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Your own company? You can do it

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Your own company? You can do it

#21

Post by edw519 »

maxklein wrote: post #4

You know what - actually the story does not make me feel like I can do it. It makes me feel like he's probably hundreds of time cleverer than me. He was handrolling assembler as a teen - back then I was doing VB6. All these programmer stories about how they developed OS kernels in x86 MMX extensions when they were 4 years old on Sinclair machines while skipping 4 grades and making hundreds selling lemonade never make…

I want to hear about the talentless hack...

Not sure I qualify, but here goes:

  Teen years - flipped burgers & partied
  Age 21 - graduated college, flipped burgers, & partied
  Age 24 - touched my first computer
  Age 25 - wrote my first program
  Age 27 - touched my first PC
  Age 31 - wrote my first low level code
  Age 32 - started my first business
  Age 39 - started my second business
  Age 41 - accessed the internet for the first time
  Age 44 - wrote my first browser-based app
  Age 51 - found Hacker News
  Now    - starting my third business
It's never too late, you're never too old, and it's not whether the glass is half full or half empty.

It's about getting up off your butt and filling the glass the rest of the way.

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#23

Post by varjag »

falcolas wrote: post #18
maxklein wrote: post #4

You know what - actually the story does not make me feel like I can do it. It makes me feel like he's probably hundreds of time cleverer than me. He was handrolling assembler as a teen - back then I was doing VB6. All these programmer stories about how they developed OS kernels in x86 MMX extensions when they were 4 years old on Sinclair machines while skipping 4 grades and making hundreds selling lemonade never make…

While this story is uplifting, it's a lot more about being in the right place at the right time. I'd personally rather see a story about a 30-something under-appreciated corporate developer who is supporting a family with their mid-level salary and benefits striking out and succeeding. I, and many others, are beyond the point where they can strike out and fund a startup, and who simply can not survive on a raman sala…

> While this story is uplifting, it's a lot more about being in the right place at the right time.

You read the part where he applied for the programming jobs in his bank department for 2-something years, right?

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#24

Post by hjalle »

swombat wrote: post #2

Best read along with http://jacquesmattheij.com/The+start-up+from+hell as the next chapter ;-)

Kind of funny and inspiring to read these kind of stories with a "one man army"-developer although this story was an experience I hope I never will get.

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#25

Post by ra88it »

TheSOB88 wrote: post #17
jacquesm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The temptation of seeing this depressing bullshit upvoted is too much to resist. > You know what - actually the story does not make me feel like I can do it. It makes me feel like he's probably hundreds of time cleverer than me. I'm not, it was just hard work. Lots of it. I suck at math and plenty of other subjects that would come in quite handy as a programmer, probably I'm very much unsuited to the job based on my…

So you came back to argue with what you basically sum up as a troll? How a story makes you feel is probably the most important part of it. And I agree with Max: I feel disconnected from the person who says they were hacking awesome crap back when they were 16. I feel even more so because I almost had that opportunity - I learned Basic on my uncle's old C64 when I was 8! I wanted compilers so bad, I read C++ Windows A…

Agreed. I mean, here's the description of his first attempt at helping somebody with a computing problem:

I looked at their code for a bit, saw that it was hopelessly inefficient and hand-assembled a much faster version using a look-up table and a bit mask instead of a bunch of math to figure out where in memory to dump the data from the converter.

I feel exactly the same way as parent and grandparent when I read stories like this.

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#26

Post by athom »

maxklein wrote: post #4

You know what - actually the story does not make me feel like I can do it. It makes me feel like he's probably hundreds of time cleverer than me. He was handrolling assembler as a teen - back then I was doing VB6. All these programmer stories about how they developed OS kernels in x86 MMX extensions when they were 4 years old on Sinclair machines while skipping 4 grades and making hundreds selling lemonade never make…

Read a little closer.

Start with the beginning: "When I was 17 and a high school drop-out..."

followed by the (near) ending: "I was 22 at the time and making roughly twice what she was..."

So there's about five years in between the high school dropout and twice his mom's income stages. Success, but not what I'd call overnight. In between, we have...

   - "Burning the midnight oil..."

   - "...I got turned down again and again and again."

   - "After 18 months of me beating down the doors of the HR department..."

   - "Another 9 months and I got a call."

   - "...apply for *every* programming job in the last 2 1/2 years"
and so it goes for a little more.

I have to say, I leaned a little more in Max' direction when I first read it, but give it a little thought, and the real message is, don't give up hope! Getting and running your own company isn't going to be easy. You'd be crazy to think it is! BUT, if you're willing to work your ass off for it, you can get there.

Even if it takes five years.

Hell, it could take ten, or even longer, but if that's enough to stop you, it'll probably take forever, so why worry?

As for the talentless hack, you might want to look a little closer at his story, too. He might not be so talentless, himself. The guy you describe apparently knows enough to:

   - Program (even if it IS VB6)

   - Reimplement existing software(?)
       (Not so easy to do without the source, and if he *had* it, then he could...)

   - Read other people's code (which could be even harder?!)

   - Talk someone in the right position at a big company into investing in it
       (and as if that weren't hard enough...)

   - Talk said someone into investing *a lot* of money in it!
On top of all that, if a kid that talented spent most of his teen years reading science fiction and watching movies, I'd be very disappointed to learn he didn't at least try writing a little of either. You practically have to try, when you've got that kind of initiative.

So, yeah, you can do it. You'll have to work your ass off. You'll have to keep your eyes open, and you'll probably need a boatload of patience.

But don't let that stop you.

[edited for formatting]

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#27

Post by athom »

khafra wrote: post #8
maxklein wrote: post #4

You know what - actually the story does not make me feel like I can do it. It makes me feel like he's probably hundreds of time cleverer than me. He was handrolling assembler as a teen - back then I was doing VB6. All these programmer stories about how they developed OS kernels in x86 MMX extensions when they were 4 years old on Sinclair machines while skipping 4 grades and making hundreds selling lemonade never make…

Agreed. Additional parts that I can't see myself doing: - Finding guys doing cutting-edge work like eye tracking software in the 80s - Convincing those guys to invite me into their workshop and look at their code - Glancing over any unfamiliar code--let alone math-heavy code--and making useful optimizations while the author looks over my shoulder. And I find that unimaginable in Python. I can't even imagine consideri…

I was going to comment on the eye-tracking story in my reply to Max, but it really didn't fit there. Anyway:

If you read it, you'll notice that story didn't really lead to much beyond a cool experience impressing a couple of guys who ought to know their stuff. It didn't look like Jacques got much in the way of referrals or anything out of it.

It also didn't sound like they took much convincing. If anything, they were probably pleased as punch to show off their cool project to someone interested enough to ask about it.

As for unfamiliar code, you can probably find a terabyte of it online, and most of it probably has something, somewhere, that could be written a little better, if you want the practice. No, you won't likely have the golden experience of the author watching you work on it, but that could be as much a blessing as a curse (Or is it the other way 'round...?)

If you do want to get involved with people working on cutting-edge technology, your best bet is probably hanging around some university's engineering department. If you're nice about it, and don't get in the way a lot, they might not even chase you out! ;) Seriously, though, just go where they are, and as long as you're not intrusive, you can probably make some connections.

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#28

Post by amalcon »

khafra wrote: post #8
maxklein wrote: post #4

You know what - actually the story does not make me feel like I can do it. It makes me feel like he's probably hundreds of time cleverer than me. He was handrolling assembler as a teen - back then I was doing VB6. All these programmer stories about how they developed OS kernels in x86 MMX extensions when they were 4 years old on Sinclair machines while skipping 4 grades and making hundreds selling lemonade never make…

Agreed. Additional parts that I can't see myself doing: - Finding guys doing cutting-edge work like eye tracking software in the 80s - Convincing those guys to invite me into their workshop and look at their code - Glancing over any unfamiliar code--let alone math-heavy code--and making useful optimizations while the author looks over my shoulder. And I find that unimaginable in Python. I can't even imagine consideri…

Optimization is actually easier in assembler than it is in Python. Fewer moving parts.

Your compiler is almost certainly better at optimization than you are, though. This was just not always true, nor was it always true that you could even get a compiler.

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#29

Post by tardis »

athom wrote: post #27
khafra wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Additional parts that I can't see myself doing: - Finding guys doing cutting-edge work like eye tracking software in the 80s - Convincing those guys to invite me into their workshop and look at their code - Glancing over any unfamiliar code--let alone math-heavy code--and making useful optimizations while the author looks over my shoulder. And I find that unimaginable in Python. I can't even imagine consideri…

I was going to comment on the eye-tracking story in my reply to Max, but it really didn't fit there. Anyway: If you read it, you'll notice that story didn't really lead to much beyond a cool experience impressing a couple of guys who ought to know their stuff. It didn't look like Jacques got much in the way of referrals or anything out of it. It also didn't sound like they took much convincing. If anything, they were…

I have to second that comment about them being "probably pleased as punch to show off their cool project to someone interested enough to ask about it."

I've been invited to some cutting-edge work just because I asked and showed a bit of interest. Almost all of the researchers I've met were more than happy to talk about their work and seem surprise even to have someone as enthusiastic about their work as them.

One researcher once said something along the lines that it was comforting to have someone contact him about his research - at least he knows his work didn't just disappear in the deep end.

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#30

Post by chc »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #19
jacquesm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The temptation of seeing this depressing bullshit upvoted is too much to resist. > You know what - actually the story does not make me feel like I can do it. It makes me feel like he's probably hundreds of time cleverer than me. I'm not, it was just hard work. Lots of it. I suck at math and plenty of other subjects that would come in quite handy as a programmer, probably I'm very much unsuited to the job based on my…

It's like that wise tigerblood celebrity once said - "Can't is the cancer of happen." We need less bi-polar, and more bi-winning up in here.

I don't want to sound prudish, but can we please leave the pop-culture jokes at the expense of the mentally ill to other sites?
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