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Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

gavinray97.github.io

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Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#181

Post by senectus1 »

mapassthebeans wrote: post #148

Had similarly unorthodox path to tech, albeit without the drug addiction or prison. 90s early internet/BBS punk rocker/computer nerd. Hated school angry. Dropped out to work as a bike messenger for 5 years before packing a bag and moving west randomly. Couldn't sit still. Rode freight trains around the country for a few months. Washed dishes and landscaped to cover my cheap rent till that fell thru. Discovered shop l…

I'm a Tradesman Baker (4 year apprenticeship and a 12 month pre-apprenticeship), that about 2 years after being a fully qualified tradesman switched to IT and have been in the industry for about 28 years. I suspect it will be my last porfession

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#182

Post by senectus1 »

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #48
rileytg wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sorry if i’m missing something… what does this have to do with his story other than addiction and felony? (fwiw i agree regardless, don’t get a motorcycle, lost too many friends to accidents or the following addiction)

The wrecklessness which brings some people into prison, is what brings them & others lusting towards motorcycle culture, often shortly upon release. Something something something anti-social something. I'm just offering real-world advice after witnessing all the broken bones and jerked roadrash upon this tattoo'd convict's broken body. Shouldn't be alive.

yeah I think you have PTSD from your friends accident.

Not all bike owners and riders have a shady history or risk taking behavior (aside from riding a motrobike).

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#183

Post by embedding-shape »

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #166
embedding-shape wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I've seen what happens when pedestrians get hit by a car going way too fast, it sucks, and is horrible, but also besides the point. Not to say one has worse/better accidents, motorcycles accidents obviously has a much higher fatality and serious injuries risk, hard to deny.

>but also besides the point. Hard disagree. Both pedestrians and motorcyclists are raw to the elements , entirely. At least when on roadways an automobile provides a chassis/rollcage.

You disagree with me agreeing with what you just wrote about it being more dangerous to go with motorcycles?

The "besides the point" is that the point I was raising was how common motorcycles are, globally. Is that what you're disagreeing with?

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#184

Post by embedding-shape »

estearum wrote: post #145
embedding-shape wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a risky activity, yes, but lets not forget metropolitan areas in other countries are shock filled with motorcycles and most people live their entire life without being involved in any majorly serious accidents.

You mean scooters traveling E.g. the most common motorcycle in Vietnam is the 110cc Honda Wave with a top speed under ideal conditions of ~60mph. It literally would not be called a motorcycle in the US.

No, I'm talking about motorcycles traveling ~50mph surrounded by other motorcycles, cars, trucks and whatever else goes on around and in metropolitan areas, even in countries in Europe.

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#185

Post by [deleted] »

klibertp wrote: post #120
newaccountman2 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A fairly large % of those people--I would wager most, personally--would probably rather have cars, but can't afford to.

Probably depends on the locale. In Europe, riding a moped in a big city is a way to drastically cut your commute compared to driving a car. It's not exactly dangerous when all the other road users are moving at 5m/min, and being able to just skip all the traffic jams is a godsend. By car, my trip to the office was about 45min - it was 15min on a moped, a stop at a shop for some snacks included. And that's with riding…

[deleted]

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#187

Post by trumpdong »

zuzululu wrote: post #179
trumpdong wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why'd people downvote this? The minimum you need to be doing is pasting role descriptions and your résumé into ChatGPT and asking: should I hire this person? Because that's what every company's HR department is doing (automatically) and if the answer is no, then you may as well not bother sending the application. Or you could tweak it until it says yes.

I think earlier there were few HN users who didn't like my opinions on another thread, came here to flag and downvote my comments and leave rather mean replies all over my profile. I don't think much of it and I forgive people who do it. Or maybe there really are people who think its okay to use AI to hire/filter candidates but not when candidates use AI to optimize to get around that screen. Using AI, I've been able…

How did you do that? I don't get many interviews even after making sure AI likes my resume.

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#188

Post by kbenson »

bagels wrote: post #176
whatever1 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking In retrospect, if you were a policy maker today how would you try to prevent the new generation for having to go through this (today your path likely would not be viable due to fentanyl).

Did he have to? Some of that sounds like choices, especially in the start.

Almost everything is a choice. The difference is that sometimes you're making a rational one and sometimes you only think you're making a rational one and to outsiders and in retrospect it obviously wasn't the best choice, or event a good choice.

There are two aspects to the type of question that was asked. How do you prevent people from ha I g to make choices which are rational and good for their options but still really bad overall, and how do you convinve/educate people about available options they weren't aware of so they don't make outright bad choices when better ones are available that they are unaware of.

There are many possible answers to "why did you take off to the west and ride trains and sleep in parks and steak to feed yourself", but most of them aren't "well I just felt like leaving my entirely stable, loving and supportive friends and family." What to an outsider seems like a poor choice to a specific person imight seem like the decision that saved their life, even in retrospect.

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#190

Post by gerdesj »

firesteelrain wrote: post #154
gavinray wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The job market is rough. My wife went back to school for audio/sound design, finished the program + got a bunch of certifications. She's been trying to get anything, even an unpaid internship, doing sound design, going to local meetups, online conferences, and hasn't had much luck. But I told her: it's just a matter of persistence and time. If you're agreeable to be around, passionate about something, and just show u…

I applied to 100+ places in 2005. Took a job an hour from home for a year and half. Eventually found something closer to home. You take what you can find at the time until you find where you want to be

I'm from the UK and another age 8)

I applied for about 50+ jobs as a graduate engineer in 1991. Back then you wrote letters. Hmmm: You printed letters - mail merge was a thing.

You signed each one by hand, with a quill pen and used a wax seal and cast a Spell of Engagement.

OK, you signed your covering letter with a pen (might be a Biro but I did use a Parker and Quink, myself) You also had to put your covering letter and curriculum vitae (CV == resume) in an envelope and pop a stamp on it (2nd class) and post it. None of that Linked In bollocks.

Your covering letter would be bespoke to the company approached. You did some research and mentioned something pertinent.

Nowadays I'm the employer.

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