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How to write stuff no one else can

thewritetoroam.com

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Re: How to write stuff no one else can

#111

Post by danbruc »

dinkleberg wrote: post #100
danbruc wrote: post #89

Tangent. I understand the appeal of a four hour work week but how can people take that seriously? You will either have to have a pretty unappealing standard of living or you will have to exploit other people. If you only work four hours per week, then you can only consume as much as can be produced in four hours each week. But I guess people mostly hope to make the exploitation strategy work, manage to only produce s…

It has been years since I read it, but iirc the main point was to build businesses that once they are up and running don't require much much work to keep bringing in money. I suspect achieving what he was aiming for is much harder now than it was when he wrote the book, as the barrier to entry to starting businesses goes down and the competition continues to rise. But I think there is still something to be said for t…

Also known as selling something at an inflated price and hoping that no one will undercut you.

Re: How to write stuff no one else can

#112

Post by trealira »

hiatus wrote: post #108
enriquto wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Otherwise only those that master talking will get exposure. Or maybe we shouldn't organize our society so that "exposure" is such an overwhelmingly positive thing.

Exposure, as I understand it, is becoming known to more people. I can't see how society, which is predicated on interpersonal relationships, could be organized to dissuade increasing your renown.

Perhaps with some sort of score that rewarded accomplishing things more than just talking about them. Then you could look at someone's score and trust that they've accomplished more. Seems meritocratic, but also somewhat dystopian, honestly.

Re: How to write stuff no one else can

#113

Post by Madmallard »

nottorp wrote: post #98
Madmallard wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"strong personality tends to correlate inversely with competence" citation needed

"if you feel a need to be aggressive, it means you've done no deeds that will speak for you" How about that?

also seems wrong

Re: How to write stuff no one else can

#114

Post by Hayatabad »

gessha wrote: post #105
intelVISA wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A highly curated LinkedIn is a red flag - nobody producing value has time to tend that walled garden.

A sizable chunk of engineers from the most competitive companies got fired - people used to optimizing for everything - resume readability, LeetCode hards, system interviews, etc. You think they won’t optimize their profiles for their next job?

He has a point. It depends on how optimized it is.

Re: How to write stuff no one else can

#116

Post by jmathai »

ozim wrote: post #68
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the impetus for headhunters to do all this legwork though? Just like noone got fired for buying IBM, the headhunters at large FAANG almost always go for the shiny, smiling LinkedIn profiles.

For headhunters none, for you if you are running your small company - huge. Great hire can pull you out off troubles, bad hire can run company to the ground.

I am trying to build a hardware prototype which expands beyond my experience in software.

There’s no way I would try and hire someone with lots of experience and credentials. There’s too much risk.

Instead, I found a recent college grad who I believe is capable of doing what’s needed at this stage.

I face lots of risks and the last thing I want is to add an expensive hire to it.

Re: How to write stuff no one else can

#117

Post by dinkleberg »

danbruc wrote: post #111
dinkleberg wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been years since I read it, but iirc the main point was to build businesses that once they are up and running don't require much much work to keep bringing in money. I suspect achieving what he was aiming for is much harder now than it was when he wrote the book, as the barrier to entry to starting businesses goes down and the competition continues to rise. But I think there is still something to be said for t…

Also known as selling something at an inflated price and hoping that no one will undercut you.

How so? If I build a simple app that does its job and does it well, I don't need to work on it for 40 hours a week for the rest of my life. After the initial effort, you can put in almost no work, just periodic maintenance, and you can keep bringing in sales.

There are lots of opportunities like this. There is nothing morally or ethically questionable about this. It doesn't require you to over-inflate your prices. That is the power of software. The VC hyper-growth world is heavily focused on continuously changing your software, but that isn't a requirement (and in fact, is often not desirable to your customers).

Re: How to write stuff no one else can

#118

Post by jmathai »

trealira wrote: post #112
hiatus wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exposure, as I understand it, is becoming known to more people. I can't see how society, which is predicated on interpersonal relationships, could be organized to dissuade increasing your renown.

Perhaps with some sort of score that rewarded accomplishing things more than just talking about them. Then you could look at someone's score and trust that they've accomplished more. Seems meritocratic, but also somewhat dystopian, honestly.

I’ve trended in the opposite direction. I don’t particularly enjoy taking about any successes I may have had and I don’t care to make sure others (including in the company I work at) are aware.

It’s not great for career progression. But I actually don’t care about that. So instead of playing that game I play one I actually care about which looks very different than one where exposure matters.

Re: How to write stuff no one else can

#119

Post by samatman »

gessha wrote: post #105
intelVISA wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A highly curated LinkedIn is a red flag - nobody producing value has time to tend that walled garden.

A sizable chunk of engineers from the most competitive companies got fired - people used to optimizing for everything - resume readability, LeetCode hards, system interviews, etc. You think they won’t optimize their profiles for their next job?

There's a line somewhere between "optimized" and "highly curated" where I consider LinkedIn a negative signal. Those are both utterly subjective phrases, but nonetheless.

My LinkedIn is utterly moribund, which has come up in interviews a few times. Either they say "you don't really use LinkedIn, huh" or I explain the same. As far as I know this has cost me nothing.

Re: How to write stuff no one else can

#120

Post by rstephenson2 »

vik0 wrote: post #81
ildjarn wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s the shift of perception from technology being “geek stuff” to a lucrative field on par with finance, medicine and law. Before, someone who knew a bit of programming was likely to be passionate and with high potential. Now they may still be, but also they may just a way to get rich quick.

But the vast majority of people who go to programming bootcamps don't get rich quickly, or rich at all. Same with most people in the world who practice medicine or law Or did you mean to convey that people who go to boot camps think it's a way to get rich quick? Your wording is a bit confusing toward the end there

Boot camps take the “seems to be passionate about coding in their free time” signals and help their students try to fit those signals by encouraging them to build personal projects on GitHub etc. This somewhat dilutes the ability of recruiters to check off “has some GitHub projects” as a heuristic, however useful that was to begin with.
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