That I typically only learn the hard way.
Ask HN: What did you learn the hard way?
181–190 of 322 posts
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn the hard way?
#182I learned the value of patience and moving slowly through many mistakes where I moved too quickly. In the startup world, the default is to move as fast as you can, and it's often easy to mistake a maxim for product development as a maxim for life . The problem is that it's not good advice for many things in life. Examples: 1. Shopping. Especially big ticket items like cars and places to live. Urgency favors the selle…
1. Shopping. Especially big ticket items like cars and places to live. Urgency favors the buyer because you don't do diligence well and you don't shop around for better deals when you're in a rush.
I assume you mean urgency favors the seller (unless you're urgently trying to sell, of course).
Or, in general: (s)he who has the greater time constraint has the disadvantage.
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn the hard way?
#183[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn the hard way?
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
He got fired? That's news to me. He's still on the U of T directory. http://home.psych.utoronto.ca/staff/undergrad.htm As for his views on SJWs, that's a small part of what he does. He's an evolutionary psychologist. He takes the long view of things, and discovered that some religions got some things right, and that's reflected in the stories we tell each other.
Philosophers and historians have been discovering that religion got some things right for a long time, not sure anyone can lay claim to that achievement.
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn the hard way?
#185That end to end tests for critical business functions will save your ass the moment you, your team, or your test suite fails to spot a bug.
I once added a line of code that did not execute in test environments because it involved a request to hosts that were only available on staging and production. So the tests were obviously fine but shit went south in production.
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn the hard way?
#186Get everything in writing. EVERYTHING.
I would add though:
A written agreement is only as good as the people who sign it.
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn the hard way?
#187If you're a dev, don't work for a company where software development is viewed as a cost center--you want your work to be viewed as something that brings in revenue. (Learned the hard way when I worked at a large bank.)
I learned this from finance:
Don't join a team that's mediocre and/or where you're the only one with your skills. When it comes time to evaluate your performance or assess how long something should take, your manager and your team will be clueless. Useless people survive by playing politics. And when you quit they'll play games you can't win.
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn the hard way?
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is a pretty accurate summary, as probably evidenced by the downvotes you are getting (and I no doubt will get). :)
If that's your takeaway of someone who has decades-long career and has hours upon hours of free lectures available (of which none I'm sure you've watched), then yeah, you're an idiot and you're part of the problem of overreacting to ideas that don't safely reside in your bubble.
What profound discoveries has madeuptempacct made? To qualify as the "arbiter."
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn the hard way?
#189Before you get into a business partnership, while everyone is smiling and optimistic, put in writing how the two of you will end this partnership should the time ever come.
Things happen. They aren't who you think they are. Or maybe they suddenly decide they don't want to lift a finger, but they still get 1/2 the profits. And since it is a 50/50 partnership you can't even insist they let you buy them out.
Or maybe they are a great partner but they die in a car wreck and their spouse is a nightmare who just wants the business sold, now. Even if it wrecks your life. Be very wary of 50/50 partnerships without clear escape clauses.