201–210 of 757 posts
What my work has taught me is that...
a) some founders are motivated by improving their customers' lives
b) some founders are motivated by building the best solution to a problem their customers have
c) 'a' founders are more likely to be successful and less likely to give up than 'b' founders
How much feel good and drinking relationships matter in upper management. And on the downside, how little facts weight in when compared to a manager's gut feeling. Enthusiastically presenting a (factually wrong) solution can be a winning strategy. In high school, I thought I was a math genius because all of my solutions were judged as correct. Turns out, I was just a good presenter and nobody made any effort to check…
This is what would now be termed a "blackpill".
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The downside of trades is that most people are there only for the money. From this you can derive the rest.
Yep Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and google and the rest of those money hating software companies are just in it for the good of free speech and democracy. :S Trades are OK when you're young. If I'd been a carpenter at 18, i'd be bored of it by 26 and probably be thinking about starting my own company or time to pivot into a new thing. The big downside of trades is they aren't jobs you can do forever.
The guys I worked with almost 15 years ago still work in the same company. Still toil away in the same positions as before, while occasionally inquiring me about engineering school or similar.
I noticed that as soon as they started getting close to 30, got wife and kids, they started to ask around for better options.
This thread is bleak.
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Let me recommend to you "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams" by Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister (go with the 3rd edition) and "The Mythical Man-Month" by Frederick P. Brooks Jr. (go with the anniversary edition). Both books expound the idea that most software projects fail not because lack of technology or innovation, but rather due to the mismanagement of people and a lack of understanding how teams work.
Anything specific about the 3rd ed of “Peopleware” as opposed to the 2nd? Thanks
(preface: I worked a string of manual labor jobs before and during college) A lot of the (now) coveted trade jobs can seem like a very tempting alternative to crushing college debt and volatile job security, but truth be told, many of these trades are plagued with physical injuries, sudden unemployment, and what not. Furthermore, you deal with A LOT more shady people (employers, customers / clients, suppliers, you na…
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Regarding the "ejector seat savings account", do I receive something like unemployment benefits when I quit my in the United States? If yes, does it matter whether I quit or was fired? Sorry if that question sounds naive, but from what I read here on HN I'm often not quite sure how the system works in the US.
generally speaking, if you quit or were fired you would not be eligible for any unemployment assistance. it's different state to state, but quit is your decision, and 'fired' is usually for something negative/bad. I've been 'laid off' - terminated but it was reported as no fault of mine - and received unemployment assistance - this has happened to me twice. the 'ejector seat savings' the GP was referring to just mean…
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generally speaking, if you quit or were fired you would not be eligible for any unemployment assistance. it's different state to state, but quit is your decision, and 'fired' is usually for something negative/bad. I've been 'laid off' - terminated but it was reported as no fault of mine - and received unemployment assistance - this has happened to me twice. the 'ejector seat savings' the GP was referring to just mean…
Thanks for the detailed response. Tbh that sounds pretty hard to me. I guess for people who can easily find a new job (e.g. tech) that might not be a big deal, but I feel sorry for all the people who don't have that luxury (e.g. unskilled blue-collar worker).
https://fileunemployment.org/unemployment-benefits/unemploym...
I'm in a position now where I have ... probably 18 months or more of living expenses lined up that I can tap whenever I need to, so I don't think I'll ever have to be in that situation again. BUT... I still remember have $0, owing money, having no job/income. Scary as a single person, probably doubly so if you have a family to support.
I mean, the Hippocratic Oath and _some_ form of organised medicine has been around for 2,500+ years.
Modern manufacturing has been around for a few centuries.
etc.
Yes, they all change and develop - and use software within them to drive some of that change - but many industries are mature and stable.
Software is not.
5 years ago you would build a frontend website one way, now you'd use a completely different set of tools/technologies. Wait 5 years and it will have completely changed again.
It's a similar case with software development methodologies, backend approaches/languages (etc), too.
Plus many industries have some form of enforced standards or monitoring, whilst software certainly does not.