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A Project of One’s Own

paulgraham.com

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Re: A Project of One’s Own

#121

Post by [deleted] »

gregorymichael wrote: post #111
crispyambulance wrote: post #78

Read also a much better essay by a vastly more skilled writer with quite a different view, Bertrand Russell, "In Praise of Idleness." https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/ Russell would say that people of the age to be tech start-up fodder should instead DO NOTHING. It's better for them and for society. > I hope that after reading the following pages the leaders of the YMCA will start a campaign…

As a father of two kids who enjoyed this article, I clicked on the comments thinking, "I bet the top one is a criticism of PG." I don't understand how a predictable snide remark about PG's writing elevates this conversation. If the purpose of writing is to be read and to provoke thought and action, PG is a great writer.

[deleted]

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#122

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

tornato7 wrote: post #117
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #9

I once wrote that "My dream is to, one day, work for free." I am now living that dream. When I left my last company, in 2017, I looked at working for someone else, but was almost immediately told that no one wants old men. It was pretty crushing. But I went and set up a corporation that allows me to get equipment and testing kit, and started to write my own stuff. I explored surveillance cameras and ONVIF, as well as…

I wish I could have more of that "ship" mentality. I have dozens of quite interesting personal projects that are stuck in the 80% complete state, because ultimately the final stages of releasing a project just aren't fun to me (bug fixing, tests, docs, build systems, code polish)

Shipping is boring as hell. Lots of not-fun stuff. I generally have to force myself to polish the fenders. For example, one of the things I always do, is create a project social media card for my repos. Silly, but it helps me to feel like it's "for real."

But it's really nice to know that I can include one of my projects as a dependency, and not have to worry a bit about whether or not it will bork my project.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#123

Post by beepbooptheory »

Tade0 wrote: post #90
beepbooptheory wrote: post #75

This is really nice and particularly resonant with me. I've spent maybe a good five years obsessed with coding and development in all the ways, but I never went to school for it (I have an MA in philosophy), and have never had a real tech/dev job (I have been a random temp for almost two years now, cook and grubhub before that, and many different jobs before that in kitchens and teaching guitar and such). I dream in…

> (I have an MA in philosophy), Judging by my experience you actually did go to school for it - or at least half of it. I worked with a few PhDs in this field and it appears that it uniquely prepares one for this line of work.

It's definitely something I would make known/have made known in my resumes/applications, especially my training with modern symbolic logic/metalogic! But yes, even philosophy in general I think has some more organic agreement to coding beyond that.

The hardest language anyone could grok is probably the First Critique and works like that, and really understanding it is quite akin to the abstract kinds of thinking you need for coding.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#124

Post by gdubs »

Another aspect of personal projects is that if they’re truly enjoyable they can be a kind of salve for burnout.* If you feel like you can’t even open your IDE, a personal project can generate the excitement that reinvigorates your passion.

There’s also less of a speed limit with personal projects — the things like: “before you go down that road let’s talk with X; hold off on that idea for now; let’s wait until...”

This freedom is conducive to learning new things. My career success rests heavily on skills I gained pursuing personal projects, where I was able to try ridiculously complicated or “out there” ideas. I’ve worked for people in the past who were strongly against me spending free time on personal projects, but benefited from all the skills I had gained doing so. Beware of this mindset — it’s fear based and leads to unsuccessful outcomes in other ways.

* Side note is: careful not to burn out on what’s supposed to be a fun personal project.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#125

Post by mumblemumble »

bsedlm wrote: post #62
mumblemumble wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangentially to that, I've worked at exactly one place that had a really good profit-sharing system. On paper, everyone had a relatively low salary. But, at the end of the fiscal year, they'd tally up the profits, divide them up among the employees, and cut everyone a check. (Naturally, this was not a publicly-held company, nor was it financially beholden to any venture capitalists. One rarely finds much equity in ex…

sounds like it was a relatively small company, but was it? how many people were there?

About 1,000.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#126

Post by truetraveller »

As an aside, PG is a fantastic writer. Truly one of my favorites reads. His writing reminds me of Joel Spolsky's writings in some ways, Joel also being a gifted writer.

PG's writing is not pretentious; it employs "easy" words and grammar on purpose. And his writing genuinely provides a tremendous amount of new insight.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#128

Post by pram »

jart wrote: post #112

Gluing together personal projects is the foundation of the UNIX operating system. It's the point of any operating system really, but UNIX does it best. Docker and the microservice paradigm have also had a meteoric rise, probably because they promise to plug together clean slate personal projects. One management technique I've seen companies use to grant employees the freedom to pursue personal projects, without it be…

I worked at a place that had explicit “20% time” to work on “whatever” and it (incredibly) turned into more micromanaged bullshit. Now I had to set separate goals and milestones for that project too, and report it in one-on-ones with my manager. I just dropped the whole thing because it was literally more work than doing my regular job!

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#129

Post by raclage »

gregorymichael wrote: post #111
crispyambulance wrote: post #78

Read also a much better essay by a vastly more skilled writer with quite a different view, Bertrand Russell, "In Praise of Idleness." https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/ Russell would say that people of the age to be tech start-up fodder should instead DO NOTHING. It's better for them and for society. > I hope that after reading the following pages the leaders of the YMCA will start a campaign…

As a father of two kids who enjoyed this article, I clicked on the comments thinking, "I bet the top one is a criticism of PG." I don't understand how a predictable snide remark about PG's writing elevates this conversation. If the purpose of writing is to be read and to provoke thought and action, PG is a great writer.

> If the purpose of writing is to be read and to provoke thought and action

There's a LOT more to good writing than that, and in any event it's not that big of an insult to say someone isn't as good a writer as Bertrand Russell.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#130

Post by read_if_gay_ »

fallat wrote: post #103
johnwheeler wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read it and I don’t think it’s a “much better essay by a vastly more skilled writer”. It’s not practical, but PGs essay is. Peculiarly, I think your opinion and the difference between the two essays gives credibility to PGs points. One essay by an academic, and the other by a creator and people err on the relative value of the academic’s because that’s what they’re taught to do.

I read it and I don’t think it’s a “much better essay by a vastly more skilled writer”. It’s not practical, but BRs essay is. Peculiarly, I think your opinion and the difference between the two essays gives credibility to BRs points. One essay by a egocentric multimillionaire, and the other by a man of knowledge and people err on the relative value of the people who make money because that’s what they’re taught to do…

What is the point of this post exactly? That the same logic can be used to argue the opposite if you invert the basic assumptions? Do you think that's such a groundbreaking observation that it justfies such a snarky post? If you actually wanted to contribute something, how about attacking those basic assumptions?
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