SamBoogieNYC

A couple of friends and I created this site when we saw dozens of our friends get laid off due to COVID-19. At first it was a google spreadsheet where people left a blurb about their situation, along with their Venmo/Cashapp/Paypal links. The spreadsheet ballooned to over 1000 people in a few days. We then created this site, and more than have 7000 people signed up to date.

It's a very simple site, essentially a list of people's stories and payment links. There's no qualification to sign up, so there may be some grifters. Since the site is intended for small donations ($5-10), we figured if someone is signing up, they need the money even if they're not in a dire situation.

The 'Resources' page is a nod to Hackernews itself, and was a fun challenge to build, though sparsely used.

We've since (nearly) automated a way for different communities to clone their own site on our subdomains (i.e your-community.leveler.info). If you're interested in that, sign up or feel free to shoot me a message at [email protected].

Happy to answer any questions - there was a lot of traction in the early weeks of Covid and it was an exciting thing to work on.

P.S You may disagree with the messaging on the site. For my own end, I just wanted to help people in need.

Yea it’s really quite wild and an exciting application of the ‘programmable money’ concept. Did some more reading. Thanks for the rundown.

Wow this sent me down a rabbit hole.

How are the transactions composed, with a smart contract/s, in combination with Dex API’s?

As someone who uses a SPA (React) for webapps - I find it very useful. I run into issues that wouldn't happen if building purely html/css/vanilla js and when that happens I fix the issue.

The biggest benefit of using a framework IMO is that you're given a fairly strict structure to work within, which makes organization a lot easier. For someone who isn't a master, having some rules "baked in", helps a lot.

That being said, I wouldn't use React to build a static page/site, that makes no sense.

It is very much like Catch-22 - which I have to say i don’t think I ever finished (was too young to really get it). I do remember some of the absurdities making me chuckle.

My family has told me stories about people like the main character, running his rackets in Catch 22. It must have been a truly crazy time

Interesting - I read in Polish but not as well as English. I imagine there could be a lot of good wordplay that is missing. Maybe one day I’ll try and pick up the Polish version

The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hašek - this book is pee-in-your-pants funny. A Czech satire about WWI. Definitely shines a light on the absurdity of war and various institutions - a lot still applies today. There is profundity in the dark humor, and at the same time it is a great mood-lifter. The character Svejk stays with you as a sort of idiot-genius-rebel, a cool archetype

SEEKING WORK | Remote | Part-time/Ad-hoc | Front-End Development: React/Redux, React Native, Vue, HTML/CSS/JS, UI/UX (Sketch)

I'm a Front-End Engineer looking to work on small front-end projects while traveling in August. I can quickly turn your designs into live pages or create UI/UX for Web or Mobile Apps.

Work:

https://___.market (currently in beta, inquire and I can send you a link)

https://wallplay.com/

http://betathegame.com/

https://sohogirl.com/

Github:

https://github.com/samyoungnyc

Email:

sambyoung at gmail dot com

C'mon, everyone knows its just turtles, all the way down

This is simply false

It sounds to me like you're burnt out. I think it might be helpful (if possible) to take a break completely for yourself, in a new environment - even if it's 3-7 days. No work, no family, just a place for you to relax and think. If coding isn't something that you feel ready to do anymore, perhaps you can move into a more management/biz oriented role?

As for the increasing difficulty of webdev - it's worth considering how necessary some tools are to the project. Oftentimes things can be simplified. It would take research, but maybe if you wrote a well thought-out and documented assessment of how you can simplify, your company might consider it? Good luck

Basic Civics, Finance & Economy should definitely be required courses in HS. When I talk to older people they generally tell me they had these classes, and are surprised they're no longer commonly taught. It's almost as if, by design?

IMO a lot of people were misled by marketing i.e "get a college degree, everything will be fine". The advance of technology (amongst other things) has majorly disrupted that model. I'm not an economist but the rest of the world has gotten more competitive as well, beyond just manufacturing. The U.S public K-12 education system is a major long-term liability IMO.

To your point about teaching yourself skills and getting hired - good on you that you did this but it's extremely difficult - the average person couldn't do this. That's even assuming that they saw out of their bubble and became aware that this was an option, which isn't as obvious as it might seem.

Also, not everyone has the ability nor desire to be a programmer - which is one of the few jobs I observed where if you have the skills, you have A LOT of leverage.

This headline is mindbogglingly dystopic and crass

Nice resources here.. I'll add this Udemy course to the list:

https://www.udemy.com/the-complete-elixir-and-phoenix-bootca...

Does anyone have recommendations for specific Phoenix learning resources?

Agreed - even though it's a bit of a learning curve, static typing helped me make more sense of what I was doing - I had to learn it with Swift and I really like (and think it's good for beginners) that there's this layer of 'guidance' integral to the language.

If public expression of a thought MAY result in more sophisticated communal understanding revealed by discourse, then it follows that self-censoring said thought MAY result in eliminating more advanced thoughts.

That is a real concern to me.

I don't disagree but that's not the point - the point is there is room for improvement, particularly at large organizations (which still have the most impact on the world).

Even at startups - the incentives are such that oftentimes user privacy is compromised. The economic model of ads supporting software is profitable but is it really the way we want to work?

Unfortunately we may be too far down this road. People don't generally want/expect to pay for software. I think this is limiting and troublesome in the long term.

A union of developers is a good idea IMO. Developer's are well compensated for their work (generally) - but it's common to hear how their ideas are suppressed.

I've been thinking a lot recently about Xerox PARC - a unique situation where smart people were given a wide degree of latitude, and the result was they came up with some world-changing things.

I understand that businesses have a legitimate right to work toward their end (the bottom line) - but in this rapidly changing world I think responsible people need to step up and say "enough is enough, we make these things, and here's how WE want to make them."

Thanks!

I was looking at both and Vue was definitely a lot easier to work with and less finicky. Love the fact that you can just link a script and play - it's also supposedly more performant than React although I haven't verified that.

React took me a fairly long time to 'get' (to the extent that I do) but I can see why it's gotten so popular. IMO it really forces you to be more organized and nudges you toward a more FP-centric approach.

I'm curious about integrating React/Vue with Elixir/Phoenix at some point as I'm really interested in Elixir/Phoenix as a possible future stack.

While I don't necessarily agree with the tone of this piece - I do think that there seems to be a general preference to solving '1st world problems' in the tech industry.

The thing is - people should work on what they want to work on. The things people end up working on are a reflection of what's valued by our society.

Obviously life is valued over death - and solving for longer lives is a worthy pursuit. It would be nice though, if there was more awareness around the problems facing people who aren't in SV, or a huge city, with a lot of relative wealth. That comes with diversity - of thought and actors, which the tech world could improve on.

Lastly, it's a lot more glam (and profitable) to say "I made it possible to live 'x' years longer than average" than it is to say "I made a product that helped old people live better". In my experience - VCs/"tech people" aren't interested in such a proposition - though it could be very profitable!

Hey cool project OP - how do you feel about the inclusion of Vue. Just curious about your general thoughts because I'm thinking of incorporating either React or Vue into my own website

You might enjoy a book called Quantum Psychology (Robert Anton Wilson).

He lays out some interesting concepts about the way we think and one thought experiment in particular, observing all the 'thinkers' within and how they can multiply at will i.e consider the following innocuous statement:

"I observe that I am happy"

Who is happy and who is the observer?

I heard the urinals at Facebook have a sheet at eye-level where the week's "metric-to-hit" is posted.

Methods like this seem to be effective, but creepy and invasive.

thanks ill check it out!

I've just recently started learning Elixir and have really been enjoying it.

Subjectively speaking, I really like the terse yet expressive syntax. It's also nice to have a smaller codebase.

There's an awesome package that creates HTML docs out of your comments. It's really useful for creating documentation on the fly. Elixir's official docs are made this way.

I'm about halfway through a course I think is very good for beginner-level programmers (https://www.udemy.com/the-complete-elixir-and-phoenix-bootca...).

Elixir School is also a good resource.

Phoenix shows a lot of promise too, I haven't taken to JS so it would be good not to have to use it as much as possible.

Having built an Alexa Skill (a very enjoyable experience) - I find Voice UI/UX to be a very interesting vector in computing with lots of potential to grow.

My colleagues and I built our skill for the elderly to use. We found it was easier for them to interact using their voice rather than a touchscreen.

I think as computers get better at understanding language and verbal communication, we will be able to use screens less - which is great.

I think it's kind of primitive to have to constantly look at a screen to do things - at the very least it makes sense to cut out screen time if and whenever it's possible.

Alexa is like a terminal that you can talk to. Give a simple command in a particular way, and it will reliably do it.

It's an exciting development that Alexa can now be applied outside of the Echo.

I have a notion that one of the major ways people will be spending the time they otherwise would be working is by consuming entertainment.

If that notion is correct, moving towards an educational model focused around creating the components needed for general entertainment (video/AR/VR/Music etc) might alleviate the problems we'll face.

Thanks for the input - how were you deploying before elastic/docker?