mck-

Brad Feld was the only mentor (out of ~100 we met) during our TechStars Chicago ‘15 program who had sessions with the CEOs of the cohort and told us to take a break each day to call our significant others.

He gave us perspective when all of us were focused on hustling for demo day and raising our seed round. He reminded us that amid the hustle, there’s more to life than your startup. Thank you.

Even just asking that question implies self-judgment and a need to “do the right thing”. Perhaps just be, and that is enough.

There has never been a better and easier time to be a startup founder. Follow your passions, build a ton of side projects, with or without friends, and who knows, some stuff might stick and generate some revenue in the four years you’re at it.

Job markets are inherently uncertain, even in good economies. Holding a job is also uncertain; Your future is in the hands of the executives and their decisions. Being a founder allows you to have control over your career, and yes, bear full responsibility over it all. Get ramen profitable and you are immune to layoffs.

Even if you graduate and decide you don’t want to go down the (very tough) path of a founder, you will be much more employable.

You know what, I seriously considered selling this on the blockchain, but cut it out of scope on the end :) if you are serious, we can always do a manual transaction

That’s funny, I launched a startup novel three days ago [1] where I also referenced emacs in one of the scenes

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48447484

For me the flow state has always come from a sensation of creative juices spawning ideas, a vision for an end result, and the deep focus that ensues in working towards that.

Such a cycle previously could take hours or days, resulting in long, deep flow states. But now I go through dozens such cycles a day.

So less of a single flow state, more so many short flow states. As for waiting, that’s when you can explore another idea in parallel. Double the flow states for me :)

Are you trying to read the sample chapters? What browser are you on? And did you try toggling dark/light mode?

Thank you! I did also submit this to IngramSparks, which is a platform for bookstores and libraries. From what I've read, the process would be to enable the book for distribution, and libraries would have a way in their systems to review and place orders for new books that are released.

One thing to consider is that pre-AI homegrown software is a house of cards, whereas post-AI vice coded software can be better than what most average engineer can craft.

They’re also getting quite good at fixing 500 errors at the speed of a prompt, which is faster than humans

I wrote it :) there’s also an open source version here: https://github.com/mck-/Open-VRP

The core route optimization algorithm of Routific is also written in Common Lisp :)

Thank you! This was very helpful :)

I used to struggle with this too, until I started studying Stoicism. Here's a quote from Marcus Aurelius’ meditations 6.15 that I think about often:

“Ambition means tying your well being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions."

Nice! If only I knew this existed last month.

But they also needed a “company seal stamp” which I had to draw

Reminds me of a thread on HN from 2013 that turned tic-tac-toe into something much more interesting and in a same way meta [1]

I made a simple online playable game of it back then: http://mck-.github.io/T3/

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5898506

Zettelkasten is a methodology, Obsidian is an app

Yes indeed, anytime anything is worth remembering (or connecting with other notes) I write it down. It interrupts reading, so I don’t churn through as many books.

I used to set goals like x books per year, but now I realize it’s a vanity metric and instead read for insights.

I use Obsidian for note taking, which supports images too.

If blogging is like a webpage, then a Zettelkasten is like a Wikipedia for your brains.

Inspired by a thread on HN ~2 years ago, I’ve now written 1,075 interconnected notes, and no longer feel that I forget 80% of any non-fiction book I read.

Linking is key; it allows you to connect any new insight to your existing externalized knowledge base, resulting in deeper understanding and retention.

It also creates the space to connect thoughts across disparate domains, which spawns novel ideas at an even greater rate. For example, I might link an idea about neuroscience to my chess writings that links to a note about workout methods which links to a piano technique note. Now I suddenly see a new connection about applying a piano practice technique to leveling up my chess score.

It has changed the way I read, or consume information generally.

A great book that got me started is Ahrens, S. (2017). How to Take Smart Notes

Ever since I adopted a Zettelkasten, I find myself learning and retaining much more effectively.

The habit forces you to distill insights in your own words and make connections to your current knowledge — mimicking how your brain learns.

Regardless of the source, reinterpreting it in your own words is key.

See Sonke’s “How to take smart notes” — or this primer article [1]

[1] https://www.bryanlee.net/blog/the-life-changing-magic-of-zet...

Ray Dalio's Principles is becoming my favorite book of the year; despite it being ~500 pages, there's so much super relevant content to company building and generally very applicable principles that help with day to day conduct.

While most books I've read are tactical or strategic, this book talks about the philosophical -- especially recommended for founders beyond the scrappy MVP stage, perhaps a team > 10

Just what I thought. Sounds like author has awareness of the problem, but decided on a rather difficult solution.

You can still get into flow while looking up syntax you haven't committed to memory, but know how to find in 2 min.

I have a habit not to commit anything to memory that I could Google in 2 min, saving on RAM.

Routific | Vancouver, BC | Full-Time, Onsite/Remote | https://routific.com

We tackle the NP-hard route optimization problem for delivery businesses. We cut their fuel consumption by 20%~40%, with a tremendous green impact for the planet. We saved the equivalent of planting 100,000 trees last year alone! We also cover relocation expenses and sponsor work permits :)

Headquartered in beautiful Vancouver BC, with sweeping views of the ocean and mountains. To learn more about who we are, our engineering culture, and whether this is the right place for you, read our Key Values profile: https://www.keyvalues.com/routific

Check out our open roles:

* Lead Software Engineer: https://angel.co/routific/jobs/376543-lead-software-engineer

* Sr. Front-end Engineer: https://angel.co/routific/jobs/454028-front-end-engineer

Tech Stack: Rust – Common Lisp – React – Angular – Typescript – Node.js – Postgres – MongoDB