comment><USER10> Nice business, out of curiosity:

\- How much do you usually take per review?

\- How do you generate leads? Which platforms do you use?

\- Do client recommend you to other clients?

<comment><USER9> There is a really strange anomaly in mainland China whereas the economy is still in a state of transition. Young people see the "value" in consumer products of all kinds but not so much investing in services that will improve their lives except for foreign language lessons and maybe standardized test training. As an aside, about 90% of my clients are women. They seem to be much more understanding that resume creation is not their strong suit so why not hire a professional and have a document which can be used in any HR dept in the world in 3 days? Young men, on the other hand, seem to want to DIY theirs, even after I point out gross errors I am sure they do not know how to fix themselves.

I usually charge the equivalent of $30 for a review and discount the full service by the same amount if they hire me for a rewrite. About 95% of the English resumes I see in-country are awful.

My leads have been through domestic e-commerce sites, referrals and infrequently a number of the mentoring/coaching/advice Q&A sites I answer questions on. I also do academic advisory services (school picking for undergrad, graduate and PhD programs) and applications preparation. Social media, like Wechat and Weibo, have been a complete bust with a lot of wasted promotional RMB spent, no matter how high the claimed MAU numbers in the aggregate continue to climb. While I am not 100% knowledgeable about what drives the mind of the young Chinese consumer, when I pay for promoted posts and within 5 seconds, get 250 page views, I know the bots rule this part of the world. No business has come through these channels no matter how I tweak the sales pitch; I have tried dark, inspirational, humourous, surveys, contests, promotions (buy a resume, get 1 hour of interview coaching), etc.

I am very lucky since word of mouth is one of the biggest business drivers, due to the high prevalence of fraudulent and generally poser businesses, so I get one to a handful of referrals per client and have an attractive referral fee program. Thanks.

<comment><USER9> I should mention while the review fee seems high, it filters for only those willing to pay for a high quality service. I have tried free review and lower priced review with either no conversions occurring or prospects wanting me to move the moon and stars with no additional follow-on business. There is no such thing as provide a free service leading to real biz generation here. There is get as much as possible for free.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I didn't look much at the code but for what it's worth your project looks really cool. The screenshots/gifs and readme made a really good first impression. Having the motivation to pursue side projects and actually finishing them is a massive plus for me.

</comment><comment><USER10> iOS developers do not face a huge demand like they have seen years ago. Still you should be able to get more than two interviews.

\- With which other languages, frameworks and platforms do you have experience?

\- Are you willing to relocate?

\- Are you citizen of an EU country?

Without knowing too mucch about you: Look that you offer more than just iOS. If it's just iOS you need to put your app to the app store and it ahould be really polished and get some ratings. Now, your app looks ok but it still has aome room for improvement.

If still nothing works out, try some freelancer gigs and maybe you find a long-term client. Being a freelancer is a lot of hassle in the beginning but once you have some reputation earned as a freelancer you nake more money than being employed.

EDIT: I looked again at your game. I think this is a huge project and can take months. Rather build a small typical iOS indie game. The ones with reduced visuals and sounds focussing on just one core game mechanics. Something where you can build the core of the game in one day. Polish it, make a start screen and put it to the app store as said. A work-in-progress on Girhub with many todos isn't attracting anyone. A very simple game you can finish in 1-2 weeks. Or: build not a game but instead an app, I could imagine that game dev iOS jobs are lower paid.

<comment><USER12> > iOS developers do not face a huge demand like they have seen years ago

This is an apt observation. The number of jobs are seriously lacking for Objc/Swift, I was lucky to do an internship in iOS but could never get into another interview after that for the bleak number of iOS jobs available that I applied to. I transitioned into .Net web development and I have been given a lot more opportunities since.

Also, Apple also has a way of creating a walled-garden for their developers. Some of the best practices back when I was an iOS dev involved Apple-specific technologies like AutoLayout constraints and CoreData which doesn't give as many marketable skills if applying to non-iOS jobs.

<comment><USER10> Interesting insight, I haven't expected that the iOS market is that down already. I hear from app developing companies that the entire app market on iOS is kind of stagnating.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> a-saleh The complain of your interviewees about `no professional experience` hits home. Try to look at your past experience and list anything that would translate as professional experience.

In my case, having a root account on a few public-facing web servers translated to "Linux sysadmin, 3y experience", helping out a classmate with his freelancing project "C++ and Qt framework, 1y experience", e.t.c.

Second, if you want to continue in your studies, you should be able to get a paid internship in some local corporation. It is then easier to transition to full employment with one leg in the door already. That is how I got to company I work for now :)

Or you might go even further into academia, i.e. if you enjoyed writing your thesis, your advisor might help you with a teaching-assistant job, or a faculty sysadmin job and some universities even have their own developer departments (mine had one developing their university information system). Or maybe even a research fellowship.

And last, ask your classmates.

Some of them might be freelancing, and you might be able to get client/work from them (i.e. a friend of mine had a a mobile-app shop, and once he needed to finish one more app in the pipeline he had people for, and thats how I paid for half of my wedding :-)

Some of them might already be working, and if they remember you as a guy they would like to work with, you might be able to get a round or two of interviews head-start :-)

Ok, I think I might start with my friends/classmates first :-) That is how I got to the "Linux sysadmin, 3y experience" anyway :)

Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi,

Since you have mentioned freelance, I do actually have an account at Upwork. But I did not complete my full application yet. I just keep thinking, I do not have an actual job, and I have not delivered a project. Summing up these two issues, how possibly people would "believe" me? There are so many high profiles in there.. what are the chances I might be asked to do a job? I am considering to be a freelancer after I get an actual jobs, and have a couple years of experience to proof I can do it.

<comment> a-saleh In my case, freelance always was through a friend-of-a-friend. And those freelance jobs were nothing major.

For example, looking at your example project, thing that I did as a work for hire seemed to have been simpler.

There was an existing android app showing on 3 screens weather in Dubai or Abudabi (I don't really remember anymore) and I were to write the IOS port.

The reason why the guy chose me, even though I neither had an actual job, nor delivered a project was that he knew me personally for a really long time :-)

So, if I were in your shoes, I would literally be emailing classmates I liked working on projects during school and asking them for work, because that is what I did and it worked out well for me :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Are you sending customised cover letters etc to those employers? Generally, you don't want to be sending the same thing to 180+ companies, and you want to make sure you actually know the company you're applying at.

Also, depending on the company and its size, you might want to reach out directly to engineering manager X at company Y, instead of sending it into the pit of despair that is HR.

<comment><USER10> > you don't want to be sending the same thing to 180+ companies

Would disagree. If one has a good generic cover letter plus CV and a very good and wanted profile this would work.

Why? Because it's a number game and better send many standard applications than few individual ones. Leas work and better result.

<comment><USER14> Well it's clearly not working in this case. Having hired people before, boilerplate cover letters tell me that the applicant couldn't be bothered to take 10 minutes to customize the cover letter.

Also, if you advocate for playing the numbers game then you can't complain about recruiters doing the same.

<comment><USER10> > Well it's clearly not working in this case

So, maybe his CV is just not good or has some huge mistake and it's not about personalized cover letters?

However, in the high demand market of software engineers an individual application is the not the key of getting a job. Not at all. It's your profile (is is good? does it fit?) AND that you applied at all. Just guess why devs get dozen of headhunter calls per week without writing a single cover letter...

<comment><USER15> Because they are experienced. For a fresh grad, the job market _is_ tough. Very tough in some cases.

OP is actually above average by having an actual side project. He just needs help with his resume or application.

<comment><USER10> > For a fresh grad, the job market is tough

Good point, I agree

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Dice.com

Post your resume on there. Be blunt and honest with the information. You have 4 years of academic experience. You probably can qualify 1.5 to 2 years of that as programming. You probably did 2 semesters of Java, C#, or C++. You probably did a semester of assembly language and another of some web development. Did you do a class on databases and SQL? Put some stuff on there. As soon as you hear back from recruiters, start telling them who you are and what you're looking for. They are not hiring you, so don't try to impress them. They are selling you to a company for a small payout. You are their product. Tell them you're fresh out of school and have an open source hobby project and you are looking for work. Save their contact information and bug them weekly until they get you a job. Do this with all of them. Don't tell them you've been searching for 3 months. Their job is to get you a job.

</comment><comment><USER17> The fact that you have shipped a game, should make it relatively easy to find a job, as shipping a game end to end is really praise worthy. However, note that I am not sure if the jobs you have applied to value this. And definitely as others have pointed out, your representation package (resume, cover letter, comm skills) need an upgrade.

Here are some very specific action points for your project though:

1\. Please move all your TO-DOs etc to Issues page, your README must talk about your game, any relevant documentation, installation steps, contribution process etc.

2\. Comment your code exhaustively.

3\. Add design documentation, which describes in detail your game design, host it on readthedocs and link it to your README. That is one way to clearly highlight both your communication and design skills.

4\. I am not sure if you have shipped to iOS store, if not ship it. If you have already done so, apologies for my oversight.

5\. Have a separate github.io website just as your game's home page, with download buttons for the app store. Have a reverse link to your GH repo as well on that page.

Now take the above and add a cover letter which describes your motivation to make the game, the fact that you shipped it and what you can contribute to as a developer through this experience; but don't be verbose. Be specific in terms of contributions you can make, that will need you to study the company and the job you are applying to and it will reflect in the cover letter.

I would strongly recommend you apply to game studios where your skills will be relevant. I am not sure if those TO-DO list and other bakery maker nonsense app makers are anyways going to value your skill, the ROI is too low to even bother.

Please check the past 6 month HN Who's hiring threads, for job postings from game studios or something relevant. Ex: Many times there are positions like asset pipeline developers where someone who has shipped a game end to end is a great fit.

I think you need to course correct, else you will keep seeing the same results. Wish you the best.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi deepaksurti,

1) I am thinking to create a web/blog to put those in. I thought that it might interested people to know what are the new features I am working on or will be working on. Beside the To-Dos, I do not know what else I can talk about the project

3) This is a good idea. Like I mentioned in (1), I will see if I can make a good looking blog and put the link on README

4) I did, but I am not so proud of the product. It has over hundred downloads, but I lack graphic skills. [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dodger- me/id1069760106?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dodger- me/id1069760106?mt=8)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I didn't see anyone say it yet; so I would recommend looking for local user groups / networking events. The personal connection can help a long way to getting an interview.

Go to everything you can find that is related to programming / application development /web development, even if it isn't in a technology or topic you know or care about.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! I think one of my biggest issue is that I am not very socially active.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Don't send hundreds if applications. Find jobs you want and positions where you are a good fit (know relevant Lang platform at least from school or hobby project etc). If a position asks for an experienced person - don't bother applying! Send a small number of very good applications.

A junior position at a mobile games place should definitely be a good fit if you can show a portfolio of such personal projects.

Find people to review your resume and letter. Pay for that service if you can't find friends or people e.g here on HN. Make sure to find people in your own job market to do this - so if you are looking for work in Germany then find Germans to ask for help. What's expected in an application is very regional.

Go to meetups and talk to people.

Finally, when you are rejected after an interview, ask someone for feedback on your application and interview. Ask them to be open about what you could improve. It could be something trivial like spelling.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi,

I used to send 1~2 application each week between the time when I was still a student and couple weeks after my graduation. But as times goes by, I started to increase the rate.

<comment><USER19> As others have pointed out, something doesn't seem right.

There is a red flag in your application and you need to find it.

Are you 50+ years old? A non-citizen (visa required etc)? Degree is from a foreign school?

If no to all of the above then you should be fine as soon as you had a few people review your resume.

If you answered yes to any of the above then the situation may be different.

Edit: ok I checked your profile - you are based in Dublin, and you are not 50 years old... Given your Chinese(?) background, do you have any problems working in Dublin (visas etc) that might scare an employer? Are you a citizen so you are free to find work anywhere in the EU? Would you want to move?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not foreign citizen. I just added my citizen status on my resume.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> 1) when there is a position description it takes ~5 person-hours to make. Spend at least 1 person-hour to make your cover letter and resume for it as a sign of respect to folks who made the position description. Those keywords are important. If you don't have enough then your resume doesn't get past the computer. It is how you can know if you should apply.

2) you need a phone number to go with the submit. Call and confirm that your stuff was received in good order. Ask if there were any questions. This means you have to find real openings with real companies, not just fight the computers. Talk to a human being.

3) you need to put in 20 resume's a week. That makes it a part-time job. You should call-back a week after you submitted to learn about the status of the application. If you were excluded for some reason, find it out. If they didn't like the cologne or paper type then you can buy a different quality of resume paper or wear an unscented cologne. That is a "cheap price of entry" for your next interview going better.

4)you really might go strong on learning how to make a great resume. criteria change over time. What was amazing a decade ago is not very great now. Most colleges have departments that are built around enabling you here.

5) look for jobs via networking, not just monster.com. I strongly recommend stack-overflow careers. They are an excellent resource.

6) make a strong linked-in profile. Make it complete. Get recommendations from professors you worked for, or team-mates you worked with. It is a resume as well. Make sure you hit the "I am looking for a job" switch in your settings that will have recruiters calling you.

7) review your other social media for unprofessional content. Facebook or myspace could be messing you up. What does one find when they google your name? Is there someone with the same name who is ... the professional equivalent of a pile of poo? Then you need to include your middle initial or give yourself a clear differentiator.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am taking a short break to learn my mistakes. And your post is very interesting.

1) I have never spent over an hour writing a cover letter. I think the longest is 30 minutes, and in average I would say 10 minutes (Not including the time I spent looking their website)

2) I do include my phone number in both resume and cover letter. I have double checked it as well.

3) Yes, I need to work on this. I am quite inconsistent, some weeks I send only 5 where as others I send over 20.

4) I will definitely work on this

6) I have recently working on my LinkedIn profile to make it more professional.

Thank you for your advices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Where are you based? If you are in some small city, expand your search to other areas. Send CV to companies based in large cities. As iOS dev you should be able to find a job pretty easily as there aren't enough mobile developers.

Edit: According to your github profile you are based in Dublin. So that's very strange you should easily get dozen interviews in 3 months.

Here are some iOS jobs in Dublin: [https://stackoverflow.com/jobs?sort=i&q=ios&l=Dublin%2C+Irel...](https://stackoverflow.com/jobs?sort=i&q=ios&l=Dublin%2C+Ireland&d=20&u=Miles)

Edit 2: Are you a EU citizen? This matters because if you don't need a visa then finding work in Europe is very easy for software engineers. If you need visa sponsorship then that might be more complicated!

</comment><comment><USER12> > I feel like I must find a work not related to computer science

I'm not sure if you've already tried this, but in addition to applying to jobs related to your side project I suggest applying to other jobs that have a lot more jobs available. My guess would be the number of jobs for mobile game dev might be limited and competitive and that would make it difficult when applying as a recent graduate. Web technologies whether for front-end or backend development are greatly in demand and are worth considering.

<comment><AUTHOR> Initially, I was just applying for mobile developer positions. But, since it did not work quite well, I have started applying to many other area

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> >> Owner of Alibaba ..... I am getting close to him?

Hold your horses :) I do wish the best of luck to you, but sometimes we have to "prove to the world" that we deserve X-Y-Z and then we get "lucky" but having people believe in us.

Now, if you are going for jobs that require 5+ years of XP, then tough luck. If you are going for internships, well then again you have to compete with plenty of people. Either way, you need to get strong at something, and then conquer people's minds!

good luck and don't give up!

</comment><comment><USER23> I saw that you're from dublin but you looks asian. Sorry for the question, but is important for understand better your situation:

You're a eu citizen or you're on visa ? because could be that companies can't afford the visa cost(money and time)

You can legally search for a job in all europe ? if yes, send cv to companies in berlin, london, amsterdam too. Have you tried to send the cv the Kings or rovio ?

Maybe you should learn nodejs/react and try to get a job in different eu countries.

</comment><comment><USER24> What does your applications and cover letters look like? My best advise would be to go to some meetups and meet the companies that hire, this often give you a direct entry into the company that you would not get with a cover letter.

You are very welcome to send me it and I can give it a look: firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Many people told me to go to meetups. I know I must do this, but what pushes me back is that I have lack of social skills. I am trying to overcome this and I am planning to join an iOS group that I just found online.

I will send you my resume. Thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hello everyone,

I want to first thank you all for your useful information, and the time to tell me steps to improve.

I did not expect to receive that many comments. I have read all of them already, and I will answer to some of the comments. Please, do not feel your comment is not helpful if I do not reply to it.

Thank you all again.

</comment><comment><USER25> I have just checked your project. It looks really cool mate, well done!

Keep on working on it, improve its performance whenever is necessary, and start documenting it via blog posts.

This way you will start gaining traffic to your blog and sooner than you think you will attract some recruiters.

</comment><comment><USER26> Nice game demo. If you are having trouble finding a job with work of that quality, then I've got no chance, lol. Good luck, I'm sure that's all you are lacking right now. I'm going to send you good vibes right now.

</comment><comment><USER27> Applying to the right places is also key, many job boards simply post up fake jobs for their numbers. Stackoverflow and university job boards are normally legit places to start from. Don't even get me started on graduate schemes.

</comment><comment><USER28> Very very very strange. CS is exploding and everyone is hiring. Where are you based? Can you be more specific on what you would like to do? We are hiring - interns/junior too :)

<comment><USER29> It would be better to say "many are hiring" in place of everyone.

I'm a Computer Science myself with professional experience in IT since 2004 and I'm unemployed for 2 years now and I cannot get passed a decent interview without being labeled as "overqualified".

Right now I'm in the process to change path for good and become Security Guard because I have no other choice.

Technology works for countries like US, China, and such big industries, but not for tiny islands like my country I'm afraid.

My suggestion to original OP would be to find any job for now to make a living if he or she has no other financial support from family and work on his / her side projects until they gain momentum they deserve.

<comment><USER30> What about a remote job position? What kind of job are you looking for?

<comment><USER31> Considering the average level of engineering in the Western world, if you are as good as you're implying you'll have no trouble securing a remote job with a million companies in the Valley. If this feels like a fairly trivial/standard problem: [http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/remove-nodes-root-leaf-paths- le...](http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/remove-nodes-root-leaf-paths-length-k/), you'd be well above a lot of engineers.

<comment><USER25> I know many scientists that suffer the same way as I am.

No matter how good you are with education and research, when you are an introvert and you have to go for an interview but cannot express yourself clearly under stressful circumstances, like the case of being interviewed by CTO, CFO (don't ask me why, he was present with a special interest in knowing me in person for some reason?!), and the head of HR at the same time...then you can get an idea why I cannot make it anymore.

It wasn't like that before. In the past, you had the opportunity to go for an interview and you would have a normal chat with the HR or the Project Manager that would make you feel like talking to a closed friend of yours and you would exchange valuable information with this person and before you know it, through this interview you would realize how much you know and help you appreciate yourself even more.

Nowadays it feels like going through a drive-thru to buy junk food that feels so emotionless...they don't care about you, because they say "I can find millions like you" and they literally mean it!

Think about it, we are in EU and they announce they have opened some interesting positions with attractive salaries and benefits, and without noticing it many EU citizens sent their resumes for that position.

So, you stand no chance next to those people who have already acquired professional experience around this niche.

I don't feel it's worth it anymore, seriously.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> You could also finish your game and get it into the app store. I'd pay a few bucks for that, and judging by some comments here, other HN-ers would as well.

</comment><comment><USER33> I will share my story with you. Hopeful it will inspire you to keep trying and never give up.

So, I graduated in 2013 with BCom in Finance. I'm short sighted( chronic one, have been like this for more than 10 years), I have hearing impairment and to top it up I wasn't that good with my grades either so poor GPA.

For context, I had to pay TSH 10000 for someone to open an email for me so I can apply for college loan, meaning I never had any kind of access to computers until I was in college.

Fast forward, I graduated. The only valuable thing I had is a Laptop my sister bought for me since I couldn't attend lectures( can't see , can't hear and no one cares anyways) and I have to give myself the an education and needed to survive 3 years. This opened doors to the world of the World Wide Web, I read Wikipedia, mastered the art of googling and all those tricks to get the right information.

So, back home after college. There was no way for me to get a job, because.

* I can't last past the first screening , I had issues with communication

* I sucked at finance. I self educated myself so I was picky on what to learn, the jobs on the other hand were looking for people who had high grades and balanced accounts in their heads( pun intended)

It was me and my laptop, I gave up the prospect of being employed. I was too depressed to leave my room. So, I started programming to kill time and keep at bay the thought of suicide.

I started with PHP after playing for it for a while I wasn't that impressed I moved to Python, then Ruby then Erlang. Along the way I was learning and experimenting with all kinds of technologies I can grab for free on the internet be it CSS, HTML, Sass, etc.

Back then there was chronic power outages, so blackout were daily.

My routine was

* Leave the lights on, * Wake up when the lights are on( the power is back), and start coding. * Sleep when the power goes off ( blackout ) * Repeat the above steps for days in days out

I was earning 0, I decided to look for programming gig, I was depressed even more. there are only PHP shops here, in one occasion the lead engineer of one shop told me python was not a programming language.

When all hopes were lost, I came across this language called Go( Golang ). The way I was productive in it inspired me to think about building my own apps one day. So, I started sharing my projects on github. I was writing thousands of lines of Go like crazy. Just chasing the dead dreams. I can't remember how many unfinished ideas there was.

It was't until 2015 I decided to sum up my Go experinece into a little project I called utron. Utron was MVC framework for Go, which I hand rolled and loved, It caught attention of redditors and landed here on HN.

I landed my first gig november the same year. I moved to my own place and I have been independent ever since.

SUMMARY: Time is generous to all of us, keep doing what you feel is the right thing to do.

CONTEXT: I still program in Go, I'm probably the only professional Go programmer in my country (Tanzania) according to Github, folks here have no idea what I'm up to but that never stopped me from believing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for sharing your awesome story

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Welcome to the real world :)

</comment><comment><USER35> Please apply to our job posting [https://buffalo.craigslist.org/eng/6186221427.html](https://buffalo.craigslist.org/eng/6186221427.html)

</comment><comment><USER36> Please compare your Github portfolio to someone who is employed in the field which you are trying to enter.</comment>


How much you can make working on a movie (Movie credits with salary) - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnTF3guz7EQ <comment><AUTHOR> I've always wondered about this, so it's a big help. It helps explain all the actors that are also waiting tables at the Cheese Cake Factory.

From what I've read other places, it can take five months to a year to finish a movie. So some things may not be a great job.

Key missing job is the studio accountant that has a $200 million movie with grosses over $1 billion and doesn't make a profit. With my lousy math skills that's the perfect job for me.</comment>