Question: is zapier.com profitable? (I'm asking because if zapier is profitable then blog post has some merit. If not then... oh well)
They're set up very well. Can't say more than that, I'll leave it to their team to give the details they choose.
You Are the Exception to the Rule
41–50 of 52 posts
Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule
#42I think people tend to generalize things. I, for example, have the mentality that if I understand\learn something with little effort, then others can do the same. The truth is, the others usually don't bother to put forth that little effort, which makes me the exception to the rule. For example, I recently made a decent chunk of money by creating a simple WordPress site that was valuable enough for my client...I would've paid a fraction of what my client paid if I was him. So I definitely concur with this post.
Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule
#43This type of saccharine feel-good prose irritates to no end. No, chances are you're not the exception to the rule of mediocrity; that's just a matter of statistics. Believing so in absence of hard evidence to the contrary is delusional and won't make things better. Entrepeneurs fail every day. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Don't fall for the cheap words of encouragement. [ADDENDUM: I still don't trust the "Most coders c…
In some ways, software is like law (or accounting) - why do we pay lawyers so much money, even though in many cases we can simply file the paperwork ourselves? Why do we pay someone else to file our taxes, while we can do it ourselves? Being a "decent lawyer" is a very valuable skill, so is being a "decent programmer" or "decent anything". Just because something is not difficult to do, doesn't mean people would actually do it. They are busy, they don't like to learn something new, programming doesn't interest them etc.
Every skill is valuable. What is trivial for us, could be very difficult for someone else, and vice versa.
Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule
#44This type of saccharine feel-good prose irritates to no end. No, chances are you're not the exception to the rule of mediocrity; that's just a matter of statistics. Believing so in absence of hard evidence to the contrary is delusional and won't make things better. Entrepeneurs fail every day. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Don't fall for the cheap words of encouragement. [ADDENDUM: I still don't trust the "Most coders c…
> I still don't trust the "Most coders can't do FizzBuzz" meme that generally accompanies the flowery you're-a-special-snowflake-talk. Well of course, such talk misses the point. A "Coder" who can't do Fizzbuzz isn't a coder, or a programmer, or a hacker, or a computer scientist. It's a negative test, if you can't do it, then your not ready for a real programming gig yet. From http://imranontech.com/2007/01/24/using-…
Referencing Jeff Atwood's post: How is it possible that CS graduates can't do fizzbuzz?!
Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I still don't trust the "Most coders can't do FizzBuzz" meme that generally accompanies the flowery you're-a-special-snowflake-talk. Well of course, such talk misses the point. A "Coder" who can't do Fizzbuzz isn't a coder, or a programmer, or a hacker, or a computer scientist. It's a negative test, if you can't do it, then your not ready for a real programming gig yet. From http://imranontech.com/2007/01/24/using-…
Referencing Jeff Atwood's post: How is it possible that CS graduates can't do fizzbuzz?!
I would wager a combination of bad curriculum, theory over actual programming, and people who followed the sunk costs fallacy to a career they didn't want.
Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule
#46This type of saccharine feel-good prose irritates to no end. No, chances are you're not the exception to the rule of mediocrity; that's just a matter of statistics. Believing so in absence of hard evidence to the contrary is delusional and won't make things better. Entrepeneurs fail every day. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Don't fall for the cheap words of encouragement. [ADDENDUM: I still don't trust the "Most coders c…
Think about what you spend money on, and the people behind it. They might be making your lunch, bagging your groceries, or mowing your lawn. They are probably mediocre at it, but you pay them anyway. Others will pay you decent money to do a mediocre job, and good money to do a good job, because you are the exception to the rule of being willing and able to do the thing for them at all . Most people who have problem X…
Also, look at corporations in general. A lot of them are inefficient and it seems like a miracle that they can make any money at all. Yet they clear big bucks. If big lumbering TPS-churning corporations can create value, then so can agile me. If someone whose job it is to shuffle papers and write memos can make a large salary, then why shouldn't my command of programming be valuable?
All in all, I think it's better to have the belief "I am worth lots of money" than the opposite.
Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Conversely, I see zero value in this kind of reactionarily pessimistic you're-average-at-everything-and-even-if-you're-good-you'll-probably-fail-anyway stuff that always turns up on any encouraging article. You get zero points for being able to say "See, I was right" when someone fails. Completely aside from that, it's factually wrong; people on this site are quite likely to have skills and resources that the average…
I like to think: "I am not a special snowflake, the sun does not shine out of my ass. But, if I work hard and apply my skills creatively in areas where others aren't it doing it as much, I may well have a shot at something cool. At least, a better shot than if I did nothing today"
This is true. At least give it a try.
But anyways I dont understand why we (in general) are discussing this "motivation thing" so often.
I mean if you are highly motivated and expect to succeed but fail in the end you will be really disappointed.
But same happens if you are aware of the (high?) probability of failing. You will still be aweful disappointed since you started (or continued) your idea and for some reason didn't quit it.
Still I like your post.
BTW: Every snowflake is unique thus special :)
Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule
#48Just go to donwload.com or Apple's appstore and look at the tens of thousands of applications/apps there. All those programmers who created those applications/apps can do FizzBuzz and more. But only a fraction of them make good money from these applications. Making good money from a software product is hard. Yes, go for it, but these kind of motivational posts will be a bit irritating after your first failure.
Many of these apps and tools do not have unique creators - there are devs who churn out apps like crazy, multiple of apps per year. Also, many do not try to make a living off of this - go figure, how much can you possibly earn with a top-10% mobile app? How long will earnings last? Seems more like a lottery to me. The article's writer means SaaS products, and I doubt that your chances of financial success are nearly as high with mobile apps you put in stores.
Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule
#49This type of saccharine feel-good prose irritates to no end. No, chances are you're not the exception to the rule of mediocrity; that's just a matter of statistics. Believing so in absence of hard evidence to the contrary is delusional and won't make things better. Entrepeneurs fail every day. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Don't fall for the cheap words of encouragement. [ADDENDUM: I still don't trust the "Most coders c…
In some ways, software is like law (or accounting) - why do we pay lawyers so much money, even though in many cases we can simply file the paperwork ourselves? Why do we pay someone else to file our taxes, while we can do it ourselves? Being a "decent lawyer" is a very valuable skill, so is being a "decent programmer" or "decent anything". Just because something is not difficult to do, doesn't mean people would actua…
> In some ways, software is like law (or accounting) - why do we pay lawyers so much money, even though in many cases we can simply file the paperwork ourselves?
This is because the simple case (ie, everything goes well) for both programming and most law (leave aside liitgation) are usually straightforward.
The problem comes in exception handling. This is the 80/20 pareto split (80% of labor done on 20% of scope) - at this point, even a good lawyer/programmer may have difficulties getting things to work properly.
Re: You Are the Exception to the Rule
#50I've seen SEVERAL times that "most programmers can't solve fizzbuzz." I did this after just a few months of learning python, on paper no less (Ok, i had one if/elif statement in the wrong spot. a quick run of the script in the command line showed me it didn't work how I thought it should and I fixed it).
But are there any DATA that corroborate this largely anecdotal statement? I figure, it has to be much less prevalent than these statements. (Or if it isn't, I better get my ass in gear and really learn to program so I can make the big bucks).