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Ask HN: Haven't worked for a while, best guide/advice to start a hobby project?

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Re: Ask HN: Haven't worked for a while, best guide/advice to start a hobby project?

#131

Post by lolinder »

asiachick wrote: post #77
asiachick wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the problem i have with this approach is it's reinventing the wheel. continuous integration, testing infra, rolling upgrades, deployment, logging, analytics on that logging, should all get solved problems I get out of the box in 2019

not surprised on the downvotes. Many devs will choose reinventing the wheel over using existing solutions. Their competitors will be on to release 7.9 while they're still trying to figure out how to ship version 0.2 without losing all the data from 0.1 Batteries included systems are a force multiplier. Engineers like writing code more than shipping. Go to any game jam and watch the teams using Unreal or Unity. Their…

OP isn't trying to win a competition, it sounds like they're trying to learn to be a better developer. I know way too many devs (and have been one myself) who can use a batteries-included system until something goes wrong, but because they have no idea how such a system is constructed they can't debug it, or they don't understand why something isn't performing well.

It goes with the adage that every developer should implement a linked list exactly once—you should use the standard library from then on, but if you don't understand what's going on under the hood, you'll misuse it eventually.

Re: Ask HN: Haven't worked for a while, best guide/advice to start a hobby project?

#132

Post by ken »

tqwhite wrote: post #119

In my city, the programming unemployment rate is, like, 2%. If you haven't worked for awhile, it's because of your job hunting skills, not your tech stack. So, if having a job is reason you ask this, my answer is: read some books about job hunting. Don't worry about programming right now. But, and I think, more importantly, you are taking this way too seriously. Programming is fun. Write something fun. Me? I think No…

I don't agree with this advice. Why do I need to be inspired by what people are already doing? Someone is already doing that. We don't need more. Fred Rogers said "I went into television because I hated it so". I can't think of a better reason to enter a field.

Pick your favorite language and do some exercises. If you aren't inspired after a week of doing that, create your own language! All of the languages we have today still suck.

Read GitHub. If you aren't inspired after a week concentrating on the things other people do, pick something more worthwhile! Those things are only being done because someone chose to do them. They have no more right to direct the future of computation than you or anyone else.

Give me more programmers who didn't get here by the traditional path. I want the next generation of software from people like Alan Kay, Larry Wall, Bill Atkinson, and Tim Berners-Lee.

Re: Ask HN: Haven't worked for a while, best guide/advice to start a hobby project?

#133

Post by mam2 »

HAL9OOO wrote: post #50

Thanks for all the replies guys! It's going to take me a while to read through all of them and process them. I guess this is the benefit of having eyes looking at your post on Christmas Eve, people feel like helping :). Happy Holidays Everyone~ /\ \/ /\ / \ /++++\ / () \ / \ /~`~`~`~`\ / () () \ / \ /*&*&*&*&*&*&\ / () () () \ / \ /++++++++++++++++\ / () () () () \ / \ /~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`\ / () () () () () \ | | |`…

Just get a random swe job and see how it goes. Worst case you get fired.

Also find a team of nice people like you.

Re: Ask HN: Haven't worked for a while, best guide/advice to start a hobby project?

#135

Post by HAL9OOO »

stankot wrote: post #83

There are a couple of good comments, so I won't repeat what they said. Find something you are actually passionate about. It doesn't have to be a big thing. You shouldn't care if it is a cool thing, or what other people think of it. When I'm interviewing, I love when people showcase stuff they enjoyed building, rather than something bigger they made following a tutorial. Here is an example of a really small project I…

Thanks man! I'm thinking about writing a few blog posts too, even if no one reads it I think it would be a motivator for me. I'll definitely post my projects on here when they get to an alpha state :)

Re: Ask HN: Haven't worked for a while, best guide/advice to start a hobby project?

#136

Post by TrevorFSmith »

iudqnolq wrote: post #16
TrevorFSmith wrote: post #9

Instead of starting on your own, maybe look for an open source project that you find useful and seems well maintained with an active community. Then see if they have marked any of their bugs or issues as good for new devs. You'll learn about the (sometimes terrible) group dynamics of software teams, you won't have to start a project from scratch, and you'll be exposed to the tools and code patterns in use today.

Can you expand more on how to go about learning to understand a large open source codebase for the first time?

Usually it's best to pick up one of the "good for new people" bugs and then work your way out from there, eventually reading (or at least skimming) most of the code and understanding the build tools.

Re: Ask HN: Haven't worked for a while, best guide/advice to start a hobby project?

#137

Post by iudqnolq »

TrevorFSmith wrote: post #136
iudqnolq wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand more on how to go about learning to understand a large open source codebase for the first time?

Usually it's best to pick up one of the "good for new people" bugs and then work your way out from there, eventually reading (or at least skimming) most of the code and understanding the build tools.

I really want to get started contributing to Rust, and they have well documented good for newb bugs. Still very intimidated because I've never worked with a codebase I couldn't read all of in a sitting before. Any suggestions?

Re: Ask HN: Haven't worked for a while, best guide/advice to start a hobby project?

#138

Post by navraj112 »

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Re: Ask HN: Haven't worked for a while, best guide/advice to start a hobby project?

#139

Post by steveklabnik »

iudqnolq wrote: post #137
TrevorFSmith wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually it's best to pick up one of the "good for new people" bugs and then work your way out from there, eventually reading (or at least skimming) most of the code and understanding the build tools.

I really want to get started contributing to Rust, and they have well documented good for newb bugs. Still very intimidated because I've never worked with a codebase I couldn't read all of in a sitting before. Any suggestions?

You might enjoy https://rust-lang.github.io/rustc-guide/

But seriously, the team is very happy to onboard new people, don't worry about it. I know it's not that easy to just stop worrying, but it's not a big deal at all. The compiler team is happy to help.

Re: Ask HN: Haven't worked for a while, best guide/advice to start a hobby project?

#140

Post by iudqnolq »

steveklabnik wrote: post #139
iudqnolq wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really want to get started contributing to Rust, and they have well documented good for newb bugs. Still very intimidated because I've never worked with a codebase I couldn't read all of in a sitting before. Any suggestions?

You might enjoy https://rust-lang.github.io/rustc-guide/ But seriously, the team is very happy to onboard new people, don't worry about it. I know it's not that easy to just stop worrying, but it's not a big deal at all. The compiler team is happy to help.

Awesome! I've been lurking on Zulip, and everyone seems so nice. Should probably just ask...
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