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I have no idea what I'm doing

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Re: I have no idea what I'm doing

#41

Post by Raphmedia »

pm90 wrote: post #20
javajosh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Beavers build these dams to keep the water level at a certain height. My friend, I think you are implying intention where there is none. It's true that the effect of beaver dam-building is advantageous, but there was never any deliberation about it on the beavers part. It's a curious case of effort without decision . One can easily think of a situation where a beaver might actually do better to not build a dam - but…

Sex seems a lot more simple than building a dam though. I mean, how does the Beaver even know this kind of stuff? Is it in its genetic material, or is it taught by its parents? Either way, fascinating stuff.

I put a ball in your hands. How do you get the idea to throw it? Who is giving it to you? Your logic work that way, through countless genetic iterations.

Now, the fun part, is that dogs, through similar genetic iterations, have evolved to love catching said ball and bringing it back to us.

Life is fun.

Re: I have no idea what I'm doing

#42

Post by Raphmedia »

peterwwillis wrote: post #23

Recently I found this note on my desk at home. It says “I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING”. I don’t remember writing it, but it was in my house on my desk in my handwriting, so I obviously did. He might want to seek some psychiatric help if this persists. So what did it mean? Was it a cry for help? A product idea? A topic for a blog post? Or could it be an idea for a conference talk? The card was a cry for help. This tal…

Take a step back and read it again from another angle, you missed some things.

Re: I have no idea what I'm doing

#43

Post by hammerdr »

hawleyal wrote: post #39

I know TDD has been discussed to death. However, I disagree completely with TDD encouraging creativity and material exploration. In my opinion, small, iterative increments are much more useful. Creating a test puts a tight box around how you assume (without any experimentation) an interface should work. As opposed to a tiny iteration to learn about how it could work. Then writing a test after for that tiny bit. Final…

Writing the test is the experiment, in your example. You're playing with how it is going to be used and interacted without worrying about the details/implementation. You'll take care of that later.

Re: I have no idea what I'm doing

#44

Post by tomstuart »

sfeng wrote: post #26
slayed0 wrote: post #2

Cached version as the page is beginning to load slowly: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IoQN9XY...

Yet another argument for building static websites https://eager.io/blog/build-static-websites/

It's already a static site, but being on the HN front page is really hammering my tiny VPS's network & IO; there are a lot of large images and videos in the post. Guess I should set up a CDN.

Re: I have no idea what I'm doing

#45

Post by [deleted] »

lazyant wrote: post #21
sanderjd wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious about this too. I wonder if he means that you don't really make any money compared to the opportunity cost of all the hours you spend on it, or if you really don't make any money in an absolute sense. Unfortunately, I suspect it's actually the latter due to the relatively tiny size of the target market for such books.

From other tech book authors it seems it's the former; they work many hours for a year and then they make 20k or that kind of minimum wage money

[deleted]

Re: I have no idea what I'm doing

#46

Post by tomstuart »

pm90 wrote: post #20
javajosh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Beavers build these dams to keep the water level at a certain height. My friend, I think you are implying intention where there is none. It's true that the effect of beaver dam-building is advantageous, but there was never any deliberation about it on the beavers part. It's a curious case of effort without decision . One can easily think of a situation where a beaver might actually do better to not build a dam - but…

Sex seems a lot more simple than building a dam though. I mean, how does the Beaver even know this kind of stuff? Is it in its genetic material, or is it taught by its parents? Either way, fascinating stuff.

Just to answer your question: it's in its genetic material. It really is fascinating; it can even make evolutionary sense to think of the dam as an extension of the beaver's physical body, in as much a beaver's dams are "built by" its genes just like the cells of its body are. Google "extended phenotype" if you'd like more detail.

Re: I have no idea what I'm doing

#47

Post by eric_bullington »

jarcane wrote: post #13
treehau5 wrote: post #4

Hey Tom, I just want to say, I have your book, and I find it wonderful.

Was really sad to hear this: "You don’t really make any money by writing a book, but O’Reilly did send me a nice hat" How poorly does O'Reilly pay their authors? A book the size of most of their tomes, and at the prices they charge, should be a 5-figure advance in any other part of the industry.

This is true, but it's important to bear in mind that a relatively high-prestige publisher like O'Reilly can make or break someone's reputation as a high-price consultant. O'Reilly realizes this, and pays their authors relatively poorly.

If you want to make significant money as a tech book author, I'm guessing you have to do what Brennan Dunn does, and self-publish your book and market it yourself. I'm guessing that after you've published an O'Reilly book, you could make a pretty nice sum if you do this on your next book.

Re: I have no idea what I'm doing

#48

Post by tomstuart »

jarcane wrote: post #13
treehau5 wrote: post #4

Hey Tom, I just want to say, I have your book, and I find it wonderful.

Was really sad to hear this: "You don’t really make any money by writing a book, but O’Reilly did send me a nice hat" How poorly does O'Reilly pay their authors? A book the size of most of their tomes, and at the prices they charge, should be a 5-figure advance in any other part of the industry.

FWIW I got a $6000 advance for the book. I earn a 10% royalty on sales which varies a lot but is around a couple hundred bucks a month on average. So not bad, but since it took me a year to write I don't think it's ever going to recoup minimum wage for that period.

No complaints though! O'Reilly is a brilliant publisher and I never had any expectation of making money from it. It was just a thrill to be able to get the bloody thing off my chest at last.

Re: I have no idea what I'm doing

#50

Post by agentultra »

This was an interesting talk. I admit I was easily hooked due to my own circumstances and experiences. I often feel like I don't know what I'm doing.

Shoshin was a great lesson for me. When I was training in martial arts I was told that shoshin was akin to fashioning one's self after an empty vessel. If the vessel is full then it cannot receive any more water. I took it to mean that one must periodically empty their minds of preconceived notions and ideas and be receptive to new ones when seeking new knowledge.

It has also taught me that I have a hard time appreciating what I am capable of and what I do know. I may fight feelings of inadequacy but I must remind myself that my bar is much higher today than it was when I started out. It is good to not feel like you know what you are doing all of the time. It's an opportunity to learn and fill yourself with new knowledge. As long as I know what I don't know I feel that I can find it out and fill the gaps.

I think what makes it difficult is the amount of competition there is these days and how high we have raised the bar. Capital and growth demand experience and knowledge but we need to take time for development too. You may want to hire the best but maybe you need to take some time to help people develop into the best they can be? But we should all take time to be thankful for what we have done and are able to do. It's easy to forget how painful it all once was.

A talk worth watching, in my opinion, if you've ever been concerned about feeling like you don't know what you'd doing.

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