A bit of context: college junior majoring in CS, have always been interested in tech and startups. As an international student, I'm projected to graduate from college at $300k USD in debt. I attend a US state school so I'm already on the lower end of cost of attendances for international students. International student loans also have high interest rates of ~10%. My age is atypical for a...
Perhaps I would rephrase my initial statement as: 'I often feel that my technical inexperience means I can't readily translate my planned solution for the customer's problem into a quality product through code.'
> None of that matters if you're working on the wrong problem.
100% agree with this.
To share a personal example, I was building a system to provide medical workers feedback on whether they wore personal protective equipment correctly. The hospital wanted us to use computer vision/machine learning to automate their checking process. But when we went on-site, we realised that our camera setup, which provided workers a 360 view of themselves so that they didn't need to awkwardly turn to check their behind as they had to do with regular mirrors, was far more valuable than whatever machine learning model we had built. The real problem was actually how could we make it easier for people to wear PPE so that fewer mistakes would be incurred and thus less checking required.
I haven't managed to read all your posts but this one stands out to me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20356222. The practices you mention are all areas I want to grow in. In that PPE project, as I tried to onboard other developers, things like a lack of documentation and spaghetti non-modular code made it difficult to keep up with the pace of growth we needed. So my hypothesis is that being in an environment (BigCo or other Startup) where practices are being well-used to deliver a product will stretch my capabilities so that I can better execute on my own/in my own team.
In your list of suggestions, how would you prioritise what practices to learn? Or is it about identifying issues in whatever project I'm currently in, having the backlog of potential practices in mind, and then figuring out in real-time how to apply those practices to improve your product/processes
Student here aspiring to become a tech entrepreneur. While I've shipped side-projects to small groups of customers, I often feel that my technical inexperience means I can't readily translate my vision into a quality product through code. I plan to work at a BigCo/Startup first to better learn the ropes/practices before going it out on my own. The idea is that I stretch my technical...
> If your goal is to build a profitable business not focused on exponential growth or VC-sized returns, then luck plays a smaller role.
a bit of background. I started Android development at 12 and published a few apps on the app stores. Tasted the fun of building one's own business and earning money by myself. I have always dreamed of building the next big thing.
I think now I'm slowly realising that building the next big thing is really difficult. It might not even be something I'm aiming for any more now that have better insights on the workings of exponential growth. The stress and luck involved reminded me of this college situation I'm in.
> I recommend reading "Fooled By Randomess"
gonna give this a read. thanks!
I've just been rejected for undergrad at Stanford, the campus I hoped to accelerate my technopreneurship journey. I have been dealing with the rejection as an exercise of persistence because I recognise that I will have to face similar circumstances in startups with applying to incubators, pitching to investors, etc. Yet, I really hope startups aren't as much of a lottery game as admitting into...