lacus

It's hard to offer more specific direction without having at least a vague idea of what type of web app you're trying to build. If you're looking for a "read X book" or "do Y tutorial" type of answer, there simply isn't one, not for what you're trying to achieve. The answer is, learn as much as you need to in order to start building stuff, even if you don't know what the hell you're doing at first. When you get stuck, search around on StackOverflow and elsewhere; if that doesn't work, seek out help from your local Python/Ruby/whatever Meetup and try to find other people willing to teach (you seem genuinely curious and respectful so that should make things a little easier). Just remember that you're a smart person, so when (not if) you're made to feel like an idiot for not knowing some silly basic thing, don't back down. Keep searching, keep building, keep asking questions until you get there.

I'm far from an expert but I've been through this. I was in a very similar position to you less than a year ago and have since then gone from absolute zero technical knowledge to becoming a shitty-but-enthusiastic self-taught hacker. I'm happy to chat more specifically if you want to message me directly (first name: Linda; last name: last 4 letters in my HN username; email: firstlast@gmail).

Can you be a little more specific about what you're ultimately hoping to build, or learn? I'd generally agree with the commenter who suggested you pick a simple problem and then try to solve it. That's the only way to understand where these bits and pieces you've learned fit into the broader picture. I'm getting the sense that that's what you're after here, at least initially -- a general understanding/overview of how this stuff all comes together in the real world? Is that right, or no?

Nice! Exciting to see these communities being built.

But I still want a Rap Genius for source code ;)

"Copy a perfect Bluebook citation with one click"

Says a lot about the state of legal tech that a feature as simple as this actually got me excited. Much needed.

It may not answer the technical question but it helps to resolve the human one, which is what their actual concern here is.

Totally agree. Of course there is going to be more backlash if this is described as a "replacement." What's wrong with just offering doctors better tools to do their jobs? We offer them surgical tools, why not software tools? That's a less threatening description...but also a less compelling headline.

Depends on how much the intern would be getting out of the experience besides pay. If you're actually teaching/mentoring them, then you don't necessarily need to pay them anything. If you don't have marketing/sales expertise yourselves and therefore "intern" is just a way of saying you don't want to be bound by traditional employment practices, then that's something different altogether, and you're probably not going about this the right way. Why the term "intern"?

The more specific the group's focus is the better, in my experience. So I'd need to know more about what kind of project this is before recommending.

This is really great. Obviously, we can't prevent every bad outcome, but I think sometimes people don't realize how little efforts like this actually go a really long way.

YC is starting to take a lot of the right steps. I know for me personally, as a female founder, my attitude has changed a lot in the past 6-8 months (from "I guess I'll keep reading HN & essays because I don't want to miss out on interesting content... but I don't feel good about it, and I'd definitely never apply" -- to now being able to be an unequivocal fan, attending Startup School, etc.).

Honestly, any effort at all is appreciated, although some efforts count for more than others. For instance, the Female Founders conference is fine, but I (and I think a lot of people) probably assign more credibility to efforts that really demonstrate a depth of thought on the issue. Here's a tiny example of what I mean, just from this essay, in fact: I always see VCs and journalists citing to the percent of portfolio companies that have a female founder, and every time I see this, it makes me think they're not really serious about analyzing the dimensions and complexity of the issue ("Out of how many founders TOTAL, not how many companies??"), so the fact that SA at least pointed this out puts this piece above not only other investor posts but also posts by tech journalists -- people whose very job it is to, you know, point this stuff out. That's a tiny example, but to me it counts for a lot more than just boilerplate "we support women blah blah blah." [1]

The same principle probably applies for what kinds of events/projects you sponsor. "Women in tech" conferences are great and all, but the more innovative (and tangibly helpful) the initiative is, the better. I'm not sure what your suggestion/feedback mechanism for this is besides HN and talking to your own portfolio, but it may be worth setting up another channel to get ideas from current non-YC technical women/female founders (maybe anonymously, or at least in a more conducive forum than the HN comment section).

Anyway, just my thoughts. I second the other comments about the importance of race/class diversity, too, but I don't have as much to add on that. (Not that race needed to be tackled in this particular post but the title maybe shouldn't have used the term "diversity" if it's mainly going to be about gender.)

[1] It also affords YC/SA a bit more benefit of the doubt when the post also asserts some, uh, less-well-thought-through things, e.g., that other industries are doing worse than tech on gender issues. (Like who? Who's doing worse, specifically? I literally can't think of a single industry in 2014 America that's doing worse than the startup/tech community [both statistically and anecdotally, as well as based on my own personal experience]. Not even investment banking -- and certainly not medicine, law, academia, or traditional business. It's not helpful to sugarcoat it.)

The human eye detects motion very readily, so this technique would actually be far more perceptible than keeping the modified portion in the same location of the image.

Am I really the only one who noticed that there are now women in some of the photos, as well as someone who is non-white/Asian? The design changes are great, too, but this seems a little more significant in terms of messaging. YC has been making more of an effort recently but it was always difficult for me to get past the fact that, according to their own photos, JL is the only woman there, or the only one worth showing in a photo. (This is coming from someone who was wanting to be able to like YC whole-heartedly, not someone looking for controversy.)

I do actually think it's something that gets noticed, just maybe not always on a conscious level, so this is a great and welcomed (and more welcoming) change. Well done, y'all.

Maybe skip the gratuitous sharing of financial milestones, and instead update people on the cool new stuff you're building/doing, or start a discussion about the user feedback you've received recently or some interesting results from the A/B testing you conducted recently -- that sort of thing.

Coincidentally, today is my last day as a practicing attorney. I quit in order to work full-time on a startup I founded (image platform --> high-growth and/or intent for funding).

I should probably get around to incorporating or figuring out what the best structure is for us since I'll likely begin to seek seed/angel funding in the next few weeks and the startup is going to exist in a fairly IP-heavy space so presumably there's a certain amount of added exposure there, but legal structure is definitely the least interesting part of this process for me.