A Project of One’s Own • Hacker News Board

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#371

Post by agucova » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 7:28 AM UTC

josephorjoe wrote: post #248

brhsagain wrote: post #131

Good essay overall, but this footnote in particular stood out to me: > [2] Tiger parents, as parents so often do, are fighting the last war. Grades mattered more in the old days when the route to success was to acquire credentials while ascending some predefined ladder. But it's just as well that their tactics are focused on grades. How awful it would be if they invaded the territory of projects, and thereby gave the…

My son and one of his friends spent a huge portion of their stuck-at-home time during the pandemic playing minecraft. It turns out a lot of what they were doing while "playing video games" was learning how to make really complex and unique game scenarios using minecraft command blocks and redstone -- essentially creating both a RPG PvP arena and a multilevel party dungeon crawl w boss fights. I run a small minecraft…

I'm curious, why do you think it'll be bad for them to learn programming?

I mean sure, don't force them into them, but I don't think hiding what's underneath is fair either.

I actually learned to program for the first time while playing Minecraft around 2011, and I started programming without my parents even knowing.

There was a mod for Minecraft called ComputerCraft that allowed you to program inside the game (using virtual computers) with Lua. This led to me on a path to Java to mod Minecraft, then Python to script things and many tools and projects later I ended up becoming a programmer.

For me, Minecraft opened me to a world full of wonders; something I never knew was possible, and I definitely don't regret it.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#372

Post by randomswede » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 8:49 AM UTC

msg wrote: post #338

shard wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never played either but have seen some videos of it. How much of it is just gaming and how much of it is programming? Is programming required to play the games? How often do the players engage in programming part of it as opposed to the gaming part of it?

You mostly play the vanilla game of Minecraft without programming. The survival loop is to mine resources in order to craft better tools that allow you to explore, build, and defeat enemies. You can get a lot of mileage out of it this way and never touch the programming side. It is an all time bestseller for good reason. There is an in game material called redstone that is used for simple electrical engineering and c…

Zachtronics "actually programming"[0] games: TIS-100 Shenzhen I/O

Zachtronics programming[1] games: Spacechem Molek-Syntez Opus Magnum Infinifactory

And probably the rest of them (but for the rest of them, I cannot speak from direct experience)

[0] As in "part of the game is writing assembler code" [1] As in "you are configuring state machines"

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#373

Post by randomswede » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 9:07 AM UTC

sheepybloke wrote: post #366

borroka wrote: post #296

"This is why it is a mistake to insist dogmatically on the 'work/life balance'. In fact, the phrase 'work/life' alone embodies an error: it assumes that work and life are distinct." A beaten horse if there is one. It's not a matter of being dogmatic or seeing the 6 sides of a die. It's that, as PG says between the lines, for most people there is no particular excitement about work. For some it depends on the working…

I had a mentor at GE who loved this line, and her big point was less about the excitement and more about engaging and living in the moment. When we make a strong split between work and life, we tend to just check out and coast, to not engage and be present during work because you feel like it doesn't matter. Her big push was that it's all life. Work is a big portion of your time, so if you ignore it you're missing a…

I am one of those who insist on a strict separation between "me at work" and "me not at work". Mostly because over the last few decades, I have identified that spending almost all of my time in "work" mode is basically not good for me. Doesn't really matter if whatever "non-work" activity I am doing is superficially similar to what the work activity may be.

Doesn't mean I don't care 9or coast, or whatever= about work. Doesn't mean I religiously drop work at HH:MM (but, unless there's something that is urgent at HH:MM, then I probably will push that to first thing tomorrow).

I would instead make the workout analogy that proper work/life balance is akin to taking rest/recovery time between working a specific muscle group. If you are always working out, with no time for recovery, you end up with injuries that eventually will make workout impossible.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#374

Post by vp8989 » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 9:28 AM UTC

opportune wrote: post #173

throwawayboise wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've hit on it, grades matter right up until you're out of school. For most people, they matter for getting a first job (because there usually isn't much else to serve as a filter). After that, nobody will ever ask for or look at them again.

Most of the high paying professions outside of software require the degree and that first job to break into them. Sure for banking and consulting it’s not a hard requirement, but it’s much harder to get into them with bad grades or a degree from a non-target school. It’s really only in the software bubble where people are able to prove themselves to break into it, due to various factors including engineers being in v…

It's curious that you are defending a system that evidently provides poor social mobility, because the person who is trying to de-emphasize it's significance is rich.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#375

Post by Karsteski » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 10:57 AM UTC

fhakx wrote: post #73

sodality2 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.troyhunt.com/heres-why-your-static-website-needs...

Mostly nonsense, written in Twitter style. The argument for HTTP-only is to preserve the free web and not being dependent on yet another middleman.

Can you elaborate more on this? This is the first time I've read such a thing.

Is it that HTTPS relies on certification, and therefore introduces one more actor that can effectively remove content that they deem "inappropriate", whatever inappropriate may be?

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#376

Post by josephorjoe » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 3:16 PM UTC

agucova wrote: post #371

josephorjoe wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son and one of his friends spent a huge portion of their stuck-at-home time during the pandemic playing minecraft. It turns out a lot of what they were doing while "playing video games" was learning how to make really complex and unique game scenarios using minecraft command blocks and redstone -- essentially creating both a RPG PvP arena and a multilevel party dungeon crawl w boss fights. I run a small minecraft…

I'm curious, why do you think it'll be bad for them to learn programming? I mean sure, don't force them into them, but I don't think hiding what's underneath is fair either. I actually learned to program for the first time while playing Minecraft around 2011, and I started programming without my parents even knowing. There was a mod for Minecraft called ComputerCraft that allowed you to program inside the game (using…

i think it would be great for them to learn programming.

i think if i try to push them to learn programming, they will lose interest because i will be turning their 'fun' into 'work'. it is better for them to go at their own pace where their interests take them. if they ask for my help (they both know i could teach them programming), i'd be delighted to help them.

and minecraft is really fantastic. from the base game, to advance features like command blocks, to the ecosystem of plug ins and online multiplayer adaptations. really an impressive creation.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#377

Post by sheepybloke » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

borroka wrote: post #370

sheepybloke wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a mentor at GE who loved this line, and her big point was less about the excitement and more about engaging and living in the moment. When we make a strong split between work and life, we tend to just check out and coast, to not engage and be present during work because you feel like it doesn't matter. Her big push was that it's all life. Work is a big portion of your time, so if you ignore it you're missing a…

"Her big push was that it's all life. Work is a big portion of your time, so if you ignore it you're missing a huge portion of what finite time you have. Hearing it that way made a huge impact on me." I disagree. It is not black and white. The options are not between working 14 hours a day or not working. There is a huge space where someone can find the best position for them. I am one of those lunatics who between m…

I agree that's not black and white; rather, that the separation into work and life pushes you into the mentality to see it as black and white. I agree that there are options between working all the time and not working. As I discussed, it's all life. You're interpretation is that I said that everything is work. You conflate "there's no such thing as work/life balance; it's all life" with "work is what brings me satisfaction," mostly because a lot of people that push the mantra are people like PG who are that way. But it's really deeper than that. It's closer to not discounting yourself or your time and being present in the moment at all times. It's realizing that despite the fact we are cogs in a machine, we still have the opportunity to be mindful and engage with life around us. Even if you only work that 3 hours a day, that's still 10% of your week that you'd just discount from your life. You don't have to like it. You don't have to yearn for it or enjoy it. But it's part of your life, so be present for it.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#378

Post by NikolaNovak » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 5:26 PM UTC

edent wrote: post #31

monoideism wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> common sentiment reminds me of reading history about lynchings in Jim Crow era and sun down towns I'm about as far from woke or PC as you could imagine, but that's an incredibly inaccurate comparison. Reading some developer scorn or arrogance, no matter how unfortunate or annoying, shares no common features with an actual lynching.

Perhaps you would describe yourself of being aware of the negative power that racialised language can have on people? And now you've realised that, it seems wrong to draw distasteful comparisons - not least because of the potential reaction of your peers. It is almost like you've had an awakening and realise that it is important to understand how important it is to behave in a politically savvy way. If only we had so…

Depending on your location, if "woke" is where you're going to, empathically not.

Around these here parts, the term means many many things, and it involves anything from anti-vaccination & homeopathy and far further medical fringes (Crystals and essential oils for everything up to and including cancer or covid etc), through vast conspiracy theories up to and including Illuminati and Templars and Masons and everything else, impractical and frequently random / fashionable food choices and restrictions, and so on and so worth. "Sensitive", "Aware", "Liberal" or "Emotionally Intelligent" are not part of local definition of "Woke" anymore. In general, "Woke" and "Science/Fact-oriented" are fairly mutually exclusive here - while that's an unfair generalization, that's exactly the problem - the term has diffused and has a lot of negative in addition to perhaps some positive meanings; but mostly it's used by any given fanatical group to indicate their superiority compared to its antonym, "Sheeple".

If you meant a different word, noting it explicitly would be helpful :)

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#379

Post by bentcorner » Fri, Jun 11, 2021, 12:07 AM UTC

knightofmars wrote: post #368

bentcorner wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kid is in University right now and is doing an internship - recently he's been getting deep into contributing to an open source mod for a game, and I'm worried it's distracting him from his internship work and ultimately his final year of school. I see him on steam during the work day playing the game he's modding and he's taken time to show off his modding work and how it's put together - he's really proud of it,…

Step away. You've hit the right conclusion, "...ultimately he's an adult and should make his own decision...", don't let your fears cloud your perspective, "...suffer his own consequences." You're already assuming at this point that his time involved in this game is potentially a negative. What if it lands him a job?

> You're already assuming at this point that his time involved in this game is potentially a negative. What if it lands him a job?

Fair enough, you're right that I'm showing my biases. I appreciate the feedback.

Re: A Project of One’s Own

#380

Post by and0 » Fri, Jun 11, 2021, 2:19 PM UTC

EarthLaunch wrote: post #217

and0 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can say as someone who fell in love with coding that doing it professionally did not extinguish that fire. Still spent 12 or so hours doing game dev this weekend, and a few hours every night this week. e: To clarify I started learning in 2013ish, became a full-time dev in late 2015. So 6 years later, still finding joy in the day-to-day, but definitely have a special fire for the pipe-dream projects.

That makes me curious what project you're working on, and you might be interested in my own pipe-dream project! There's a playfulness in doing something seemingly impossible, because succeeding at it simply means having fun playing with it.

TL;DR multiplayer roguelike (or general tile-based) framework in Typescript

https://github.com/and0p/chaos-core