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Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

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Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#231

Post by peterangular »

charliemil4 wrote: post #210
peterangular wrote: post #38

I work in this field so I'm incredibly biased: automated business solutions that cut entry-level data employees out of the equation. You save TONS on the bottom line, and cut out human-driven process that is error prone and difficult to manage. I'm talking about things beyond "API-driven dev", more in the realms of Puppeteer, Microsoft Office automation, screen-scraping (mouse/keyboard), etc. I make API's out of thin…

Any advice for companies getting into this realm, specifically around making sure you get your 'valued' price? Charging for value can sometimes feel exorbitant... i.e. saving a $100+/hr person ~20 hours a month. Sure I can calculate out it on an excel sheet the customer ROI, but still feels crazy.

My market value is $10-15k/mo USD for just myself (sometimes more if I'm needed in an emergency). If you have a proven track record with a solid reputation you can command that sort of pay without an issue. I also bring a lot of general web development capability to the table, so selling on an easy-to-use interface also does a lot to add to my value.

If you think about it - $35-40k for a 2-3 month dev timeline (which is what I'd say is my average) is worth it if you're cutting the salaries of 5+ people out of the equation, no need to pull out an Excel spreadsheet for the ROI that. All-in-all - you're not crazy, they're the ones who are crazy if they continue to sink money into human robots.

> Charging for value can sometimes feel exorbitant

Just get confident (this is hard advice I know). I'm incredibly confident in the problems I can solve and will put in the hours to get back on a timeline/budget if needed. Businesses aren't buying my "products" per-say, they're buying me.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#232

Post by basch »

mring33621 wrote: post #166
Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the most useful programs I made at my last job was an automated letters program. We had a whole slew of standard letters that we'd send out, most of the time requests would go to the typing pool (yes, this was a thing) that were basically "Do letter ABC for client XYZ", where letter ABC was a standard thing that always went to the same recipient. I built a screen in our system that let you tell it to request a…

A whole lot of valuable business software is essentially domain-specific or workflow-specific mail merge.

Which is actually a terrible step backwards when it comes to interchangeability and iteroperability.

You have data in a database, you flatten it into a non structured document, send it, and then the other end uses data entry to add it to a database. What should be the realm of EDI/CrystalReports/Blockchain take your pick, instead everyone wants to interchange data in the pretty human readable format, as opposed to just rendering it that way for humans while also communicating the raw structured data.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#233

Post by dev_dull »

peterangular wrote: post #38

I work in this field so I'm incredibly biased: automated business solutions that cut entry-level data employees out of the equation. You save TONS on the bottom line, and cut out human-driven process that is error prone and difficult to manage. I'm talking about things beyond "API-driven dev", more in the realms of Puppeteer, Microsoft Office automation, screen-scraping (mouse/keyboard), etc. I make API's out of thin…

The key to these types of solutions is always to follow the 80/20 rule. For example, it’s foolish to say and attempt “I will automate all of your data entry people” because there will always be weird idiosyncrasies that are better fit for humans. You will dash yourself against the rocks trying to get a “100% complete” solution.

Instead, create software that allows 1 person to do the job of 5. You create massive business value without getting sucked down the hole of edge cases.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#235

Post by peterangular »

mcrad wrote: post #220
peterangular wrote: post #38

I work in this field so I'm incredibly biased: automated business solutions that cut entry-level data employees out of the equation. You save TONS on the bottom line, and cut out human-driven process that is error prone and difficult to manage. I'm talking about things beyond "API-driven dev", more in the realms of Puppeteer, Microsoft Office automation, screen-scraping (mouse/keyboard), etc. I make API's out of thin…

Do you find it difficult to sell the idea of automating the work of "entry-level data employees"? Middle management generally thrives by building kingdom of such minions.

> Middle management generally thrives by building kingdom of such minions.

I often am not selling to middle management, I ideally sell at the exec and/or product level. Middle managers are a conflict of interest when it comes to what I do.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#236

Post by cagenut »

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #192
tito wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost of energy will go near zero. The marginal cost of an electron captured with solar is free. Solar is starting to beat fossil fuel installations already, below $0.05 USD per kWh. This was not predicted even by the biggest cheerleaders even 10 years ago: "In 2017, the solar industry achieved SunShot’s original 2020 cost target of $0.06 per kilowatt-hour for utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) solar power three year…

Okay, how about the copper that transports that electron to somewhere it can do useful work? How about the 1800C furnace that melts sand into the silicon for the solar panel? How about the diesel fuel that the massive mining trucks used to haul the copper ore out of the mine are fueled with (these things are heavy and get something like 8 gallons to the mile (not a typo) good luck running them on batteries)? Those th…

This is just pointless smug contrarianism, I hope you're just in a bad mood and don't really believe or think this way regularly. Mining trucks are excellent candidates for battery electrification, Volvo is already building and selling them.

What other things do you think are never happening that are infact already happening?

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#237

Post by charliemil4 »

peterangular wrote: post #231
charliemil4 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any advice for companies getting into this realm, specifically around making sure you get your 'valued' price? Charging for value can sometimes feel exorbitant... i.e. saving a $100+/hr person ~20 hours a month. Sure I can calculate out it on an excel sheet the customer ROI, but still feels crazy.

My market value is $10-15k/mo USD for just myself (sometimes more if I'm needed in an emergency). If you have a proven track record with a solid reputation you can command that sort of pay without an issue. I also bring a lot of general web development capability to the table, so selling on an easy-to-use interface also does a lot to add to my value. If you think about it - $35-40k for a 2-3 month dev timeline (which…

I owe you a round for this. Hopefully it sticks.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#238

Post by pazimzadeh »

ivarv wrote: post #14

As to your question of promising areas, I see two major opportunities in health that are coming online in the near future: * psychedelics as medicine * gut/microbiome

Agreed, but there is lots of competition on the second one so if I were starting from scratch I would work on the former.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#239

Post by phumbe »

starpilot wrote: post #203
maxhallinan wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you find processes that can be automated? I've often thought that there must be a ton of this stuff in various industries where programmers aren't typically embedded.

Very common when you do tech work in a non-tech industry. Comes up a lot with coding-inclined mechanical engineers. Zed Shaw's words are really true: > Programming as a profession is only moderately interesting. It can be a good job, but you could make about the same money and be happier running a fast food joint. You're much better off using code as your secret weapon in another profession. People who can code in th…

Great quote -- surprised I've never seen it before!

In my limited experience, it's a mixed bag.

Good: you get special treatment/opportunities because of a unique skill set and increased visibility on the end results of what you do.

Bad: management doesn't really know what you do between software releases, you're paid the going rate for your industry while SWEs make far more, and in-house software quality standards might not be established/followed.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#240

Post by pm90 »

gnode wrote: post #167
tito wrote: post #53

Climate change will create the first trillionaire. Find everything that eats fossil fuels and electrify it. Find everything that requires stable land and predictable weather and put it in a shipping container. Find every infrastructure investment that requires decades to pay off and decentralize it. Instead of water line pipes, pull water out of the air. Instead of copper and fiber optic cables on telephone poles, us…

I'm pessimistic about governments coming together and coordinating an expensive effort to avert climate change. I also think the world is on a course to become increasingly divided and rivalrous, such that collaboration would be less likely, and nations less willing to compromise on their economic competitiveness. I think if there is an effort made (which there will probably have to be), it'll be something cheap and…

The reason there seems to be so much rivalry today is because only the shitty, attention grabbing and warmongering leaders and nations get all the attention.

In the meanwhile, you have most nations around the world living and making progress peacefully. Nations that can be easily convinced by some form of aid or assistance to get on the bandwagon.

Don't be fooled by the news media. Most peoples of the world just want to live and let live. However, if the leadership of the US continues to be dominated by anti-science racist right-wingers, I am sorry to say, this won't happen. That is probably the biggest threat to any progress, not inter-government cooperation.

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