Live data from Hacker News

Jack Dorsey runs two multibillion-dollar companies without using a computer

qz.com

61–64 of 64 posts

Re: Jack Dorsey runs two multibillion-dollar companies without using a computer

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm increasingly only using my phone for everything, with a Bluetooth mechanical keyboard for coding or typing. My PC is quickly becoming just a gaming console and will probably soon be put into a car sim style setup then my phone will be my only computer for everything else. Nothing fancy phone wise, S7 Edge. It can take USB sticks, wireless keyboard and mouse, and almost everything I do is just in Firefox or Dropbo…

I would be interested to hear more about your coding setup on mobile! What language(s), do you use an online IDE, etc?

I'm not a full-time programmer (recently retired of sorts), and these days it's mostly personal hobby hardware projects, tinkering with various online projects, and just a bit of everything. I don't think I could do this if I was still coding all day every day like I used to, but for my purposes, it works fine.

I do Arduino projects using an OTG cable to plug the Arduino directly to my phone, then Arduino Droid for the code.

RPi projects are done using Termux to SSH into the RPis and write code in VIM. I also do some general daily tasks this way, SSHing into a dedicated RPi where I run various services for myself.

I use the GitHub editor to edit/write code there, but I'm not a heavy GitHub user in general other than via commanding in the RPis.

iA Writer to write formatted documents in Markdown, synced to Dropbox for sharing (and various online services can sync Dropbox folders to blog posts, or other things).

Dropbox editor for general text files (my personal notes, brainstorming, etc).

The rest is just using Firefox, as most of our interaction with the world these days is just through the browser, and I find Firefox Mobile to be incredible thanks to the tab syncing and tab forwarding (wife can send me a tab, etc).

All this is done with a cheap "RK61" Bluetooth 60% mechanical keyboard, which is honestly the thing that made this all possible (including this post).

Re: Jack Dorsey runs two multibillion-dollar companies without using a computer

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely you can't be reading all that code on such a small screen? I assume you must be hooking it up to an HDMI monitor as well? (But if so, I'm with you. I was using a Samsung DeX with my S8 recently while my laptop was broken, and it's incredible how much it can do. I had my Focusrite 2i2 USB audio connecting my S8 to my studio monitors, and even that worked.)

Yes sorry I dock to a desktop monitor via HDMI for coding at a desk, but honestly I'd say more than half the time I'm fine just using the phone on its kickstand case or mounted to the top of the keyboard with a bracket I made. My eyes thankfully haven't degraded as fast as my hearing so far. Being a wireless 60% keyboard it's quite small, so I can use this setup anywhere I want just on my lap. It's very convenient.

What development environment do you use?

Edit - I realized you are probably using an online one.

Re: Jack Dorsey runs two multibillion-dollar companies without using a computer

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes sorry I dock to a desktop monitor via HDMI for coding at a desk, but honestly I'd say more than half the time I'm fine just using the phone on its kickstand case or mounted to the top of the keyboard with a bracket I made. My eyes thankfully haven't degraded as fast as my hearing so far. Being a wireless 60% keyboard it's quite small, so I can use this setup anywhere I want just on my lap. It's very convenient.

What development environment do you use? Edit - I realized you are probably using an online one.

Yup web editors and SSH with an Android app for server stuff or to do stuff in VIM.

Re: Jack Dorsey runs two multibillion-dollar companies without using a computer

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have run billion dollar tech startups without computers for centuries? Tell me more, please.

I'm not sure why 'start-up' is significant, or even accurate. Standard Oil hit a market cap of over $1 trillion without computers. Maybe it was a coal-industry-disruptor start-up...?

Things moved a lot more slowly back then. News cycles were in terms of days or weeks.
Post reply on HN