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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

#31

Post by zasz »

jacquesm wrote: post #9
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…

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…

Oh, come ON. You wrote this essay specifically to be encouraging. Somebody responded saying they felt discouraged. You failed, and you're getting feedback. You have something to fix if you want to encourage people. Stop being so defensive.

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#32

Post by falcolas »

varjag wrote: post #23
falcolas wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I did. Two points - he was 20 at the time, and so likely had few health concerns, and no dependents.

Perhaps I'm just associating too much risk with this kind of move, but I don't think so.

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#33

Post by alain94040 »

pramanat wrote: post #7

"If a high school drop-out with nothing but a typing diploma could do it, so can you." I want to believe it, but not necessarily true. We all have different abilities. The author is very talented and has acquired (and/or was born with) the ability to do business. On the other hand, there is no way of really knowing, unless you try.

You are right, that sentence should have said: "If a high school drop-out with nothing but a typing diploma could do it, you can at least try too."

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#34

Post by gord »

jacquesm wrote: post #9
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…

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…

I remember writing a bit of assembler in A86 shareware on an 8086 machine with 640k RAM, 20Gb disk. One day I discovered it had a Hercules graphics card. Another day I found a book on TSR programs. Later came turbo C & turbo pascal, which I appreciated all the more after some lower level experimenting.

What I do find remarkable is that you started a company by 22... I would have loved to have done that but maybe just didn't believe it was possible at the time.

Am enjoying reading HandBook Freemium.

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#35

Post by hacker-gene »

jacquesm wrote: post #9
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…

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…

The story was impressive, more so because you have high credibility in HN community. But inspiring? perhaps. I'm your usual hoi polloi tech support/sysad worker, it took me ages to to get comfortable in programming. To hear someone learn and did the things you did as young man was more of a case of an exceptional programmer narrative against all odds. Perhaps if you glossed over the age-factored accomplishment (it did jumped out at you) it would been more accessible and more life-lesson like, and the hard work you've put in would have been more pronounced. As it is, your life story was impressive and you were exceptional.

Great post and more power!

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#36

Post by kevinskii »

edw519 wrote: post #21
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 fi…

Have your businesses been successful? Either way, hats off to you!

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#37

Post by bmelton »

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 feel your comment, and I identify 1 million percent.

If you look around, you'll find plenty of average Joes who luck themselves into millions. Plenty of mediocre projects that you know you can better. Myspace, Plenty of Fish, Experts Exchange, etc. They're not all destined for failure, but they've all been mediocre products that were still able to generate tons of revenue.

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#38

Post by grellas »

Few can or should start their own companies but, for one who is bright, alert, and enterprising, no barrier is too great that it can't be blasted through by sheer drive, determination, and tenacity. We can listen to the world around us, with all its adhering to conventions, or to our inner voice, which dares to dream beyond such limits and to push us to try for extraordinary outcomes even at great personal risk. That is the message of this fine piece, and it is inspirational. It is also credible because it comes from one who has lived it out in his own extraordinary way.

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#39

Post by didip »

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 am not saying that photomatt is talentless hack, not at all, but he is quite normal.

Needless to say, i look up to him.

Re: Your own company? You can do it

#40

Post by GeneralMaximus »

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…

You can't have it easier than assembler.

On x86, for example, you've got a couple of registers and a bunch of instructions that operate on them. Adding two numbers goes something like:

  mov eax,23
  mov ebx,42
  add eax,ebx
That's easier to reason about than what Python/Ruby/Whatever is doing behind the scenes when you do "23 + 42". In Python, for example, that expression is syntax sugar for 23.__add__(42). Both 23 and 42 are objects. How do they come into existence? How is the __add__ method looked up? How is it called? Where are these objects stored? How do they get cleaned up?

Assembly is not hard. It's just tedious. I'd rather do "23+42" and have the Python interpreter spit out the result than move numbers into registers, add them, and then figure out how to call C's printf from asm so I can see nicely formatted results.

PS: the best way to learn asm is to read GCC output in Intel syntax. The worst way to learn asm is to read GCC output in AT&T syntax.

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