If not for an HN "Who's hiring" post I'd probably still have my safe job writing internal apps for an insurance company in Albuquerque; instead I'm back living in beautiful San Diego (my favorite city) and I get to see the ocean every day on my drive to my current awesome job. So add me to the list of people for whom HN changed their life. :)
How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life
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Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life
#32I think the best reminder here is that it's tempting to "Show HN" your project's App Store homepage. But like his Bullseye Factory submission, you're going to get a couple comments at best.
Write about your hacking experiences, what you learned, and how others can avoid your mistakes and you'll have much more luck.
Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life
#33I'll jump on this too; thanks a lot for this post because one line really changed my outlook on something that I am working on:
"Everyone knows that the last 20% takes 80% of the effort."
I guess I'm outside of "everyone" because that line is really going to make a difference for me. :)
Reading HN has changed my life as well - college student in the Appalachians and I get so little exposure to startup culture in my business education. I can sit in class all day and feel uninspired about corporate strategy, but seeing so many bootstrapped ventures and learning about how to make it all work is what is driving me these days.
As cliche as it may be, I'm developing a real passion for the startup culture and some of the companies I spend all day reading about. Between the app on my iPhone and browsing online, reading HN articles (and perhaps more importantly, the comments) is contributing to the best hours of learning I get all day.
Six months ago, I didn't know the first thing about entrepreneurship, startups, or bootstrapping a venture. Now, I'll be Show HN'ing my first project within a few weeks' time. Thanks so much to everyone here.
Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life
#34OP: I'm curious to know whether we've ever crossed paths. It looks like we're about the same age (assuming the age you listed on some game website I just found is accurate). I was born and raised in Minneapolis, graduated from the U of MN with a Computer Science degree in 2003, and pulled up stakes to move to Seattle as soon as I could. If you were ever in debate, speech, or quiz bowl in high school between 1997 and…
Hmmm, I don't think so. I did a pretty good job of avoiding... everyone during that period of my life. It's only in recent years that I've realized that there are better ways to operate than being a complete hermit-weirdo.
Well, better now than never :)
Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life
#35HN changed my life too! I went from soul-crushing job writing patents for Amazon to ruby hacker in NYC. [1] I'm a self-taught coder hacking RoR for Pivotal Labs. I used to hate my job, now I can't wait to go to work!
Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life
#36Very interesting, good luck with your new job.
Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life
#37Minneapolis isn't exactly nowhere.
Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life
#38As long as we're on the love boat: I've met at least three good friends here. Y'all have collectively pushed my career in a quite different direction than it was probably on when I started. I think I'd probably have ended up quitting ye olde day job and putting the BCC phase of my life in the "That was fun and I learned a lot, but time to get serious, what is next?" bucket. Then I would have done what everyone other…
It would be interesting then to do a Hacker News meetup, at least in Toronto, and we can reminisce on the recent HN front page articles. How great would that be? Thanks for the inspiration patio11. +1. Any one here from Toronto?
I'd be down, once my work permit comes through.
Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life
#39Minneapolis isn't exactly nowhere.
True. But the suburb I was living in was pretty close.
Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life
#40As long as we're on the love boat: I've met at least three good friends here. Y'all have collectively pushed my career in a quite different direction than it was probably on when I started. I think I'd probably have ended up quitting ye olde day job and putting the BCC phase of my life in the "That was fun and I learned a lot, but time to get serious, what is next?" bucket. Then I would have done what everyone other…
I feel like we're past due for somebody to come in here and complain about there being too much meta-discussion of HN these days.