Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#131

Post by MattDemers » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:11 AM UTC

flutas wrote: post #125

an Android watchface creator app... I regret building it, but not for any ethical reasons, except for maybe that it's become nothing but corporate ads. My real reason for regret is just the entire process that happened after it became successful. It took off and was over 50k DAUs ~5 months after I launched it. I tried supporting it the best I could, and had aspirations for the future of it, but I was young and dumb.…

Hey man, I know this might seem patronizing, but I'm proud of you for recognizing what happened and why, and I hope you can give yourself some compassion (especially because well, you were young. It happens).

You've learned from it, and it shouldn't be a continued weight on your shoulders. You did nothing wrong.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#132

Post by mkeeter » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:12 AM UTC

vlovich123 wrote: post #113

LVB wrote: post #101

Early in my career (late 90s) I worked at a big company that just loved getting patents, had a big patent wall and did plaque presentations, etc. I got swept up in this and patented some "novel" (:eyeroll:) uses of a device that a partner/supplier made. Yay... I got a plaque and a few bucks, but Big Corp was never going to commercialize these uses, that was clear. They just wanted to run up the patent count. But the…

Pretty sure it’s Qualcomm. Not familiar with any other companies that were so proud of their parents to build a wall to them

It's pretty common – I've seen a wall o' patents in at least two (non-Qualcomm) offices!

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#133

Post by TheAceOfHearts » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:13 AM UTC

I wrote a web tracker that was oversized and inefficient, which got deployed to a lot of websites. At the time I lacked the necessary experience or guidance to do better. It should've been much smaller with a drastically reduced network footprint. At the scale it was deployed every byte counts.

I still feel really bad about this. Sorry.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#134

Post by cipherboy » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:14 AM UTC

vlovich123 wrote: post #113

LVB wrote: post #101

Early in my career (late 90s) I worked at a big company that just loved getting patents, had a big patent wall and did plaque presentations, etc. I got swept up in this and patented some "novel" (:eyeroll:) uses of a device that a partner/supplier made. Yay... I got a plaque and a few bucks, but Big Corp was never going to commercialize these uses, that was clear. They just wanted to run up the patent count. But the…

Pretty sure it’s Qualcomm. Not familiar with any other companies that were so proud of their parents to build a wall to them

IBM has done this as well.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#135

Post by flutas » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:14 AM UTC

MattDemers wrote: post #131

flutas wrote: post #125

an Android watchface creator app... I regret building it, but not for any ethical reasons, except for maybe that it's become nothing but corporate ads. My real reason for regret is just the entire process that happened after it became successful. It took off and was over 50k DAUs ~5 months after I launched it. I tried supporting it the best I could, and had aspirations for the future of it, but I was young and dumb.…

Hey man, I know this might seem patronizing, but I'm proud of you for recognizing what happened and why, and I hope you can give yourself some compassion (especially because well, you were young. It happens). You've learned from it, and it shouldn't be a continued weight on your shoulders. You did nothing wrong.

Nah, not patronizing at all imo.

I look back at it like I assume a lot of people would if they got scammed out of money. You gotta learn from mistakes in the past, and I think that combined with some other issues soon after it have led me to be a lot more thoughtful with large impact decisions.

It had some good upsides, like the fact it launched me into my SWE career ahead of schedule (i.e. No college degree). But that comes with it's own issues, like companies just flat rejecting me due to it.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#136

Post by curious_cat_163 » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:15 AM UTC

_8j50 wrote: post #104

zinodaur wrote: post #69

I worked for a company that made deep packet inspection based network equipment. Western customers mostly used it for "security" and media streaming man in the middle attacks (actually a useful feature saving lots of bandwidth). The boxes were also sold to Syria and Burma, and were used to facilitate censorship and human right abuses

Ultimately you are like a kitchen knive maker whose knive was used in a stabbing. It was entirely the stabbers fault and does not diminish the utility of your product. In a corporate setting, mitm'ing TLS and blocking sites by category is routine practice (better ways to stop bad stuff but expensive firewals are a waste when most traffic is TLS).

That’s how it is justified. However, there are always moral implications of the work one does.

Sometimes, the moral calculus is done only retrospectively and that’s when it really becomes problematic.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#137

Post by dehrmann » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:16 AM UTC

givemeethekeys wrote: post #90

I know a couple of engineers who built soccer stadiums in Iraq during the 80's. Those stadiums were also used for other purposes later on.

It's one thing to say "guns don't kill people, people kill people" to ease your conscious. It's another to worry about how someone will use a soccer stadium.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#138

Post by mangamadaiyan » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:16 AM UTC

vlovich123 wrote: post #113

LVB wrote: post #101

Early in my career (late 90s) I worked at a big company that just loved getting patents, had a big patent wall and did plaque presentations, etc. I got swept up in this and patented some "novel" (:eyeroll:) uses of a device that a partner/supplier made. Yay... I got a plaque and a few bucks, but Big Corp was never going to commercialize these uses, that was clear. They just wanted to run up the patent count. But the…

Pretty sure it’s Qualcomm. Not familiar with any other companies that were so proud of their parents to build a wall to them

Patent walls were (are?) a patent feature of many BigCorps. I've seen at least three, and none of them were QualComm.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#139

Post by gnat » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:17 AM UTC

leidenfrost wrote: post #111

TeMPOraL wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this realization in stages. 1. Almost all software can be abused or co-opted for surveillance purposes. 2. Some software comes already designed for surveillance purposes up front . 2a. This includes plenty of well-known mass appeal software; importantly, the customer-facing marketing copy and the investor pitch can present a completely different value proposition. 3. Software doesn't become used for surveillanc…

Thing is, when the company that pays you actively wants to track everyone, there's little you can do as the person that creates tech form them. If the piece of software you created is unbiased and unopinionated, it can be used for evil purposes. If you make the software deliberatedly against that, you have to (a) take measures without the company knowing (b) have the manpower to do it alone while still reaching devel…

"Thing is, when the company that pays you actively wants to track everyone, there's little you can do as the person that creates tech form them."

You can quit. Literally, there is something you can do. If your boss asks you to write or adapt something to surveil, then you can quit.

There may be consequences to quitting, perhaps disproportionately felt between you and the company, perhaps consequences that you won't enjoy as much as your current job stability and paycheck, but the choice is always there.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#140

Post by DavidPeiffer » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:17 AM UTC

vlovich123 wrote: post #113

LVB wrote: post #101

Early in my career (late 90s) I worked at a big company that just loved getting patents, had a big patent wall and did plaque presentations, etc. I got swept up in this and patented some "novel" (:eyeroll:) uses of a device that a partner/supplier made. Yay... I got a plaque and a few bucks, but Big Corp was never going to commercialize these uses, that was clear. They just wanted to run up the patent count. But the…

Pretty sure it’s Qualcomm. Not familiar with any other companies that were so proud of their parents to build a wall to them

There are certainly others. Micron has a patent wall. For a period of time under CEO Steve Appleton, meetings with engineers were prohibited [Fridays or half of Friday?] because the engineers should be working on parents during that time.

My understanding is their strong patent portfolio was a good part of why they are still around after the massive consolidation of DRAM manufacturers through the 80's and 90's.