News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The Valley Is Fucked by ghc on Saturday December 28, 2013 @09:32PM (#6977945)
> If you don't know Git, you don't know shit. If you have a Tumblr site you haven't updated in six months and you call yourself a programmer, you're an embarrassment to the language you claim to know.

That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about this writer. It doesn't seem hard to imagine that if you're a hacker wannabe who thinks things like having a tumblr are important to selling your skillset, or doesn't realize that outside trendy startups in the valley git is still far from universal, you're gonna have a bad time in the valley. And I say that as someone who hates the valley and couldn't be happier that I chose Boston instead.

Re:The Valley Is Fucked by Gwen_Bell on Saturday December 28, 2013 @10:05PM (#6978073)
If I'm just a "hacker wannabe" then how did I write my own complete blogging system from scratch:

http://bitters.gwenbell.com/

Keep hating, you wear your jealousy on your sleeve...

Re:The Valley Is Fucked by vertr07 on Saturday December 28, 2013 @10:20PM (#6978128)
Says the person who wrote a hateful takedown of the valley, the homeless, and 'white guys.'

Also, it appears you followed a simple node tutorial and you are calling it a "platform." I'm not sure jealousy is the correct word here. If writing blog posts and following tutorials is your idea of being a developer, I'm not surprised you had a hard time in the Bay Area.

Put in the coding time, stop overselling yourself, and maybe then you will be attractive to potential employers. Blaming your failure on everyone else isn't getting you anywhere.

Re:The Valley Is Fucked by Gwen_Bell on Saturday December 28, 2013 @10:58PM (#6978288)
Wow, you really are obsessed with me son. I know, it's not every day you meet a female with the tech skills to get Arch Linux to take on a Macbook Air. It bricked my Macbook Pro (poor thing went to the highest bidder on Ebay). Anyways, try to control yourself, you're borderline stalker at this point!
Re:The Valley Is Fucked by vertr07 on Saturday December 28, 2013 @11:02PM (#6978301)
I just enjoy a good shit show. Amusing that you would call me "son" and then accuse me of being sexist though. But I thought this was the imposter ms. Bell? Oh well.
Re:The Valley Is Fucked by ghc on Saturday December 28, 2013 @11:19PM (#6978353)
Given the state of Hacker News, this might come as a surprise, but hacker is not synonymous with programmer. I developed a weekend workshop for the Harvard Innovation Lab where I lead the students through building a pinterest clone from scratch in two days. For anyone with a basic CS background (CS50) this isn't out of reach, though it's a nice way to stretch yourself into learning new things.

A blogging platform is a similar sort of project. Any novice programmer can build one given enough time and motivation. Building a polished one is an accomplishment, but it's by no means a feat of programming creativity or a demonstration of vast skill.

When I hire junior developers I'm looking for people who know at least a few different programming languages and are skilled with a number of different tools. I'm not looking for a tumblr blog or deep knowledge of git. Git can be reasonably taught in a week or two; a programming language can't.

Most startups use a few different programming languages. Mine used 3 before we were acquired. Since we were acquired we now use 6 languages on 4 OSes (Win,Lin,QNX,iOS) to provide our sensor-based solution to our clients. A real hacker is the kind of programmer who can quickly adapt to such an environment and get up to speed quickly. That's not what defines a hacker* , but that's what makes them so valuable.

* I define a hacker as someone skilled at creatively misusing available technology to solve hard problems under extreme constraints

Re:The Valley Is Fucked by nhangen on Saturday December 28, 2013 @09:59PM (#6978053)
I read it differently. I thought she was referring to her difficulties finding traction without being a Git pro or Tumblr addict.
Re:The Valley Is Fucked by raptormissle on Saturday December 28, 2013 @09:51PM (#6978011)
LOL, I laughed out loud when I read the line about Tumblr. What a conceited little shit this person must be.

TLDR; couldn't make it in the valley so I skipped the country.