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Ask HN: What's keeping you from starting something?

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Re: Ask HN: What's keeping you from starting something?

#11

Post by mrfusion »

phantom_oracle wrote: post #10
mrfusion wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have some good ideas that you think might be sucessful?

In our minds, I'm sure we'd all like to think so, but metrics, customer needs and a whole lot of other external factors (especially luck) determine success. Are you working on anything interesting?

I have a lot of ideas but no real way to know if they're good or not.

One idea I had a few days ago: I call "curated recruiters".

Job seekers could log in and get a short list of good recruiters in their location. In exchange for getting the list they have to provide the site with the best recruiter they've ever worked with so that the information stays current.

Employers could also use it to find good recruiters to work with.

Re: Ask HN: What's keeping you from starting something?

#15

Post by prasidp »

henryaj wrote: post #3

In my case: I'm not a programmer. I'm interested in it, and immersed in the tech world, but part of me doesn't believe that people really teach themselves to code and go on to make a career out of it. A self-limiting belief, I suppose.

Hey Henry - I work at Bloc - we offer a web development apprenticeship and most of our students sound pretty similar to you - read HackerNews, immersed in tech, tried learning on their own and realized they needed a more robust program like a bootcamp - but didn't want to quit their job / don't have $13K to spend on a bootcamp.

if you wanna chat - my email is prasid@bloc.io

Re: Ask HN: What's keeping you from starting something?

#16

Post by phantom_oracle »

mrfusion wrote: post #11
phantom_oracle wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In our minds, I'm sure we'd all like to think so, but metrics, customer needs and a whole lot of other external factors (especially luck) determine success. Are you working on anything interesting?

I have a lot of ideas but no real way to know if they're good or not. One idea I had a few days ago: I call "curated recruiters". Job seekers could log in and get a short list of good recruiters in their location. In exchange for getting the list they have to provide the site with the best recruiter they've ever worked with so that the information stays current. Employers could also use it to find good recruiters to…

That's not a bad idea at all. I'm not sure what part of the world you're in, but it seems like recruiters exist in most countries and they definitely dominate jobs boards these days (from what I've seen).

I personally don't think it would work as a service on its own, but may be better as a piece of something bigger.

If you'd like, we could chat privately about ideas and getting to know each other.

Re: Ask HN: What's keeping you from starting something?

#17

Post by phantom_oracle »

prasidp wrote: post #15
henryaj wrote: post #3

In my case: I'm not a programmer. I'm interested in it, and immersed in the tech world, but part of me doesn't believe that people really teach themselves to code and go on to make a career out of it. A self-limiting belief, I suppose.

Hey Henry - I work at Bloc - we offer a web development apprenticeship and most of our students sound pretty similar to you - read HackerNews, immersed in tech, tried learning on their own and realized they needed a more robust program like a bootcamp - but didn't want to quit their job / don't have $13K to spend on a bootcamp. if you wanna chat - my email is prasid@bloc.io

Your pricing is not that much cheaper than $13K...

Re: Ask HN: What's keeping you from starting something?

#18

Post by Scienz »

I am actively working on starting stuff I consider important, but the main things holding me back are:

1. Compile-time/linking errors with every C++ serialization library I've tried so far (boost, autoserial and cereal, so far). Half joking here, this has been screwing me up all week.

2. Lack of experience and lack of collaborators means projects that would take others days or weeks take me months or years. I hope I'm at least improving, though.

3. Lack of funding to hire said collaborators, and unwillingness to commit my few savings to something that may not have a guaranteed ROI. I'm not interested in seeking funding or trying something like YCombinator since I don't really want to share ownership in my vision, and figure it wouldn't be enough to last very long anyways.

4. Having to stop to deal with other life stuff, such as classes and moving to a new place.

Re: Ask HN: What's keeping you from starting something?

#19

Post by mattm »

People will give different reasons but there is really only one true reason once you get to the heart of the matter:

"You don't trust yourself"

All the reasons you see listed in this thread are rationalisations your mind comes up with to trick yourself. When you think of them logically, they are pretty trivial.

Through our upbringing, we are taught to listen to others. That our ideas and opinions must be suppressed because it could make others feel bad. After years of this brainwashing we start to believe it deep down. Watch children. They just say things and do things without thinking. They are acting naturally. They don't worry if something isn't going to work out. They just do it. "Excuse" doesn't exist in their vocabulary.

You used to be like this. And you can train yourself to be like this again.

If you're interested in trying to overcome these obstacles, I've put together a course relating to these topics as it relates to programming. It's available at https://www.programmingspiritually.com

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