Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 497 posts

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#471

Post by karmajunkie »

vekker wrote: post #459
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do, but I haven't practised the skill much lately so it's not as vivid as it used to be. It's more like a second virtual desktop than superimposed; it takes up the same coordinates, but there's a clear distinction between "real" and "imagined" objects (unless I'm particularly tired, but that's closer to "hallucinating" than "visualising"). I used to be able to visualise things in positions relative to real objects,…

That's blowing my mind right now. First I thought people who can visualize to the point of actually seeing what they visualize were pretty rare. For me what I visualize takes place in a mental space: it's a clear mental image, not a literal visual image. Have you always been able to do this, because you mention practising this skill? Also, does this only happen after focussing on something, or does it happen spontane…

Uh yeah, same here. Like, I can remember what my daughter looks like as she sleeps in her crib, but visually what I see (with my eyes closed) is just blackness. I've always thought of it as something akin to a prerendering buffer or virtual display context in my mind. What the parent poster is saying makes me think that for them its more like experiencing an actual display, which seems like it would get really confusing layered onto the visual input from their eyes.

The only time I've ever experienced anything like that I was trying psychedelic mushrooms for the one (and so far, only) time, and so it was literally a hallucination.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#472

Post by cortesoft »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #98
cortesoft wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am confused why his diagnosis makes any difference... this isn't a fatal disease, so he has no fewer years to live than the rest of us. If he thought being a software engineer was what he wanted to do to live a fulfilling life before his diagnosis, why would that change now?

Because programming without sight is hard. It's definitely doable and could very well lead to a fulfilling life. Or it might not. Maybe there are other careers that he might be better suited for and where his disability won't be as much of a hindrance. If so, he still has time while he can see to prepare for a career change. Basically, the GP is telling the OP to consider all of his options and not to box himself int…

Being without sight is hard, period. Software seems like one of the easier jobs to do while blind, actually.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#473

Post by [deleted] »

karmajunkie wrote: post #471
vekker wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's blowing my mind right now. First I thought people who can visualize to the point of actually seeing what they visualize were pretty rare. For me what I visualize takes place in a mental space: it's a clear mental image, not a literal visual image. Have you always been able to do this, because you mention practising this skill? Also, does this only happen after focussing on something, or does it happen spontane…

Uh yeah, same here. Like, I can remember what my daughter looks like as she sleeps in her crib, but visually what I see (with my eyes closed) is just blackness. I've always thought of it as something akin to a prerendering buffer or virtual display context in my mind. What the parent poster is saying makes me think that for them its more like experiencing an actual display, which seems like it would get really confus…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#474

Post by vekker »

karmajunkie wrote: post #471
vekker wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's blowing my mind right now. First I thought people who can visualize to the point of actually seeing what they visualize were pretty rare. For me what I visualize takes place in a mental space: it's a clear mental image, not a literal visual image. Have you always been able to do this, because you mention practising this skill? Also, does this only happen after focussing on something, or does it happen spontane…

Uh yeah, same here. Like, I can remember what my daughter looks like as she sleeps in her crib, but visually what I see (with my eyes closed) is just blackness. I've always thought of it as something akin to a prerendering buffer or virtual display context in my mind. What the parent poster is saying makes me think that for them its more like experiencing an actual display, which seems like it would get really confus…

That's an excellent analogy! The mental space is exactly like a prerendering buffer. When asleep and dreaming, there is no overriding visual input, so the stuff in the mental space gets rendered. And I guess some people can access this even when sensory input is present. That must be wild.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#477

Post by bobthepanda »

burfog wrote: post #440
bobthepanda wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a lot of modern buildings in Hong Kong, lifts announce floors in three languages: English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. I'd imagine in Macau, they might use four (those three plus Portuguese); the public transit stop announcements do, and quite frankly I'm not sure how they guarantee that they can complete the announcements before the next stop.

At that point, just use Morse code. For small buildings, the cuckoo clock method works too.

the main reason why elevators in Hong Kong do not is that most of them are high speed high-rise elevators and the numbers just whip by. It would probably be very frantic sounding to use Morse if you went from ground to 50 in less than a minute.

Instead they only announces floors that are stopped on, so this works fine.

One benefit of using spoken vernaculars rather than Morse is that Morse has to be taught; Hong Kong historically draws large portions of its population from migrants originating from all over China, where until recently there was wide variance in schooling and literacy rates.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#478

Post by hultner »

hermitdev wrote: post #376
bad_user wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> " I can still touch type with Qwerty, but my hands hurt after 5 minutes. " That's not a good metric. In your case, you might be right, but for the general public it's like when picking up any new exercise or sport, like running or biking or anything really, when untrained you end up for the first few days with sore ligaments, joints and muscles. You get used to it. My hands never hurt, even though I love writing lo…

> The only yak shaving sink I still have is Emacs and I'll get rid of it as soon as I find something better. I'm a long time Vim user, myself (and no, not looking to spark a holy war here). One observation I have about my own habits is that I subconsciously slap the ESC key every time I'm done with something, even if I'm in a non-modal editor like Notepad or SQL Management studio. It's just become so ingrained in me…

Same here, it's a pain when working with spreadsheets where this clears the cell, drives me nuts. Also I always turn on caps lock when using someone else's computer since I rebind esc to caps.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#480

Post by blzaugg »

kolanos wrote: post #47

You can definitely continue as a software engineer. I'm living proof. It won't be easy, especially at first. For a while it will feel like you're working twice as hard just to keep up with your sighted peers. But eventually, the better you get with your tools, you'll find you have some superpowers over your sighted peers. For example, as you get better with a screen reader, you'll be bumping the speech rate up to 1.7…

Would you be willing to chat privately with a colleague of mine going through a similar lost of sight transition?
Post reply on HN