21–30 of 64 posts
I work for a big internet company (not bragging) and they paid people up between groups which historically fails... Why? Because it's artificially, there's nothing there.
At this point in time, I would suggest joining the Apple Mac/iOS community. A macbook + iPod touch + developer subscription will get you access to a great community, loads of iTunes U videos about CS and programming from Stanford and other great schools. The community is pretty great compared to others. You have a system where you can learn all aspects of contemporary software development, from scripting languages, t…
I watch all the Stanford videos and MIT OCW. I will check out the Mac community. Thank you.
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I sincerely wish you would elaborate on that. How do you pick up projects? Where would you find entry-level projects? Do you mean open source project (in which case there have been several posts on HN and reddit about getting started). Maybe open source work is really the scenic route to where he wants to get - after all he's looking for paid work. And he seems to making an effort to meet people in person (having joi…
My take on a reply to this is: - Find a project you want to do. Maybe it's a website that does something simple, maybe it's an iphone app. - Scrape together a first approach at building it. - Build it again. - Learn/read along the way - Build it again. After a few iterations you'll start to get the hang of it.
You are right about the iterations. Thanks.
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This is a great suggestion. Ask yourself "as a pilot, what annoys me or what are tasks that I have to spend my time on". Maybe a site for matching up people up to fly together to events? Or logging your flight hours. (I am not a pilot - I have no idea what I'm talking about.)
Thank you. The logbook idea is brilliant. That was the most annoying thing about flying. Brilliant.
Forget user groups. Forget craigslist. Forget the internet. 1. Do stuff: Pick up projects. Do open source work. Volunteer. 2. Network: Meet people in person. "Finding a mentor" is a misnomer. You don't "find" a mentor any more than you find a girlfriend or spouse. A relationship with someone who can mentor you is the byproduct of everything else you do. Get out there and get busy. You may be surprised at the people w…
> "Finding a mentor" is a misnomer. You don't "find" a mentor any more than you find a girlfriend or spouse. That's not true, I've found at least two people on HN by simply approaching them and asking them if they were willing to teach me a concept and both of them agreed readily (and have shown considerable patience with me). If there is one place where simply asking people that are skilled if they would please teac…
I guess I don't know what I don't know. I can find out how to work through relatively simple tasks by research but my common core of experience is so out of line with what most people in the field take for granted, I find I am spending most of my time just trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.
I guess I don't want to feel like I am wasting someone's time with what might be a dumb question.
I agree with a lot of advice here, especially those that point out that your own initiative is most important, but I would recommend my site: http://everymentor.com/ A lot of folks around Hacker News are probably aware of it (because I bring it up in almost every thread.. :-) but you might get lucky and snag someone that is interested in working with you.
This is veru useful advice - http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/09/how-to-get-that-...
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> "Finding a mentor" is a misnomer. You don't "find" a mentor any more than you find a girlfriend or spouse. That's not true, I've found at least two people on HN by simply approaching them and asking them if they were willing to teach me a concept and both of them agreed readily (and have shown considerable patience with me). If there is one place where simply asking people that are skilled if they would please teac…
Thanks. The comments have been insightful. I guess I don't know what I don't know. I can find out how to work through relatively simple tasks by research but my common core of experience is so out of line with what most people in the field take for granted, I find I am spending most of my time just trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. I guess I don't want to feel like I am wasting someone's time with what mig…
Forget user groups. Forget craigslist. Forget the internet. 1. Do stuff: Pick up projects. Do open source work. Volunteer. 2. Network: Meet people in person. "Finding a mentor" is a misnomer. You don't "find" a mentor any more than you find a girlfriend or spouse. A relationship with someone who can mentor you is the byproduct of everything else you do. Get out there and get busy. You may be surprised at the people w…
" A relationship with someone who can mentor you is the byproduct of everything else you do. " - That is very true. Maybe you should spend a week skimming through different languages, pick the one you find the easiest. Spend the next two three weeks going through a beginner's book for the language and coding some simple programs. Next plan a project, it can be a simple app and code it in the language. And as you are…
Thanks.