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How To Do A Startup On The Side And Not Lose Your Family

ericfarkas.com

41–50 of 79 posts

Re: How To Do A Startup On The Side And Not Lose Your Family

#41
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually hackers are very good at logic, which precludes believing the self-contradictory bible and religious dogma, but some people are very good at compartmentalizing their brains and avoiding applying logic to some parts of their lives, apparently.

Sorry, I'm a bit confused. Before we point fingers to look at others, mind clarifying a few things for me? These are honest and serious questions, if you feel more comfortable talking by email I welcome it. Are you saying: - All belief systems are identical, incomplete and short sighted as the one you are speaking of? - How much of what you believe is based on judging your own experience with one belief system and ap…

I'm not talking about one particular belief system, just organized religions that have religious doctrines or bibles that contradict themselves, contain logical impossibilities, or scientific inaccuracies. That covers most of the mainstream religions, but I'm sure you could gerrymander your own personal belief system to avoid my definition. I don't claim they're identical, just that they're wrong because it's logically impossible to be true. And my point is that there are some programmers who understand logic and should be able to think their way out of believing logically impossible dogmas, but they don't, because they're mentally compartmentalized and intellectually dishonest.

Brendan Eich for example should be smart and logical enough to figure out that gay people marrying don't effect his own marriage or harm society. Yet he gave $1000 to the Proposition 8 campaign which successfully overturned the right to gay marriage in California, so his money had a negative effect on real people's lives. And that rightfully pissed off a lot of his co-workers and community.

As Tom Morris writes: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/proposition-8?before=1333669269

"Brendan Eich’s actions are homophobic and disappointing.

Want to know why it is disappointing? Frankly, I expect more from techie programmer types. Being bullied mercilessly for being a spotty, out-of-shape loser who prefers Star Trek to sports usually helps instill some solidarity. As the Jargon File puts it: “Hackerdom easily tolerates a much wider range of sexual and lifestyle variation than the mainstream culture.” You have to be reasonably intelligent to do well in the programming game, and usually people become pretty critical and questioning and skeptical in the process, and outgrow the bigotry (even if they do occasionally have social awkwardness and cluelessness).

It is disappointing when that doesn’t turn out to be as true as one thought."

Re: How To Do A Startup On The Side And Not Lose Your Family

#42
post #17
post #11

What's an "elder?"

In the context he used it in, an lay office of a Protestant church. They typically serve as advisors/leaders/mentors. Usually they seem to be middle-aged or older, IME.

Elder has different meanings in different denominations, and isn't unique to Protestants (it is, however, mostly Christian). Specifically, in the Mormon church, it's quite different.

Re: How To Do A Startup On The Side And Not Lose Your Family

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Belief in the literal truth of the Bible" != "Belief in God".

And that's why I explicitly said "self-contradictory bible and religious dogma". Of course the vague hippy-dippy handwaving and misused pseudoscientific buzzwords of Deepak Chopra is pretty stupid and illogical too.

Love is often illogical too.

Re: How To Do A Startup On The Side And Not Lose Your Family

#44
post #7

Make that N=2. This post is very, very similar to my own experience after launching my "startup on the side" last year ( http://www.limelightapp.com/ ) and the advice closely parallels what I'd give to others as well. >> Get your spouse or SO's buy-in. Until that happens, I'd suggest not going forward. Agree completely. I think one key to gaining my wife's incredible support was the understanding we both had that Lim…

Do either you or the poster have advice regarding single parenting + full time job + nights/weekends-style startup? Possible? Was unclear if you were saying that spouse + support = okay, or just if spouse, then support = okay. Do you rely on the presence of a spouse who happens to be supporting to be able to even get the part time priority on the list below the rung to family?

I'm a single parent (full & sole custody). You said "single parenting + full time job + nights/weekends-style startup"... I mean I'm really, really not a helicopter parent; I have a life apart from raising my kid. That being said I think a single parent who's working full-time AND doing a "nights/weekends startup" would wind up short-changing SOMETHING.

I can't imagine there would be any satisfaction to be had in that kind of stretching.

Re: How To Do A Startup On The Side And Not Lose Your Family

#45
post #29
post #18

someone on HN believes in God? No judgments, I just thought hacker and atheist were deeply intertwined. Perhaps I just picked up the wrong impression from Reddit.

HN is a more mature environment. Probably the atheist:believer ratio is not all that different from Reddit... but your likelihood of being derided for your religious beliefs is a bit less. People here are more interested in talking about creating successful startups than in being "right" about their spiritual beliefs.

i'm an atheist myself, but gratified to see this guys beliefs being respected. its one thing i hate about reddit.

Re: How To Do A Startup On The Side And Not Lose Your Family

#47
post #18

someone on HN believes in God? No judgments, I just thought hacker and atheist were deeply intertwined. Perhaps I just picked up the wrong impression from Reddit.

Reddit can give incorrect impressions on a great many things. Christian + hacker here as well.

I think there was a previous poll on this that said that Christian hackers were ~30% of this site, give or take, but I might have misremembered that statistic.

Re: How To Do A Startup On The Side And Not Lose Your Family

#48
post #7

Make that N=2. This post is very, very similar to my own experience after launching my "startup on the side" last year ( http://www.limelightapp.com/ ) and the advice closely parallels what I'd give to others as well. >> Get your spouse or SO's buy-in. Until that happens, I'd suggest not going forward. Agree completely. I think one key to gaining my wife's incredible support was the understanding we both had that Lim…

> I miss Japanese. :-(

がんばって!

(I assume the downvoter wants a translation? It means "do your best!" [on your startup])

Re: How To Do A Startup On The Side And Not Lose Your Family

#50
post #18

someone on HN believes in God? No judgments, I just thought hacker and atheist were deeply intertwined. Perhaps I just picked up the wrong impression from Reddit.

Reddit can give incorrect impressions on a great many things. Christian + hacker here as well.

It would be interesting to know how many Christian Hackers believe in Evolution.
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