News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

akor

Thinking out load but Lymes?
Re:Ask HN: How do you think about life/career goals? on Sunday March 26, 2023 @09:28AM (#35314218)
> But these things are essential to business, especially if you are going to make the most of the (profitable[0]) part you truly enjoy on a daily basis. So you need to get it under your belt early and start devising how you will overcome any compromising effect.

Totally agree. I've seen or been a part of some startups (not the Silicon Valley kind) that made payroll but not much else and the effort that was required to get that (from leadership) was close to what I'd call all consuming. If I start something I want to go in eyes wide open but the more they are open the less I think what you hear about online matches most realities. By that I mean most small business offer a mediocre salary (for the owner(s)) for way more work than you'd do with an job/employer and you're still subject to outside demands that make you do the "not fun" stuff. You hear that if it's something you love then you haven't worked a day... but IME that's BS. Yes, if you work for yourself there are good parts but there may be more parts outside your control (payroll, taxes, employee issues etc) and I've seen it where they take so much effort to stay on top of that it's hard to work "on the business".

With all that said I'm trying to separate wanting the idea of a business from the realities of owning/operating one. I added it because it's been on my list for a long time and I've put a lot of effort towards understanding the "right way" so there is some part of me that feels like I'd be regretful if I didn't try at least one time with 100% effort.

Also the mind space I was in when I asked the question was one of "what do I want to put on my career & life resume for the next decade".

Thank you! I appreciate your input.

Re:Ask HN: How do you think about life/career goals? on Sunday March 26, 2023 @09:04AM (#35313999)
I really appreciate your reply and re-framing of the situation. I need to give it more thought to internalize it.

My first thoughts are this is close to what I've been doing. Responding to the events directly in front of me without truly taking into consideration the big picture. It's possible one difference is you're saying to be much more aware of the good (little picture items) and lean into that. I don't entirely think my lack of directed effort is a problem except where it comes to ruling out big picture items because enough of the small items passed that their isn't time for the big picture ones or where some prerequisites are needed and those would take years to master. There is some part of me that without the long term goals would feel adrift. Or possibly the stage of life I'm at just feels like needs to put higher consideration on "legacy".

Part of me thinks that in order to level up the next steps are going to require more focused effort which both requires knowing on some level what I want but also what I shouldn't be working on.

Anyway I really do appreciate your thoughts.

Re:Ask HN: How do you think about life/career goals? on Sunday March 26, 2023 @08:47AM (#35313876)
That is helpful. I feel like I've experienced the counter-intuitive property (more with "inspiration") and possibly just need to get outside my head and start doing more varied things.

Thanks again I'll read through your frameworks today.

Re:Ask HN: How do you think about life/career goals? on Sunday March 26, 2023 @08:44AM (#35313862)
I too have been punched in the face. Adding it and checking it off today!
Re:Ask HN: How do you think about life/career goals? on Sunday March 26, 2023 @08:43AM (#35313857)
Thank you! I've read some of Derek's writing and can tell he thinks outside the box. I like the idea of the "unbucket list" and the first item resonates as I was looking yesterday at boats.

Honestly trying to think through what I do want now so I can work backwards. I have some ideas but I am not as clear as I feel some other people are.

Ask HN: How do you think about life/career goals?

If I am being honest I have always gone with the flow in terms of my life and had much less directed effort at any one specific goal. I've been reasonably successful but more and more I'm feeling I want "purpose". I put it in quotes mostly because I haven't defined what that means yet. Looking for inspiration / thoughts but if you were asked what you would like to accomplish from a life...

( Read More... | 11 comments | 2 points | on HN )
Does anyone know if after switching to "personal use" if you can swap the domain? That's not allowed with the legacy edition so I'm guessing the answer is no but wondered if anyone tested that theory. So I want to switch to "personal" and then change the "primary domain".
I'm not sure I'd say it's most common but I'd nominate event ticketing as a common bad startup idea.
FYI When the site is open for business it downloads 134MB of data.
I also own a "premium" domain and IMHO what Namecheap said is correct. I originally purchased on Namecheap but then moved to NameSilo because it was $15-20 cheaper (approx $60 otherwise). For example NameSilo lists standup.tech as $640.
> ...but what most investors don't know is that WealthFront have zero chance too. So the aim is to equal what they do without their mad fees...

Can someone help me understand this comment as to my knowledge WeathFront (WF) fees were the lowest in the industry. For example people talk about Vanguard fees as also being low but they're between 0.25% and 1% [1]. If it makes a difference I'm specifically coming at it from the lens of IRA retirement contributions.

Is the parent post saying the alternative is to figure out what specific stocks/ETF/index WF is purchasing and then purchase those with something like eTrade?

TIA

[1] https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/fees

Could also be allergies. You might try and OTC allergy medication for a bit and see if it makes any difference.
That's my main concern although maybe air pollution from toast / allergens is just as bad.
No it's just an LED that's either blue, orange, red. I knew it wouldn't give me exact figures (or pollutants) but from what I'd read the "fix" was to get an air purifier or move.
I live in a single family dwelling so it's probably breakfast then.
Yes, quite frequently. I haven't read it yet but had heard cooking can trip PM2.5 sensors up but I guess I assumed that air quality issues that come from something you eat would be less detrimental to health (as a general rule). It could certainly explain the propensity to kick up in the morning. Thank you.
I've wondered if air quality was an issue where I live but wanted to also be able to do something about it so I bought and air purifier with an air quality sensor (Winix D480). It mostly kicks up in the morning but I have no idea what is causing it to think the air quality is bad. For those who've gotten a real sensor how do you track what's actually causing the air quality issues so you can do something about it? I live close (1400ft / 444m) to a major highway so I've wondered if that could be a "source" but no idea how to tell.
Re:Ask HN: Are you preparing for a market crash? How? on Sunday January 10, 2021 @01:09PM (#25717487)
For people who advocate purchasing depressed assets if/when things take a turn for the worse how do they hold the "cash". It seems the choices are lose cash to inflation or put it in some investment vehicle that ties up the cash for some period of time or has a different risk profile. I've heard some people advocate against never holding cash and borrowing against assets (ex: real estate) but that puts you at the mercy of the lender. If you hold literal cash what percent of the total portfolio makes sense? TIA
If you haven't already make sure the date time is current.
Re:Ask HN: How do I escape webdev? on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @12:55PM (#22476932)
I think I actually agree with your #1 item but also find it sad as 8-10 hours a day is a lot of time to just grind for the sake of supporting your other activities. I'd love to find a middle ground but it may not exist.

Ask HN: Well written / designed “spec” document?

Does anyone have examples of a well written spec document and if available approx. how many hours went into coming up with it? I heard Seth Godin talk about how they did a spec so good they just handed it off to a development shop and let them roll with it but my experience has been far from that. I know part of the issue is internally we're not spending enough time developing the spec but...

( Read More... | 1 comment | on HN )
What languages do you suggest? Does Javascript have the same association with "race-to-the-bottom markets"? Having used Symfony and Laravel I don't understand why PHP has such a bad rep except that it's on the easier side so any language that makes things simple would suffer the same fate (attracting inexperienced developers (hello Javascript, Ruby, Python)). Both PHP and Javascript have many language specific issues so I'd say they're on equal footing.
I personally struggle with how I'd use the Zapier integration (thinking as a customer/client) but I think that about other services. We tried to do a RingCentral / Pipedrive mashup and couldn't make it work the way we wanted (got 75%+ there).

If you don't mind what is the usage like? Did use-cases emerge you hadn't considered. Has it been a headache from a support standpoint? Lastly, are customers confused when you say yes we integrate with X but in order to use it you have to use/purchase Zapier? Again thank you!

Thanks for the feedback. It seems as though Zapier has taken over the startup scene which just makes me wonder its value to us.

Ask HN: Was integrating with Zapier worth the time/effort?

We're having an internal discussion about whether integrating Zapier is worth the effort. We're specifically talking about it as a marketing tool to draw in customers (or at least help convince) so I was hoping to poll the larger community and hear about how integrating Zapier into your company affected sales. I realize this would mostly be anecdata but am interested in hearing anyway. Part...

( Read More... | 6 comments | 8 points | on HN )

Ask HN: Positioning your startup for an investment / an exit?

I work for a small startup and recently we've been contacted by investment firms. It got me thinking about the best ways to put yourself in a better position should you need investment or want to exit so I'm hoping for great resources on what you guys recommend. We've heard the business needs to be systematized but it's unclear what that means for us and the particular industry makes it truly...

( Read More... | no comments | on HN )
Re:Everything I know about freelancing on Monday April 01, 2019 @11:06AM (#19544015)
Thank you that is helpful! A lot of our hires have been short term and I suspect that doesn't help the situation.
Re:Everything I know about freelancing on Friday March 29, 2019 @02:26PM (#19524233)
Would love to hear what strategies you use to qualify candidates.

Ask HN: How does project management work in your small / tiny startup?

For some context I work for a tiny startup where I'm the only tech person. I am frequently handed a task that is unclearly defined and I work with the business owner to tease out the spec over time or am expected to come up with the "correct" solution intuitively. We're so small that everybody has too much work to do so I understand the necessity to just hand off the work but because I don't...

( Read More... | 7 comments | 7 points | on HN )

Older »