i decided to face the fact that i'm trans, which threw a huge wrench in my startup plans, but it turned out to be for the best. i'm learning a lot about self-care that i'm hoping will help me be a more effective entrepreneur in the long run (i.e. less prone to burnout). my quality of life has skyrocketed.
Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?
81–90 of 317 posts
Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?
#82I released a fairly major project (a research-oriented workbench for graph manipulation) in a state of comparitive usability: https://github.com/blackhole89/graphicdepictions The main takeaway for me was that, unless you can tap into a preexisting pool of demand, grabbing people's attention is as hard and effort-consuming, if not more so, than actually solving a problem. One-on-one, I always had an easy time convinci…
I am working on a networking algorithm and think this would be useful for testing and visualizing algorithms. But I had to look into the source and then the screenshots folder to figure out what this actually did.
You just have to develop some skills on how to better communicate your work to people. Everyone has this problem unless they develop the skills. Here's some things you should work on for promoting this project:
- User brainstorming. What kinds of people would find this tool helpful. I'll start off your list with 'anyone doing node algorithms, e.g. mesh networking, video game AI'
- Googlefu. Find these users across the web using Google's special operators. Note what kind of sites and communities they are a part of.
- Community reachout. Go to those communities and figure out how to communicate. If it's a blog or content site, could be as simple as leaving comments to more involved like writing posts.
Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?
#83Cleared technical interviews and joined Microsoft as a Software Engineer working on Azure. Having been around 3.5 yrs in the field, it lifted my self esteem and made me realize I'm not so bad.
Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?
#84My plugin for Visual Studio Code is nearing 1000 followers and 200k downloads: https://github.com/VSCodeVim/Vim (Last year it was nearly nonexistent.) I learned a lot about managing an open source project, but probably the biggest thing was that I learned that even something as uncontentious as a Vim plugin can get a ton of hate online, including from Hacker News. I would hate to be working on a more contentious and…
Ha! Awesome plugin, thanks for working on it. And don't let the haters get to you! (I know it's hard sometimes), the people enjoying your plugin likely vastly outnumber the haters, but they are usually making stuff, so the haters is all you see, since they're the people that have the time to troll you online.
Thanks! Yeah, every now and then I go around the internet looking for positive quotes about it in order to even the balance. :)
Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?
#85I bit the bullet and released Gorgonia (https://github.com/chewxy/gorgonia) to the wild. I braced for harsh critiques but it turns out releasing open source software is like running a startup: 90% of the time, nobody cares. Nobody uses it.
Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?
#86I landed my dream job 20 years after I decided what and where I wanted. It took me a lot of time. Battling low self-esteem, giving it up for a while, following the wrong path, surviving after being fired for the first and only time. I learned perseverance. Once I set my mind on it and worked around distractions, people and my own mind, I got what I truly wanted and I'm loving and learning every single day.
I would love to hear more of this story. Would you care to share more details, or maybe write a blog/medium post on it?
+1. Eager to hear the story :)
Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?
#87After years of R&D, heartache, and rough decisions --- I finally turned my hardware company ( http://pavlok.com ) profitable! We make technology to break bad habits, wake up earlier, and reduce cravings. I decided to try to build a hardware company without raising VC --- which is probably one of the hardest decisions you can make. And required about 30 people to make a reality. But now that we have finally got our ma…
That's interesting! Since https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11615687 didn't get attention, we emailed you a repost invite for it.
Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?
#88I finally admitted that it was time to start back on antidepressants, and also discovered propranolol (anti-anxiety med); it's changed my life in the most dramatic ways I can imagine.
As of today I weigh 319 lbs -- from a peak of over 400 -- and just a hair over half way to my goal of being at 240 lbs. This is the biggest change I've ever made in my life, and I couldn't be prouder to have come this far.
Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?
#89accomplishment: building my own social app from scratch and putting on app store
learned: you literally have to treat your goals as gods and worship your ideas daily. i made enough branded t-shirts and wore them everyday so my friends would see me wearing the same logo everyday and then ask me "is your app done yet?" and I would be embarrassed if it wasn't done yet and work on it after work. but now I got a ton of feedback and know what i need to do to make it great, so working on the 2.0 version.
Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?
#90After years of R&D, heartache, and rough decisions --- I finally turned my hardware company ( http://pavlok.com ) profitable! We make technology to break bad habits, wake up earlier, and reduce cravings. I decided to try to build a hardware company without raising VC --- which is probably one of the hardest decisions you can make. And required about 30 people to make a reality. But now that we have finally got our ma…
Very nice. Congratulations, looks great.
Thank you!!!