This was submitted here from his blog a bit ago. Dupe? Too busy to find the original sub.
My First Customer Is Now Dead
11–19 of 19 posts
Re: My First Customer Is Now Dead
#12I thought of the girl who worked in his office who had the huge scar down one side of her face. I thought of how I loved her and wanted to lick her scar The only appropriate response is: wut? But in all seriousness this story is lacking some good storytelling and any teaching (besides perl being a good programming language to create websites in 1997).
I thought it was fine storytelling, for what it was. I don't think I would want the whole front page full of stories like this, but I found it oddly refreshing to read a story on Hacker News that wasn't trying to teach or promote anything.
Re: My First Customer Is Now Dead
#13I read this, and then wondered why it managed to get on the front page on HN. Just because it mentions perl and C++?
Forget HN, the question is how it managed to get on the front page of anything. What's the significance of his first customer dying? If there was a point in this story, I completely missed it.
Re: My First Customer Is Now Dead
#14I'm a big fan of James Altucher. His concept of building your "idea muscle" by writing down a page of random ideas everyday has dramatically improved my life.
Two of my favorite posts by him
How I screwed Yasser Arafat out of 2 million dollars and lost 100 million in the process
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/01/how-i-screwed-yasser-ar...
How to be the luckiest guy on the planet in 4 easy steps
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/how-to-be-the-luckiest-...
Re: My First Customer Is Now Dead
#15I thought of the girl who worked in his office who had the huge scar down one side of her face. I thought of how I loved her and wanted to lick her scar The only appropriate response is: wut? But in all seriousness this story is lacking some good storytelling and any teaching (besides perl being a good programming language to create websites in 1997).
I thought it was fine storytelling, for what it was. I don't think I would want the whole front page full of stories like this, but I found it oddly refreshing to read a story on Hacker News that wasn't trying to teach or promote anything.
A story needs to submerge the reader in the story and emotions in the life of the protagonist; it needs to flow to grab the reader and good grammar is also a must. This is an example of a story not flowing (plus some grammar mistakes):
We delivered to Shlomo. He couldn’t believe how fast we did it. He couldn’t believe we also did the GIA certificates the way we did. He paid us in cash — $35,000. I took, $17,500. He gave us more work.
Re: My First Customer Is Now Dead
#16I read this, and then wondered why it managed to get on the front page on HN. Just because it mentions perl and C++?
Forget HN, the question is how it managed to get on the front page of anything. What's the significance of his first customer dying? If there was a point in this story, I completely missed it.
To me, it's a story about getting old. Has anyone you worked with died?
Re: My First Customer Is Now Dead
#17My only reaction is, WTF?
First, terribly edited. The paragraph in the middle starting "My room in Astoria had one foam mattress in it..." apparently should come after the very first paragraph.
Second, there is no point to the entire article. It's an interesting anecdote if you knew Altucher and he was just sharing a story over dinner, but as a TechCrunch home page article??
Third, it's a random collection of nonsense. What does renting a hotel room for a year for 37k in cash have to do with anything? He says "Shlomo" always hated him, but the story he gave before does not jibe with this at all - in fact, he makes it seem he loved him before. Then he reveals that he lost the guy a million bucks, at which point they no longer spoke - but that presumably he hated him before that, too.
And the conclusion? Don't get me started. I don't even know what to think: I thought of the girl who worked in his office who had the huge scar down one side of her face. I thought of how I loved her and wanted to lick her scar and be the only one to tell her how beautiful she was. Shlomo’s dead. I am still alive.
Again, WTF? It comes across like the ramblings of a madman. I would honestly not be surprised to learn the author has some form of mental illness.
Re: My First Customer Is Now Dead
#18I'm a big fan of James Altucher. His concept of building your "idea muscle" by writing down a page of random ideas everyday has dramatically improved my life. Two of my favorite posts by him How I screwed Yasser Arafat out of 2 million dollars and lost 100 million in the process http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/01/how-i-screwed-yasser-ar... How to be the luckiest guy on the planet in 4 easy steps http://www.jamesalt…
Same. It took awhile to build up consistency, but building the idea muscle and establishing a daily practice is having a big impact on me. "How to be the luckiest guy on the planet" is my favorite as well.
Re: My First Customer Is Now Dead
#19Huh, I guess these comments reinforce just how diverse opinions can get-- I really enjoyed both the style and content of the story and it didn't occur to me that anyone wouldn't.