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How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life

stoicjesterstudios.com

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Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life

#71

Post by jdswain »

archildress wrote: post #33

I'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 b…

I'd also say that the last 20% provides 80% of the learning. If you're always leaving projects unfinished then you don't really learn what works and what doesn't.

There's also a real learning experience when you make something public. Other peoples reactions are often (normally?) quite different to your own. That kind of feedback is really valuable, both good and bad. The bad because it provides an impartial view, and the good because it validates your views and encourages you to continue.

Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life

#72

Post by btilly »

hv23 wrote: post #69
btilly wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny how that works. There are no shortage of people who would like to talk to you. Heck, if you're ever in the Los Angeles area, drop me a line. I'm btilly@gmail.com. For me the best moment was when I met pg at SXSW in 2010, said my name, and he knew who I was. I've been reading his stuff since before Hacker News existed, so that was a thrill.

Grubwithus is hosting a dinner/meetup later this month in LA for HN'ers to get together offline- you should come! https://www.grubwithus.com/meals/hacker-news-956e459396fe (disclosure: I work @ GWU)

It depends on my wife's schedule. I'm responsible for children, and so generally can't commit to anything in the evening. (As a medical resident, her life is crazy.)

Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life

#73

Post by aaronbrethorst »

kkowalczyk wrote: post #51

Seems like a massive mis-attribution error and I worry people will learn the wrong lesson here. The OP's story is: 1. learned to program iOS (hard, completely under OP's control) 2. wrote and published iOS app (hard, under OP's control) 3. the app failed so wrote a blog post about his experience (easy although often neglected by programmers, under OP's control) 4. HN picked up the story which led to interview (total…

I have the best job I've ever had in my life because a website I built on a whim a year and a half ago happened to end up at the top of Hacker News for an entire day in April 2011.

By the same token, learning Rails, building the website, and making it interesting were all under my control, but there's absolutely no chance I'd be where I'm at right now had it not been for the existence of this message board.

> pro-actively

Sometimes you don't know what's out there, or what you really want until it's handed to you on a silver platter.

Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life

#74

Post by Rulero »

Congratulations on getting a job, I really wish you all the best.

It's finally good to see someone who writes something positive about HN. Yes, there might be a lot of negativity around and the community might have lost the quality that many of you complain about. However, it's good to know there are still elements of this community that provide positive outcomes to those associated to it.

Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life

#75

Post by njx »

thestoicjester wrote: post #24
markerdmann wrote: post #6

thestoicjester, this is one of the funniest blog posts I've ever read. This line is especially good: "A 'co-founder of a mobile development startup in SF' was a humorous creature I’d read all about on the internet — I may as well have been replying to a hobbit." What's the name of the company you're working at now?

http://daemoniclabs.com/

So now you working for the devil :-)

Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life

#76

Post by zio99 »

zio99 wrote: post #25
patio11 wrote: post #16

As 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?

Actually, there's Hackernest: http://www.meetup.com/hackernest/ in Toronto on Monday, August 27, 2012 (8 pm EST). I'll be there promoting my book: Ice Cream Startups http://sellfy.com/p/9j2z The event's free, and if there's anyone in Toronto in the startup scene, esp. if you tried applying to YC S12 like I did this summer: (http://startupframework.tumblr.com/post/29634915106/what-i-l...) I'd be interested in hooking up.

Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life

#78

Post by robinduckett »

I got a job through one of the monthly job posting threads and getting the job has completely changed my life, however I interviewed and impressed and got the job myself. Without hacker news, I probably would never have heard about the job, but everything after that point was under my control and my own doing.

Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life

#79

Post by zio99 »

Related to how Hacker News changes lives: How a simple comment on Hacker News motivated me to resign from my comfortable well paying job and launch my own startup http://blog.freshdesk.com/the-freshdesk-story-how-a-simple-c...

The rest of our discussion on Hacker News/startup lessons here: http://hackerne.ws/item?id=4426093 (An interesting take on addressing the pain points of customers).

Re: How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life

#80

Post by zio99 »

zacharycohn wrote: post #54
zio99 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 run the monthly Seattle Meetups. If you want to chat about what I've learned in the past year running them, shoot me an email (in my profile).

Thanks Zach, will email you this afternoon, or in case I forget aaron [at] brownieinmotion [dot] ca. We def should connect.
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