One day a quick task came up, and I decided to hack it out. The only library I could find was a python library, so that's what I used... and it was so quick to get something. 10 lines later my boring task was done. Impressed, I started looking for other things to put this new super power of mine to work, and it's been spiraling out of control. I still use the other languages I know for the majority of my work, but things I might have just never done because I wouldn't have had time are now getting done. It's so great to get things done.
Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
31–40 of 785 posts
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#322) using the command line freely (ie : not being an expert, but being able to use it a bit and automate some tasks). At some point, I maintained several apps at once, and it became too much of a burden to do the builds myself and install it one people devices several times a day, every day, so I decided to use a CI tool (Jenkins). To do the builds, I had to learn how to do everything in command line, and that's how I got started (now I am able to handle my own server and do some simple sysadmin).
Since I have an IT degree, I blame my school for not teaching me both of them, which I picked up after graduating: not mandating source control is to my eyes a big failure, and while I had some Unix courses, they never taught me WHY I should take the time to learn the command-line (and thus, I didn't).
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#33Using 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…
And yet, this is a default shortcut for command mode in tmux. "But you can configure it!" — one might say. No, I won't be doing it on every system I manage, I have better things to do.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#34I was a hobbyist programmer for a long time. Then my father passed away, and I went through his computer and saw all these projects that would never see the light of day. That gave me the motivation to choose one project and see it through until it was good enough to have actual users. Programming is much more satisfying and meaningful now.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#35It's a really, really hard decision to make, to sink your time into something, and I can't recommend for everyone by default. Most people start projects on nothing more than a whim and will give up on those projects when they hit the technical-debt weeds. I don't think of that time as a waste, I think it's incredibly important to the learning process and I encourage people to start as many projects as possible. You just need to be honest and understand about yourself whether or not you're in it to win or just having fun, before you jump into a project head-first. I've seen a lot of people do that, and I've done it more than a few times.
This time is really different because this time I really have spent 2 years on the project and forced myself through multiple come-to-Jesus moments on my code. Everyone will have those sorts of moments as it's impossible to have such design foresight to predict all the ways you will want to use your software in the future, or that you won't change your mind on how you want to use it. And I think I needed to go through it to prove to myself that this was something I was going to be able to continue to work on. But I really wish I had known sooner.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#36Every time I start seriously exercising this hits in about week ~4. Sadly, I only generally keep it up for 6 months before falling back to old habits. Professionally: email lists. If you have any reason to have a blog, you should have an email list. It surfaces the identities of the people who are actually interested in what you have to say, and ties people to you much, much tighter than "Oh yeah, that thing you wrot…
Can you elaborate on that? I'm wondering to what situation you are referring to and what kind of objections you mean here?
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Ctrl-B is the _worst_ shortcut ever devised (which is why it is used rarely... except on tmux). Just _thinking_ about it gives me the pain. My hand hurts. And yet, this is a default shortcut for command mode in tmux. "But you can configure it!" — one might say. No, I won't be doing it on every system I manage, I have better things to do.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#38Running... outside... I didn't start until I was like 26. It feels great.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#39Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#40I was usually skeptic to crossfit. Have been doing weightlifting and overall weight training for 2-3 years and was used to pushing myself at my own pace and setting goals myself. Was afraid to turn my training into a cookie-cutter group class and be forced to do movements that are outright dangerous.
All the injury stories, the "cult" thing, etc. is all bullshit from my experience. No, you do not have to kip anything. At least on my "box" they frown upon kipping. To me that was amazing.
If you have any sort of training experience or some moderate fitness level you will be OK and will probably push yourself to do things that will make you see really fast progress.
Hang snatches, overhead barbell lunges, Wall Ball Shots, etc will make you stronger, bigger and more agile.
Just being on a floor where it is normal to drop a heavy barbell from a missed snatch is worth it. You will push yourself more and try heavier weights. Can't do it? Just hop over and take out some weights and try again. You don't have to wait for the frigging squat rack to be empty. That hour on the gym is for your group only. No waiting around for that dumbass tweeting while resting on the rack.
You will also have a coach (read good coach) that will sermon you and make sure you do things right. Last class I was doing some deadlifts and the coach started pushing me around and manipulating my torso and thighs to make sure I did it correctly. This went on about 3 different times in 2 minutes. It's good, when you are lifting and fatigue sets in you start faulting form.
Only been 3 months now, but man, it's frigging good. And the girls are hot and strong too. It's good motivation.
All in all, don't believe everything you read online. It's overdramatized.
Then again, if you haven't done ANY excerise at all in your life, it's probably better to start slowly on a normal gym. But not because crossfit is dangerous, but rather because you need to get used to your body and understand how much you can push it. It's easy to get injured doing any type of physical activity if you don't have experience and push too much, too fats.