The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018) • Hacker News Board

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#371

Post by Nursie » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 1:56 PM UTC

danjac wrote: post #350

Nursie wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven't got SV money behind you that's even more reason to focus on delivering something that works. Your own project on your own time? Go for it. Clients should get the best fit, most reliable option, not the flavour of the moment. (That all said, RoR is not a great choice these days as it is a niche skill)

Assuming your field is web development, what is not a niche skill? It seems the choice of backend frameworks is somewhat fragmented with no clear default winner.

I'm not sure there's an outright winner, but RoR was the hot thing what, 12 years ago?

It can be difficult to recruit for now.

(Also no, I'm not in web development, I have just observed this)

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#372

Post by UserIsUnused » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 2:01 PM UTC

whalesalad wrote: post #273

Technology is usually just a means to an end. Unless IP is what you are selling, boring is great. I’ve seen SO many teams burn SO much energy on complicated stacks just to drink kool-aid. It’s mind bogglingly frustrating, especially as a contractor. At the end of the day it’s great for me: I get brought into shit shows to clean up the mess. But deep down, I want projects to succeed and clean/sound systems architectur…

I would go with spring boot. Sure rails is a faster start, but when it grows it becomes a mess. Spring boot gives you the fastest start in JVM-land, and if your product is successful and you need things to scale, or features are getting complex, you still have the spring framework in the insides that you can manage. Boot is almost just defaults.

But spring boot wouldn't exist, if rails didn't change the landscape of web development.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#373

Post by ankit70 » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 2:02 PM UTC

Wonderful stuff! I've been trying to learn programming and able to code the CRUD apps for almost 6-7 years.

I've tried to learn Rails (Ditched learning Rails because JS framework are all the rage). Tried learning Flask/Django because it was considered easy. Ditched it too cause internet people said it's slow.

I tried learning Go, Phoenix and jumping between what's considered cool in last few years.

And here I am, no confidence to do a basic simple app. It's been an interesting journey with no luck because of constant chasing of 'Exciting' frameworks/Tools.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#374

Post by passthejoe » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 2:12 PM UTC

Listen Notes is a nice service. I don't quite understand how it works -- do podcasts pay to be included in search results? It's a nice thing for the listener, that is for sure.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#375

Post by M277 » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 2:13 PM UTC

whalesalad wrote: post #357

theonething wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first thought was "I wish the startup I'm working for would read this". My second, "eh, wouldn't change anything." > so I’m working on a new website and series of engineering posts to help share my approach to a lot of these problems. Do you have a mailing list or something to get on to get updated on this?

I will hunt down this comment and reply to you in your profile once it’s out!

Me too, please.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#376

Post by rojcyk » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 2:19 PM UTC

Interesting, there seem to be lots of opinions about the chosen stack. But as a designer, I have no idea what to make of it.

Recently I rode the Figma API release hype train, and I made a plugin which is quite successful. Almost 10k active installs. It is basically a collection of the most popular viewports and their market share. I also have a server where I store the data. Every other day I run a script which updates the market share and that is about it. To summarize it:

- I have a client (react app written in typescript) which has a very simple "caching" mechanism (if you asked the server for new data more then a day ago, ask again) and which shows the data and nothing else. - And I have a server (express js) running on Heroku (where I also have the Postgres DB). The server has a basic REST API and very default admin interface. But most of the time the server is not doing anything.

It was something I was able to put together quite fast, but now reading all the comments I'm thinking whether it isn't over-engineered and whether I should go with serverless and possibly reduce the costs.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#377

Post by em-bee » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 2:20 PM UTC

cik wrote: post #361

jcroll wrote: post #82

I ran a small company like this quite successfully earlier in my career. If you think this is awesome what goes unmentioned is how lonely it can get. Also, any issues you have (business or technology) you bear the brunt of alone. A coworking space doesn't really help either imo, if you like working with others you will miss having coworkers. Just something I think worth mentioning if you think this is something you m…

Mind expanding on the coworking bit? I always think about hitting up a coworking just to have some human contact when I'm working on a project. I've yet to actually do it however.

it depends on the co-working space. at a wework place i found everyone stuck in their little offices, and hardly any opportunity for interaction.

at another space i find people are more social. they organize events, coding workshops, even cooking classes, occasionally they cook meals. there is a fully stocked kitchen that everyone can use whenever they like. just pay for materials used. people often go out for meals together. etc...

when you are working, people will leave you alone, but if you know who else is there and what they do, you can talk to them and help each other. it helps that many are freelancers and not secretive startups hustling for investment money.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#378

Post by ryanolsonx » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 2:32 PM UTC

ankit70 wrote: post #373

Wonderful stuff! I've been trying to learn programming and able to code the CRUD apps for almost 6-7 years. I've tried to learn Rails (Ditched learning Rails because JS framework are all the rage). Tried learning Flask/Django because it was considered easy. Ditched it too cause internet people said it's slow. I tried learning Go, Phoenix and jumping between what's considered cool in last few years. And here I a…

My advice would be to quit chasing exciting frameworks.

Pick something that has been around a while (Ruby on Rails, Python with Django, Java Spring) and go with it.

Focus on performance once it becomes a problem. In python, you can rewrite parts in C that need a speed improvement.

Otherwise, focus on making a great product that solves a problem for your users.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#379

Post by em-bee » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

bythckr wrote: post #278

jcroll wrote: post #82

I ran a small company like this quite successfully earlier in my career. If you think this is awesome what goes unmentioned is how lonely it can get. Also, any issues you have (business or technology) you bear the brunt of alone. A coworking space doesn't really help either imo, if you like working with others you will miss having coworkers. Just something I think worth mentioning if you think this is something you m…

"I ran a small company", what happened? Why did you stop or did it get stopped? What was the reason? One man show / sole proprietorship is great, but its bad for family life. It's 24x7. Atleast thats how I saw my dad, dining room was the company meeting room and we all are unpaid company "helps",assisting our Dad support the family. This is the main thing that holds me back from being an entrepreneur (sole proprietor…

you don't have to do it that way. i run a company, and i don't get my family to help me. as long as i earn enough money to cover the family expenses, i don't need to work crazy hours. i get to take time off whenever i want, or whenever the family needs it, and not when my boss allows it.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#380

Post by motogpjimbo » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 2:40 PM UTC

em-bee wrote: post #370

simion314 wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then 3 years later after you moved on someone like me has to come along and cleanup the project. The current project I work on is angular1 based witch is outdated and it also sucks if the dev was just learning it at the time, the backend is done with a PHP framework that is today outdated/deprecated, this is not an old project(probably started when angular was the hot new thing) I am sure your react project in 5…

how is that any different from a custom rails server with dozens of gems that need to be upgraded. how do you build a site without any of these risks and make it last for a decade or more?

By choosing a language with a large standard library and then relying on that library rather than on frameworks of the day as much as possible.

For example, many vanilla PHP applications written 10 years ago will still run just fine today, whereas upgrading from one version of Laravel to the next version can be a major trauma.