Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I no longer build software

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

841–850 of 891 posts

Re: I no longer build software

#841

Post by nescioquid »

vikramkr wrote: post #688
nescioquid wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> its nonsensical to condemn the rate of progress because we didn't achieve a vision of science fantasy grounded in what people thought in the 1950s That wasn't really the claim. The idea is that the ends of technology have been chosen by corporations, rather than what would have been most generally useful to humankind. Hardly an earth-shattering observation.

Sure, but those examples that you gave seriously undercut that. Antigravity, teleportation, those would be wildly profitable. And we've got an entire anti-aging industry investing billions into immortality drugs. In fact, the investments into immortality drugs right now is a perfect example of your statement that the ends of technology are chosen by corporations instead of what is most useful to mankind. Curing negle…

Read the Graeber article I linked earlier in case you haven't and are interested. Bio-tech is one of the industries he specifically mentions as being somewhat a degenerate case with regard to this argument.

In his essay, the the particulars of technological achievement (e.g. flying cars) are rhetorical. If it isn't our current economic system with for-profit corporations driving the direction of technological evolution, what is? The question that interests me, however, is how should we, as a society, make those kinds of decisions?

Re: I no longer build software

#842

Post by mauvehaus »

fmajid wrote: post #772
mauvehaus wrote: post #123

Holy shit, this is me! A couple things to clarify: I posted the original issue as a minor complaint about the docker cli and promptly forgot about it. I never expected it to get any traction or follow-up. At the time I posted it, I was working as a contractor for my former full time employer. I had left full-time work there in early 2017 to attend the full-time program at the (sadly now-defunct) Furniture Institute o…

Reminds me of the hardware engineer in Tracy Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine who burns out and resigns with: > I'm going to a commune in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season.

Funny you should mention that book. Tom West's daughter is Jessamyn West, famous Vermont librarian. Her cousin is Christopher Schwarz of Lost Art Press, influential author and publisher of woodworking books. She was recently interviewed on Vermont Public Radio's Brave Little State podcast on an episode about religion in Vermont.

I believe all of the above is public information about the named people.

If I'm honest, I haven't yet read The Soul of a New Machine, but it's on my list. I did pick up House[0], also by Tracy Kidder and read it over the winter holidays a couple of years ago. I'm not sure exactly how I'd sum it up, so I'll leave that to the author, linked below. I've also read excerpts of Among Schoolchildren[1] and can recommend it (at least the parts I've read) as well.

[0] https://www.tracykidder.com/house.html

[1] https://www.tracykidder.com/among-schoolchildren.html

Re: I no longer build software

#843

Post by mauvehaus »

ojilles wrote: post #717
mauvehaus wrote: post #123

Holy shit, this is me! A couple things to clarify: I posted the original issue as a minor complaint about the docker cli and promptly forgot about it. I never expected it to get any traction or follow-up. At the time I posted it, I was working as a contractor for my former full time employer. I had left full-time work there in early 2017 to attend the full-time program at the (sadly now-defunct) Furniture Institute o…

Hey, while you are reshooting the pictures, have a look at David Hobby's material over at Strobist [0], especially the lighting 101 series [1]. Hope you find them as helpful as I did! [0] https://strobist.blogspot.com/ [1] https://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

Thanks for the recommendation. I've long considered myself not smart enough to shoot with a flash, but I've never given it a really serious try learning. As I understand it, getting the exposure right can be a challenge. Or maybe it's just a learning curve I haven't tried climbing yet :-)

Everything on my site was shot with continuous light, but I'll take a deeper look at the site and see what I can learn. Some of the photos definitely make me want to! And let's be honest, strobes are a lot less hassle to deal with than studio lights.

Re: I no longer build software

#844

Post by mauvehaus »

wrycoder wrote: post #798
lightelement wrote: post #763

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to know your thoughts on woodworking in a living space. Before the pandemic I took classes at a local art school. I'm considering upgrading to a two bedroom apartment (in a large apartment building) and using the spare bedroom as a workshop. I'm guessing I'll have to go all (or almost all) hand tools. Do you think this is feasible, or will I regret it? I'm worried about dust management and noise for my neigh…

Use hand tools, when possible. If not, use Fesstool tools and one of their dust extractors. I built a wood bed for my truck in the living room some decades ago. And also a clavichord. Hand tools generate shavings, but little dust. I have a very good collection of hand tools in a large tool chest. And, I have a very solid, large workbench. Both of these look great in the living room when not in use.

Can we get a picture of the clavichord?! Talk about burying the lede.

Re: I no longer build software

#845

Post by bigiain »

samatman wrote: post #773
YZF wrote: post #693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember doing pretty good with a decent map book. I'm not sure traveling these days is really that much simpler. I did some pretty big trips before the age of always on and it worked just fine. Also me and my wife still argue navigation in the Tesla with its futuristic built-in navigation (that's not always perfect). My "reliable" not-80's Subaru Outback broke down on me in my last big road trip (which indirectly…

> I'm not sure traveling these days is really that much simpler. I arrive in a foreign country. My phone works as soon as I turn it off airplane mode. I already have lodging, which didn't involve any long-distance calling or navigating foreign accents over a scratchy submarine cable. I don't know how to get there. Is public transit an option? One short map query later, I determine that it is , but that would involve…

> Traveling these days is really that much simpler.

Maybe, but I'm not totally convinced the "simplicity" has really made my life any better?

I have personal experience of travelling both pre and post smartphone era. I've spent reasonable or large amounts of time in San Francisco, New York, London, Bangkok, and Singapore (from Sydney), and a day or a few days in many more places. None of the "pre smart phone era" travel I did was onerously difficult without a smartphone, and I don't seem to have started doing additional travel since smartphones "slowed" all those problems you list.

I was comfortable enough travelling using taxis, printed maps, travellers cheques, and travel agents. I would happily enough fall back on those (well, these days I take advantage of credit card/maestro ATM availability and don't even know if travellers cheques are still a thing.) I will admit the stress levels travelling in Thailand, where I don't speak the language or even read the alphabet, are lower with a globally networked supercomputer in my pocket, but I never avoided going there (or anywhere else) because "It's too hard".

(And given current climate, I'm quite likely to arrive in the US next time I visit without a phone, or perhaps with a minimal burner. Sure, my phone makes a bunch of stuff "simpler", but it also carries a fuckton of intimate personal information, and it makes for a very tempting target for badly behaved or overly invasive border control staff...)

Re: I no longer build software

#846

Post by aarongough »

dahfizz wrote: post #593
aarongough wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately I agree with this. A great quote I saw a while ago: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” –Jeff Hammerbacher Every paying software job I've ever had was in some way involved getting people to click on ads. Either directly making a product where ad click rate is a measured metric, or products that helped people make products where clicking on ads was a metric.…

I'm going to take a wild guess that you are a web developer. I'm a happy low level systems developer. I solve hard and interesting problems that have nothing to do with ads.

Correct!

Interesting point you make: there is definitely selection bias going on because of this, but I've honestly never thought about it that way before!

Re: I no longer build software

#847

Post by mauvehaus »

lightelement wrote: post #763
mauvehaus wrote: post #123

Holy shit, this is me! A couple things to clarify: I posted the original issue as a minor complaint about the docker cli and promptly forgot about it. I never expected it to get any traction or follow-up. At the time I posted it, I was working as a contractor for my former full time employer. I had left full-time work there in early 2017 to attend the full-time program at the (sadly now-defunct) Furniture Institute o…

I'd love to know your thoughts on woodworking in a living space. Before the pandemic I took classes at a local art school. I'm considering upgrading to a two bedroom apartment (in a large apartment building) and using the spare bedroom as a workshop. I'm guessing I'll have to go all (or almost all) hand tools. Do you think this is feasible, or will I regret it? I'm worried about dust management and noise for my neigh…

As others have said, hand tools generate chips or shavings and less dust than power tools. I strongly suggest doing your sanding outside if at all possible. If not, The recommendation other folks have made for Festool is on point. Their dust collection is excellent. I own a Makita random orbit sander and it leaves a film of dust on the surroundings when I use it. I've used other people's Festool sanders with Festool dust extractors, and it's outstanding. You pay for it, but you really do get what you pay for.

Part of my strategy for keeping dust down is to do as little sanding as possible. I generally try to get a good surface off of a cutting tool (a plane or scraper), and then sand once at the grit I want to end at. Squirrelly grain, or tearout around knots sometimes requires pulling out the sander. Still I try to limit my use of it. If I can spend 5 minutes planing, and 5 minutes sanding, I'm a long way ahead on time compared to spending 5 minutes each sanding at 4 different grits to get the same surface (numbers from thin air, but the principle applies).

Noise is a challenge. You're right that chiseling is not a quiet activity. Anybody who thinks hand tool woodworking is a quiet and contemplative activity should spend a day in a room full of people chopping dovetails and then maybe reconsider their opinion.

All that said, there are a great many woodworkers who work successfully in apartments or other tight confines. Some of them are even married :-)

Re: I no longer build software

#848

Post by YZF »

samatman wrote: post #773
YZF wrote: post #693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember doing pretty good with a decent map book. I'm not sure traveling these days is really that much simpler. I did some pretty big trips before the age of always on and it worked just fine. Also me and my wife still argue navigation in the Tesla with its futuristic built-in navigation (that's not always perfect). My "reliable" not-80's Subaru Outback broke down on me in my last big road trip (which indirectly…

> I'm not sure traveling these days is really that much simpler. I arrive in a foreign country. My phone works as soon as I turn it off airplane mode. I already have lodging, which didn't involve any long-distance calling or navigating foreign accents over a scratchy submarine cable. I don't know how to get there. Is public transit an option? One short map query later, I determine that it is , but that would involve…

Heh. that's all the fun in traveling... Even in the good olden days a travel agent would book you accommodations no problem. You'd book a car if you wanted one. I've done lots of trips without being online ... the world was aligned to support that.

I did spent a little bit of time in SFO trying to figure out where the rideshare pickup area was last time I was there, more time than I spent finding the train the previous time... But it did get me exactly where I wanted to go which was nice...

There are still plenty of places where the phone doesn't really give you much today. Lots of places without ride sharing...

Re: I no longer build software

#849

Post by mauvehaus »

bmc7505 wrote: post #567
mauvehaus wrote: post #123

Holy shit, this is me! A couple things to clarify: I posted the original issue as a minor complaint about the docker cli and promptly forgot about it. I never expected it to get any traction or follow-up. At the time I posted it, I was working as a contractor for my former full time employer. I had left full-time work there in early 2017 to attend the full-time program at the (sadly now-defunct) Furniture Institute o…

Where in NH are you based? Anywhere near Whitefield/Lancaster?

I was being perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek when I referred to the "northern hinterlands of NH". Folks in Boston generally consider anything west of 128 to be "Western Mass".

I'm not far from Lebanon.

Re: I no longer build software

#850

Post by mauvehaus »

2mol wrote: post #459
nicbou wrote: post #75

Add me to the woodworking ex-developers. I built a website that pays the bills, and now I have a lot of time on my hands. I am finishing my first piece of furniture today. It's pretty scary to work without an undo button. The physical world isn't just instructions, but movements. A little twitch can ruin a cut. A clumsy movement can dent a piece of wood you spent an hour sanding. You truly experience the meaning of "…

Welcome to this beautiful hobby! I'm sure you'll love it for a long time to come (as you said, it helps to not _have_ to do it for 40hrs a week). I want to add to your description and say that the design part of the work can also be hugely satisfying! I found that there is something similar to software engineering: you can make it as simple [1] or complicated as you want, but there is something magical about finding…

I love the table! Nice minimal design on it.
Post reply on HN