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Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

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81–90 of 136 posts

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#81
I learnt unity and then added a websocket server to the game, build a virtual lab, and then wrote a simple JSON api so I could create geometry, materials and lighting to the scene.

Then I modified my quantum chemistry simulation platform (https://atomictessellator.com) so that it would use this Python/websocket interface to a running 3D engine to visualise the molecular simulations

Why? It’s fun and I wanted to see if it would work.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#82
post #19

I'm going to finally try to start my own company. Will it be a "startup"? I don't know. But it will be technical and it will go from 0-1 (or from 0-0). After years of lurking here, watching on the sidelines, working for larger companies, having kids, buying a house, I'm finally going to take the dive. I'm excited, nervous, lost, all at the same time. But I have enough savings and an accommodating spouse, so I don't h…

Good luck, the earlier you get into action the better.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#83
post #64

Got laid off in 2017 and never got a real job again. (I have a UX background) 1. I immediately went to Spain to do the Camino de Santiago. Was learning building web apps (Meteor) and launchd a full landing page / swing dance registration site while on the Camino. 2. Learned React and a few other tools after that, tried to be a consultant for a year. Then tried to launch a bunch of projects ("startups" if you wanted t…

Are you guys doing the TGA stuff yourselves?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#84
I've been working on a web framework in Ruby. It's inspired by all the JS frameworks, but uses Haml instead of JSX and all code is executed on the server, and patches are streamed to the browser.

I'm about to run out of money so I'm planning to move to the Amazon rainforest where money will last longer...

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#85

I've been working on a web framework in Ruby. It's inspired by all the JS frameworks, but uses Haml instead of JSX and all code is executed on the server, and patches are streamed to the browser. I'm about to run out of money so I'm planning to move to the Amazon rainforest where money will last longer...

Sounds like Rails in 2008. Long live server side rendering.

You can tell I haven’t done a lot of web dev since 2014 or so. :)

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#86
I'm ahead of the curve of this wave, but I've been making a first person Lovecraftian text editor rpg where you type into a mechanical typewriter as a tentacle monster. Exports .txt files, has printer "support".

https://twitter.com/LeapJosh/status/1552977798452609024

I started the autumn after covid reached America.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#87
Haven’t been laid off but I see it coming in the next few months. I do DBA/performance tuning on MySQL, Postgres, SQL Server (and recently Cockroach). Being remote in Australia makes it hard to get another job so I’m thinking to learn a trade and exit tech as a career.

Recently I got into using mono.Cecil to rewrite c# assemblies (specifically assemblies created by IKVM). I haven’t had a personal project in years but this has definitely reignited a spark, so I’m going to try for a remote software engineering job first.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#88
post #9
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This can happen, but Paul "Kinko" Orfalea's book "Copy This!" goes into a lot of detail about how it makes sense to care about employees as people and doing so actually contributes greatly to the bottom line. His company "Kinko's Copies" is not the greatest tech leader ever, but it provided basic services to ordinary people using low paid labor and managed to have employee morale and retention far above other compani…

This example illustrates the first comment's point: it is fundamentally a transactional relationship. "Caring contributes greatly to the bottom line" means the goal of "caring" is increased productivity.

Not to belabor the point, but if I understand the book correctly Paul did things this way because he believed it was the right thing to do and it was the best fit for him and his personality. Relating this way to employees allowed him to live with himself and humanized the business. So the increased productivity was a happy coincidence of his insistence on positive human interaction being a foundational element of business operations. He never really expected to be successful or anything like the great success which unfolded. The entire business was basically winging it in order to make money because he had trouble following more common paths.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#89
post #64

Got laid off in 2017 and never got a real job again. (I have a UX background) 1. I immediately went to Spain to do the Camino de Santiago. Was learning building web apps (Meteor) and launchd a full landing page / swing dance registration site while on the Camino. 2. Learned React and a few other tools after that, tried to be a consultant for a year. Then tried to launch a bunch of projects ("startups" if you wanted t…

What a coincidence! I've been thinking about taking a sabbatical and walking the the Camino de Santiago. During that time I will likely study for some IT certs to demonstrate new skills in cloud servers & security.

How did you feel about balancing studying skills with socializing & enjoying the journey of the Camino?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#90
post #78

Not laid off but on an extended sabbatical. I'm working on a Rust library for SAT solving and other things informed by John Harrison's text on Automated Theorem Proving. https://github.com/aetilley/harrison-rust This is largely for me to to learn Rust, but I think it may have the potential to turn into something cool. Next on the todo list is optimizations to DPLL as the existing implementation is currently in its mo…

Interesting.. What do you think about Survey Propagation?
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