Actually learning how JavaScript works.
What finally got you to dive in?
Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
21–30 of 785 posts
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#22Hmmm, hate to admit this: Use a Mac for work rather than Linux. The unixness combined with availability of the likes of MS Office, together with the genuinely beautiful interface has really increased my throughput.
Secondly: Doing 1.5 hrs exercise daily.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#23About a year ago I started moving towards not selling my time. It has taken a while to wind down all of those relationships, etc. but it has been the best and most lucrative decision I've made in my professional life. I now have just a single commitment where I sell my time and I've got it down to 2-3 hours per week. It will soon be zero as well. I definitely wish I would have started this sooner or actually never st…
What do you sell now instead of your time?
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#24About a year ago I started moving towards not selling my time. It has taken a while to wind down all of those relationships, etc. but it has been the best and most lucrative decision I've made in my professional life. I now have just a single commitment where I sell my time and I've got it down to 2-3 hours per week. It will soon be zero as well. I definitely wish I would have started this sooner or actually never st…
This is an excellent point. Can you give any more detail on what you are doing instead of selling your time? I don't want specifics per say, just general ideas about what you have switched to and how it has been lucrative. I find the idea quite interesting.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#25Using screen in daemon mode. screen -dmS myservice /blah/start.sh Fit that line somewhere in a properly constructed init.d file and you're good to go. And if you need to execute a safe stop from that program through some interactivity: screen -S myservice -X stuff "stop\n" And voila. It sends a line of text over followed by an enter key. Elegant, useful. You can reattach session to see what's happening at any time. L…
Not to start a flamewar, but have you looked at tmux for this kind of thing?
"Daemon mode" is the mode for tmux, and the whole stack is designed to be extremely scriptable. "tmux send-keys" does what you're referring to, here, but essentially anything you can do interactively, you can do via the command-line.
Not to say you shouldn't just keep doing what works for you! But figured I'd at least make mention of tmux as an alternative... I'm a fan. :)
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#26Switching from employee to freelancing had the biggest impact in my professional life. It's not for everyone but definitely for me.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#27Clojure (LISPs, more generally)
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#28After 12 years of coding professionally, move from development into product management/ownership.
It's like playing an instrument versus playing the orchestra. It ain't for everyone, and I won't claim I'm particularly good at it, but it's a fascinating new kind of creativity.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#29Commuting by bicycle.
Fresh air and exercise, all packed into the same amount of time it would have taken me to drive and park, even enjoyed the thrill and mental challenge of forcing myself out in the rain and snow. Took some shortcuts and explored areas I've never been to before.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#30Learning how to learn. Could have saved myself years..
Agreed. This was a wonderful course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn