Wow, this is my story. Every line, except I'm a few years younger, I haven't heard about Holagus as I'm not from Mexico, I'm into other fields not IoT, and my dad doesn't have a business.
Ask HN: How do you keep motivated if nobody supports you?
161–170 of 192 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep motivated if nobody supports you?
#162Sounds like you enjoy building software, I wouldn't take up your dad's business. It also seems like your hometown doesn't have many great companies to join, I would move to a location brimming with opportunity like San Francisco.
Finally, your technical interview algorithm/problem solving probably needs work, I would either study for a month+ and improve this area (a good resource would be Cracking the Code Interview), or join a startup instead.
I personally think you'd get a lot out of a startup, you'll learn about what it takes to run a business and have a lot of ownership in what you build.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep motivated if nobody supports you?
#163This Software developer survival course might help https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/career-survival-strategi...
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep motivated if nobody supports you?
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're an engineer looking to try bootstrapping a business (as opposed to going the venture capital route), try the “Startups For the Rest of Us” podcast. Start from the beginning. Or startupbook.net for mostly the same content in book form. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. Traction by Gabriel Weinberg.
I found the Art Of Charm podcast to be really more to the point. And of better quality, business-wise and voice-wise. Tried the "Startups for the rest of us", couldn't keep listening to their random chit-chat, the informational value per minute is really too low.
You like Art of Charm but don't like random chit chat? Makes no sense from what I've heard of them.
Anyway, I've listened to more than enough Lifestyle Biz / General Entrepreneurial stuff.
TropicalMBA.com and EmpireFlippers.com are my favorites (newer TMBA is going a little downhill. They've sold their business and are kind of figuring out what to do at this point). There's also the Smart Passive Income podcast (SPI). Nathan Barry (on his self named site) has a few good podcasts as well. He started an email marketing software biz that began out of a blog challenge a few years back.
Also, I've YouTubed the fuck out of Silicon Valley (I live in the Bay Area..and if anyone's local and in the same position as op let's talk). PandoMonthly has plenty of interviews, most are ~2013 though. This Week In Startups has some fun Travis Kalanick interviews and a few Sacca interviews (including a new one featuring his VC partner). Greylock Partners (LinkedIn founder's VC) has a Stanford class up... and last but not least (though there are also plenty more) there is Y Combinator with plenty of videos. Google Sam Altman and Jessica Livingston. They have a lot of interviews not on the channel. Startup School goes live on the site. You can find it under "School" on Paul Graham's site.
Oh yeah, and Gary Vaynerchuck.
Personally, I've consumed plenty of this stuff. I have a good idea for a date coaching (again, if you're local and curious.. or just curious, talk to me) which I may or may not pursue. I started learning to code a couple months ago. Just got rejected from Hack Reactor and MakerSquare this past week (...fun) and now I'm going to continue learning, going to meetups and start making things while doing whatever interests me on the side and trying to work a job as little as humanly possible.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep motivated if nobody supports you?
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've come to realize the same thing. Like the author, I've been programming since I was an early teen and that was pretty much all I did for years. I would love to break into the software market but realized that I only think like an engineer and not so much like a business man. I've been mainly interested in the design, implementation, and theory of software rather than thinking of what software that people would an…
The best way to solve this is to find a business partner who is also a good friend of you. The best freelance teams I know contain extroverts who connect with the clients (and sometimes develop) and god-like developers who do the heavy lifting. You shouldn't underestimate the effort to get a client and do proper project management and budgeting, it's easier with a good friend who knows his business stuff.
"The best way to solve this is to find a business partner who is also a good friend of you"
Seconding this notion. It's one step closer to bringing things to irl
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep motivated if nobody supports you?
#166Take your dad's offer for a year. You'll learn a heluva lot that will be very valuable to you for the future. You'll also have the privilege of working with your dad. I wouldn't pass it up.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep motivated if nobody supports you?
#167As you can clearly see from this thread, showing weakness when you are male only gets you ostracised. But I applaud you for doing so. Horrible as it may sound,there might be noone there to listen. But try to find someone who understands you and talk it through. Get an outside perspective. Analyze the situation and make a plan. Best of luck!
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep motivated if nobody supports you?
#168Go out. Find out about a problem to solve nearby (not YOUR problem, someone else's who you care about). Propose and use your skills to help solve it. Share success. Find next problem...
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep motivated if nobody supports you?
#169Funny, about the similarities. I moved from Iowa to California, in my mid 20's. Had worked for my Dad's business, for a while. Wrote a new DBMS from scratch to use in the business.
Moved to California would sell it, but ran out of money. So, I got a gig selling computers. Wrote code in my spare time. Then I got a gig selling software. Designed a better version in my spare time. And then my Boss invested in it. And then we failed at selling it. And then got a new gig writing software. And then another and another.
Then, at one gig I stumbled upon how to make a tool cheaper and better. That turned into a startup. Became a CTO. Had a little success. And then onto the next thing. My old Boss became a friend. So, he invested in the next thing.
In the midst of all that, there were some dry periods. I remember not eating. I remember flunking a job interview after spending my last $100 for a cab ride to get there on time. It felt like: what's the point?
Making a product is not the same as solving a puzzle. I'm an entrepreneur. That is very different from being a software engineer. An engineer is usually forward chaining from tools and patterns. An entrepreneur is usually backward chaining from goals.
I learned a lot from my Dad. I'm glad I worked for him. And I'm glad I moved away.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep motivated if nobody supports you?
#170The thing about coding since ten and having coding interviews is that the factors they check at coding interviews you probably haven't learned. I have a few friends just like you. Since you already felt you know how to code you probably didn't spend as much time and energy on the coding classes, homeworks, exams as other students. And you considered most of it boring theory that is not really needed for real life coding.
If that's the case, then that's why you didn't pass the interviews. This "theory" is not just important because a big part of it really works and improves code quality, but it is also a common basis for team work. E.g. maybe yourself you always wrote only functions in C++, never used classes. But for recognizing the structure of another person's code it is quite important to see classes. Few people can think in functions only because university teaches using classes and objects so heavily.
There are also languages you learn in university that seem like coding classes but actually aren't. E.g. learning UML is not about architectural fantasies of people who have a hard time coding, but it is a graphical language to communicate ideas with. In an interview it is quite helpful to know such languages because it helps you express yourself faster to other people who speak it. Also if you don't speak it, interviewers might not find you "intelligent" enough. That is of course wrong, but think about how you feel about people who don't speak your native human language well. It's just human nature to be like that.
And if you just want to start making money out of your coding, check out: https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/freelance/
As long as you don't make more than $2k a month you can probably pipe your bills and taxes through your fathers company if he allows it.