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Take the Money and Run

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Re: Take the Money and Run

#81
post #78
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roughly speaking, with Zen (and now again with our new startup TaskTorch), I was in charge of the technical side of the business, and she was in charge of anything non-technical (finance, marketing, support, etc.) Niki is an industrial-organizational psychologist, so her viewpoint is completely different from mine as a software engineer. As a developer it can be hard for me to see past the software sometimes, and Nik…

So basically, you've build the entire app yourself, right? What kind of lang/framework did you use?

Zen was ASP.NET MVC, SQL Server, and a big mess of jQuery. TaskTorch is React, Node, and RethinkDB.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#82
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It evokes images of Charlie Chaplin eating boiled-shoe soup, or Charlie Bucket's entire family eating thin cabbage soup (and just one Wonka bar per year). Eating hot dogs, bologna, mac and cheese, and peanut butter sandwiches doesn't quite do it, because people eat those things occasionally, even when they can afford not to. But if you cut up that one hot dog and use it to make hot dog soup, you're now signaling that…

The post states that soup is easy to make in large batches. This is true. Cut up some stuff toss it in a pot with some water, and turn on the stove (for the most part). You're just limited by the size of the pot, and the mechanisms you have for storing the soup. I think it's rather hyperbolic to have some strong association between the word "soup" and cultural icons like "stone soup" stories.

Here's a thought experiment for you. Collect one copy of every restaurant menu written in English. Scan each menu to find food items that are primarily liquid in character. Note the word used to describe it, and the price of the item. Find the median list price for each word.

In your thought experiment, does the median price of a "soup" differ significantly from the median prices of "bisque", "stew", "chowder", "broth", "cream", "potage", or specifically named soups like "bouillabaisse", "gazpacho", "chili", or "pho"?

My hypothesis is that higher-end restaurants purposefully substitute "soup" with synonymous words to avoid the intrinsic association with frugality, and this practice lowers the observed median price of a "soup".

It would be for the same reason that some restaurants don't put $ or numbers with two decimal places anywhere on the menu. It's a psychological trick to prevent you from entering "cost-benefit evaluation mode" before ordering your meal, so you spend more. Compare the following to your own anecdotal restaurant experiences:

  - Crab Bisque ..... -9-
  - crab soup: bowl $4.00, cup $2.50

Re: Take the Money and Run

#84

Man, that last paragraph was so sobering. Everything up to that point made it seem like it was a decent deal that they could live with

I know. Now I want to know more about this story after that last paragraph. Up to that point I was excited for them.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are just making an extrapolation from minimal information. You seem to be aware of this, so maybe the best way to describe your post is "being cute". Plenty of Americans barely know how to fry an egg, plenty of others cook everything they eat.

I think the question about food is valid since the article talks a bit about lifestyle in Ohio with all the snow and not leaving the house. HN also has lots of articles about nutrition and exercise, etc. So I think some of us would love to know if these guys were head down coding surviving on soup for months because they were in the zone.

It's Ohio, not Antarctica. I've lived here my entire life and cannot remember EVER being "snowed in" so bad that I couldn't make it to a store to buy food. Sure, you might stock up on canned or frozen food so you don't have to go out, but it's not like you're physically or mentally snowed in from Dec-Mar.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#87
Congrats, I'm glad you sold it!

It's Rally's acceptance that their product is a PIECE OF SHIT and they needed a RELEVANT product out fast!

Don't look back, my friend, focus on your own backlog. I know the thunder hits the same tree more than once.

Stay Thirsty!

Re: Take the Money and Run

#88
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if it looks like a duck ;-)... (Born and raised in Columbus here).

Weather seems like a commonly-stated reason for leaving Ohio. I'm from here, so I obviously take note of it, but I do wonder if people commonly talk about leaving places like Boston and NYC for warmer climates. Those areas seem to have equally miserable winter weather.

I hate Cincinnati winters, but for the wrong reason: There isn't enough snow! (I miss sweet home Chicago.)

Re: Take the Money and Run

#89
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if it looks like a duck ;-)... (Born and raised in Columbus here).

Weather seems like a commonly-stated reason for leaving Ohio. I'm from here, so I obviously take note of it, but I do wonder if people commonly talk about leaving places like Boston and NYC for warmer climates. Those areas seem to have equally miserable winter weather.

In my experience part of what makes Ohio winters so bad, is they are wet, cold, and muddy. It seems like every time it snows in Ohio, all the snow melts the next day and creates a mud pit.

At least when it snows in NYC, the snow often sticks around long enough to be enjoyed.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#90
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if it looks like a duck ;-)... (Born and raised in Columbus here).

Weather seems like a commonly-stated reason for leaving Ohio. I'm from here, so I obviously take note of it, but I do wonder if people commonly talk about leaving places like Boston and NYC for warmer climates. Those areas seem to have equally miserable winter weather.

As someone who moved to Ohio from California for grad school, the big problem I've had with the winters is just the lack of sun. [1] It's as though sometime around the beginning of November a gigantic cloud descends on central Ohio and doesn't lift until late April. Boston and New York get cold, but I would find them much more tolerable just because the sun is out more often.

I had heard this complaint from the other grad students when I was visiting here, but it's hard to understand how important the sun is for your well being until you've lived without it for months at a time.

[1]: For reference, Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati consistently rank in the top 10 cloudiest cities in the US. (http://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/US/cloudiest-...)

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