I found my first software engineering job through an HN hiring post by a YC company. It was at a time when my life and resume were... not great. But I could code, and that was enough for them. It was the only offer I got. I became a software engineer, moved to the bay area, and my life turned around. That company had its issues and I did not stay very long, but I would not be where I am today if it weren't for that post.
Ask HN: What has HN given you?
201–210 of 602 posts
Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?
#202It gave me a job, a company, and a sense of purpose. In 2012 I did a Show HN for GitLab.com https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4428278 Today we are 1800 contributors and a company of 220 on a mission to ensure that everyone can contribute.
But how is it going with the HN-dream - passive income? :)
Right now it is active income since I'm a full-time ceo.
Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?
#203Ask not what HN has given you, but what you have given HN
Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?
#204absolutely nothing directly. but * besides pretty much the first five pages I hit every morning. * a positive feeling towards the future because even though I may not understand every link on here, there are people that do. People that devote all of their time toward one thing small or big and that is a cool feeling knowing that people can make a living and follow their passion. If that's a startup that their only go…
(I fixed the whitespace formatting on your post. Hope that's ok. Bullet lists are kind of hard to get right in HN markdown.)
Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?
#205Nearly 5 years ago, a few months after being rejected from YC and a few weeks from being essentially bankrupt (my daughter had an unexpected surgery while we had only catastrophic health insurance), my brother and I posted a Show HN about Webflow ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5407499 ). It was our last-ditch attempt to show a proof-of-concept to the world before going back to our old bosses to ask for our jo…
That's an awesome story. Congrats!
Quick question: My understanding may need to be updated, but doesn't YC give you Ramen-survival cash? How did you deal with the financial challenges with so little and a family, etc.?
Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?
#206Best thing about HN are the quality of posts and the comments. No politics, mainly focused around technology and intellectually challenging posts. It gives you idea of technology trends, and how others are handling challenges similar to yours - something equivalent of going to a conference, but without going to a conference. Some of the comments here are even better than the article and when you combine both, you get…
That sounds like a very interesting comment that I'd like to read. Would you happen to still have the link to it?
Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
HN is an echo chamber, to some extent. For example, try making valid criticisms against Go or JavaScript and you will be downvoted without explanation. I think HN would be better if it required an explanation in order to downvote something. At least then it would be clear to everyone reading whether the negativity was legitimate or not.
See what I mean? Hehe. You asked. I answered, with a purposeful example to illustrate, and there’s the immediate downvote. Thanks for making my point, to whoever did.
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Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?
#208I learned about Bitcoin here when it was just a whitepaper, but didn't recognize the opportunity then. A year ago, another user mentioned Monero so I looked into and discovered it's more "bitcoin" than Bitcoin and bought what I could. I'm not a millionaire, but it sure has helped me financially, so I'm really appreciative that I took advantage of that opportunity. EDIT: and for something a little more intrinsic: Ever…
Tell me about it. I remember when it was single digit dollars, and it was a curiosity, but it didn't hold my interest.
Then it was double digits, and I was like, "huh."
Then is was somewhere around $40, and I thought "maybe I should get a couple? But money's kind of tight, maybe later."
Then it was over $100, and I thought "surely this can't go much higher? This definitely isn't the time to buy."
I thought that same thing when it hit over $300, and over $700, and then over $3000, and then when it was well over $15k.
I've learned a valuable lesson. I'm far too risk averse to invest in something like this, because I'm still not sure I could convince myself to invest even though it seems to have hit a bottom and is climbing again.
Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?
#209A four month six figure consulting gig. Thanks HN.
Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?
#210The solace in knowing that true discourse need not be confined to real life situations!
People can speak in a civilized manner on the internet.