Non technical startup founder. Used to write PHP for a living and now I spend all day in (interesting) meetings.
Ask HN: Who isn't in the software industry/not a hacker?
31–40 of 195 posts
Re: Ask HN: Who isn't in the software industry/not a hacker?
#32I'm an artist. I'm engaged in writing and drawing a graphic novel about a robot lady with reality problems. Reading HN gives me things to mull over regarding my own hesitant steps into the world of promotion, sales, and making a business happen on the web. Also I used to dabble in programming back in the days of the C64 and Amiga. I will probably never do any major programming projects but I like to keep up with tech…
I recognized you at "robot lady with reality problems" and I absolutely LOVE your work. Thank you! See you in the future!
Re: Ask HN: Who isn't in the software industry/not a hacker?
#33I'm a stay-at-home dad. Last year I was a math teacher. The last time I worked a "tech" job was in grad school nearly a decade ago, assisting my department's IT manager.
I'm here because I like to learn about things. Not just products/services that I found out about from here that helped me in life (airbnb, hipmunk, leaky, freelancer) but simply ideas (I've learned relevant things about religion, games, science, warfare, education, driving, the basic income, and so on.)
I'm also here because my wife is a hacker and I like to be aware of what she's reading and thinking about.
Re: Ask HN: Who isn't in the software industry/not a hacker?
#34There are many definitions of hacker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hacker_Manifesto
Wark defines hacking 'as an “abstraction”, the construction of different and unrelated matters into previously unrealized relations. Hackers produce new conceptions, perceptions and sensations hacked out of raw data. Everything and anything is a code for the hacker to hack, be it “programming, language, poetic language, math, or music, curves or colourings” [3] and once hacked, they create the possibility for new things to enter the world. What they create is not necessarily “great”, or “even good”, but new, in the areas of culture, art, science, and philosophy or “in any production of knowledge where data can be extracted from it.” Wark argues that (new) information comes from the hack. It doesn’t matter if you are a computer programmer, a philosopher, a teacher, a musician, a physicist, if you essentially produce new information - it’s a hack [1]. In this sense, hackers are creators and they bring new ideas into the world. The aim of the book is to highlight the origins, purpose and efforts by this emerging hacker class, who produce new; concepts, perceptions, and sensations out of the stuff of raw data.'
Re: Ask HN: Who isn't in the software industry/not a hacker?
#35Masters student doing botany/pedology.
Here because of reason A from OP, but also because I am always keeping an eye out for new tools I can use for data analysis in my thesis.
Re: Ask HN: Who isn't in the software industry/not a hacker?
#36I'm a consulting actuary. What am I doing here? I've been programming since I was 11 and still do it often. You have to as an actuary. Besides I have some web skills and I'm using to build a startup doing risk management for farmers. In this startup I'm responsible for the whole stack.
Also an actuary. Consulted at one time but work at a company now. I started programming around the same age and also use it for work. We all do SQL but I am the only one doing general purpose coding at my company. Also have web skills (the coincidences just keep coming). I do a few things on the side and am contemplating a bootstrapped startup soonish. For example, I did everything but the logo on this site: http://t…
I'm an actuary as well! I would dispute GP that "as an actuary you have to program". The overwhelming majority of actuaries I know barely know how to use VBA. I quit chasing a career in Comp Sci at uni (I started programming at a very young age, and always wanted to be a software engineer) to switch to actuarial science, but now, even though I'm a Fellow, I've quit my job to go into entrepreneurship. I think that being an actuary places us very well to go into startups that take advantage of our analytic and risk management skill set. With the amount of data being collected, that means about 90% of startups.
Re: Ask HN: Who isn't in the software industry/not a hacker?
#37I'm a chemical engineer, working on my PhD currently. My research is in molecular dynamics (I get to use supercomputers like Titan), so I learn a lot about high-performance computing and programming from HN. Really though, I like this site for the high-quality discourse compared to other websites.
Re: Ask HN: Who isn't in the software industry/not a hacker?
#38I'm an economist who builds Fed stress test models for a bank.
But I hack too, it's fun.
Re: Ask HN: Who isn't in the software industry/not a hacker?
#39I'm a fighter pilot. Best place to get news about the trends shaping our world, and muse over natl security implications.
That's awesome.
Re: Ask HN: Who isn't in the software industry/not a hacker?
#40I'm an industrial-organizational psychologist. I design selection systems, HR programs designs at affecting outcomes (like attrition) and do the data analysis relevant to those ends.
An HR guy* and a social scientist! I could make an easy punching bag.
*More on the strategy and data-analysis end, less on administration. I barely know what HR Generalists do.