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Show HN: Ask a Dev

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Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#91

Post by sooheon »

tekkk wrote: post #5

A nice idea, would have loved to have a mentor while I was coding my first Javascript mudball. Only problem I can see is clearly the human factor eg. there can be only one mentor mentoring one person at the time. (unless you're doing lectures of course) I think the biggest thing mentors can influence on is the culture of doing things and I myself have always been fascinated by the level of proficiency some older prog…

Heh, I like the image of a nascent programmer coding up a little mudball of a program. Thanks for that.

I agree with the mentality, way of thinking and approaching problems being one of the best things to learn from mentors. It's not something a blogpost on the latest tech can teach you.

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#92

Post by akurilin »

0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #49
akurilin wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to overstate the value I've gotten out of Freenode IRC over the years. The #postgresql channel is chock-full of contributors and PG gurus willing to generously spend time explaining concepts and best practices. A real gem. Same thing with #clojure and #haskell . ##networking is great as well. Pretty amazing to drop into the same channel for 6-7 years in a row and see the same faces every time. One of the fi…

I wish self important mean nerds, who were abused in school, IRCed less. #python and #golang have become horrible, at least last I checked.

This does happen a bunch. I was always dreading asking question in #nginx back in the day, and #bash could be pretty rough too, but you learn to grow a thick skin.

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#93

Post by Mahn »

andrewstuart wrote: post #56

"Hey why use this? It's the same as Slack?" "Hey why use this, it's the same as IRC?" "Hey why use this, it's the same as a mailing list?" These are the sorts of things people say to lazily kill any new idea. "Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'? It's the same as Alta Vista." "Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'? It's the same as grep." People say this stuff because it makes them feel smart. Folks, not al…

I get why phrased like that it can sound condescending, but really, "what do I use this for" can be a perfectly legitimate and innocent question. Personally, if I ask this, most of the time it's because I'm genuinely intrigued and would like to understand it better, not to put the author down.

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#94

Post by Iv »

andrewstuart wrote: post #56

"Hey why use this? It's the same as Slack?" "Hey why use this, it's the same as IRC?" "Hey why use this, it's the same as a mailing list?" These are the sorts of things people say to lazily kill any new idea. "Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'? It's the same as Alta Vista." "Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'? It's the same as grep." People say this stuff because it makes them feel smart. Folks, not al…

"Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'? It's the same as Alta Vista."

Because it does not accept money to change companies' rankings.

"Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'? It's the same as grep."

Don't be silly, you can't grep the whole internet.

Thing is, if you can't easily come up with a retort to these, then the criticism may be valid.

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#95

Post by Vinnl »

shafyy wrote: post #66
dvt wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or because they really don't see any new value. Value is a misnomer. There's no inherent value in 90% of the stuff that blows up. What's the "value" in Facebook? It's even hard to see today , think about how hard it was to see in 2006. "Value" is the same nonsense idea as "solving a problem" that startup wantapreneurs are so obsessed with -- what problem did Snapchat really solve? What problem did FB solve that Mys…

Solving a problem and providing a new, better way of doing something are really two different sides of the same coin. Put differently, you don't have to solve an explicit problem. You can also solve a latent problem. Who are you to judge "wantapreneurs"? Of course, there is something such as "value"!

The original comment could then still hold, though. Yes, it might be like Slack/IRC/whatever, but better.

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#96

Post by softwarelimits »

andrewstuart wrote: post #56

"Hey why use this? It's the same as Slack?" "Hey why use this, it's the same as IRC?" "Hey why use this, it's the same as a mailing list?" These are the sorts of things people say to lazily kill any new idea. "Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'? It's the same as Alta Vista." "Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'? It's the same as grep." People say this stuff because it makes them feel smart. Folks, not al…

I am asking sometimes similar questions because I just can not allow to spend half a day to do the research on these kind of very obvious questions - meanwhile the author could answer them in two minutes.

These kind of questions are a good indicator about the documentation quality of a project. They are valuable input that can help you to put your project presentation on a much higher level.

Also from "inside" a project it is very easy to forget about the most obvious question a person might have looking at it for the first time - these questions are the best signal for exactly that happening.

There is no reason to interpret any kind of question in a hostile way - it only shows that you must be living in a personal environment of too-much-aggression. Take a break.

We are living in an age of upcoming aggression and ongoing regression of human brain capabilities (too much poison everywhere) - we have to stay aware of that and actively try to overcome these emotional aberration (and, of course, constantly work on the causes) - it is not easy, but if we all try it, we can all win.

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#97

Post by klibertp »

cpt1138 wrote: post #9

I think IRC does half or more of this. Usually there are channels for specific things with a lot of varied experience and expertise. For instance in the #xml channel on Freenode, some very heavy hitters in the XML world frequent the channel. It also allows you to contribute back for the more basic questions that might get asked. I like the personal contact in the abstract but it suffers from huge latency (have to wai…

> my questions probably don't last that long

If they don't last that long they were not worth bothering other people with, in the first place. Do your job yourself before asking for help.

I mean, programming is a knowledge-based job and you're expected to be able to learn on your own. It's not bad to ask for help once you honestly did your best and still cannot understand something, but giving up in the first paragraph of a man page and hitting IRC immediately is all kinds of bad.

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#98

Post by aequitas »

andrewstuart wrote: post #56

"Hey why use this? It's the same as Slack?" "Hey why use this, it's the same as IRC?" "Hey why use this, it's the same as a mailing list?" These are the sorts of things people say to lazily kill any new idea. "Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'? It's the same as Alta Vista." "Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'? It's the same as grep." People say this stuff because it makes them feel smart. Folks, not al…

Almost the first thing I look for with every project/product is a 'Compared to' chapter. This gives a good indication the author(s) is aware of the problem space and existing solutions and gives me the confidence I'm not looking at 'Yet Another Solution' for the same problem but without the lessons learned by existing solutions.

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#99

Post by afarrell »

dvt wrote: post #80
brucephillips wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like you're going out of your way to avoid describing the value these products provided. Especially in your characterization of Google. Pinterest provides entertainment, product discovery, and community. Snapchat enabled a new type of communication by removing self consciousness. Airbnb provides quality lodging at low prices. Facebook provided authenticity, exclusivity, and increased information density thro…

> Pinterest provides entertainment, product discovery, and community. This is kind of a non-statement. You could say that just about any internet based social network startup provides "community" and "entertainment" -- and yet many completely fail. This is quintessential grasping at straws and a posteriori reasoning. > Snapchat enabled a new type of communication by removing self consciousness. So did Yik Yak, so doe…

> So does hotels.com or (if you haggle a little) Craigslist.

hotels.com doesn't work as well as airbnb for rural areas and even in cities, you don't get to see anything about how flats are set up in the local area. The idea of trying to book accommodation for an anniversary weekend seems utterly mad. How do you comb through results? How do you pay? How do you view the reputation of the place? How do you know there aren't going to be animal bones all over the walls?

Yes, you can ask all those things and go back-and-forth. Yes, you can set up a separate paypal payment, but all of that is time spent and additional worries.

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#100

Post by pjc50 »

andrewstuart wrote: post #56

"Hey why use this? It's the same as Slack?" "Hey why use this, it's the same as IRC?" "Hey why use this, it's the same as a mailing list?" These are the sorts of things people say to lazily kill any new idea. "Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'? It's the same as Alta Vista." "Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'? It's the same as grep." People say this stuff because it makes them feel smart. Folks, not al…

> "Hey why use this new fangled 'google.com'

Anyone who saw the original google home page after using Alta Vista back in the 90s would have immediately understood that the minimalism was its great benefit.

"Like X but we've fixed deficiency Y" is a fine way to market a product or service.

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