https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=tptacek&comments=t

"Human life the Stoics appear to have considered as a game of great skill; in which, however, there was a mixture of chance [...] In such games the stake is commonly a trifle, and the whole pleasure of the game arises from playing well, from playing fairly, and playing skilfully. If notwithstanding all his skill, however, the good player should, by the influence of chance, happen to lose, the loss ought to be a matter, rather of merriment, than of serious sorrow. He has made no false stroke; he has done nothing which he ought to be ashamed of; he has enjoyed completely the whole pleasure of the game. [...]

Our only anxious concern ought to be, not about the stake, but about the proper method of playing. If we placed our happiness in winning the stake, we placed it in what depended upon causes beyond our power, and out of our direction. We necessarily exposed ourselves to perpetual fear and uneasiness, and frequently to grievous and mortifying disappointments. If we placed it in playing well, in playing fairly, in playing wisely and skilfully; in the propriety of our own conduct in short; we placed it in what, by proper discipline, education, and attention, might be altogether in our own power, and under our own direction. Our happiness was perfectly secure, and beyond the reach of fortune."

https://smackernews.com/item/12995076 HN

Excerpt: JavaScript is the XML, the Yugo, the Therac-25 of programming languages. The sheer amount of human effort which has been expended working around its fundamental flaws instead of advancing the development of mankind is astounding. The fact that people would take this paragon of wasted opportunity and use it on the server side, where there are so many better alternatives (to a first approximation, every other programming language ever used), is utterly appalling.

What's bayesian and frequentist statistics: https://smackernews.com/item/4741146 HN

Again: https://smackernews.com/item/384399 HN

DSA math: https://smackernews.com/item/6195606 HN

Automotive development: https://smackernews.com/item/10496625 HN

QNX and message passing: https://smackernews.com/item/9872640 HN

Path through InfoSec: https://smackernews.com/item/11710028 HN

What does performance in Erlang mean: https://smackernews.com/item/6359493 HN

Emacs and C/C++: https://smackernews.com/item/8617300 HN

Money and self-publishing: https://smackernews.com/item/8373185 HN

Kerbal Space Program: https://smackernews.com/item/12640451 HN

Bush v. Gore: https://smackernews.com/item/12187666 HN

Teaching a class: https://smackernews.com/item/818367 HN

Precedence climbing: https://smackernews.com/item/13915458 HN

In particular this one [2].

"I'm pushing the other direction. If you can see your entire compiler at one go on a standard computer screen, what sort of possibilities does that open up? You can start thinking at the macro level, and simply avoid a whole host of problems because they are obviously wrong at that level. When you aren't afraid to delete you entire compiler and start from scratch? What sort of possibilities does that open up to you?"

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=arcfide

[1] https://smackernews.com/item/13565743 HN

[2] https://smackernews.com/item/13571160 HN

anamax 3190 days ago | on: So, you're gonna code the whole thing, do the serv...

If they don't have the money to pay you, you're not an employee, you're a founder and you get the same deal that they get.

If they balk, suggest that they find another code monkey while you find another biz monkey and let the market decide who ends up with the bananas.

On Knuth, C, and Haskell: https://smackernews.com/item/12741430 HN

On npm and In Praise of Idleness: https://smackernews.com/item/12209300 HN

On revenue: https://smackernews.com/item/11307264 HN

On cranks: https://smackernews.com/item/10931403 HN

On "Great Men": https://smackernews.com/item/10166372 HN

On the vastness of space: https://smackernews.com/item/9937353 HN

Advice from a doctor: https://www.are.na/block/324266

A+ dig at pg: https://smackernews.com/item/7140065 HN

A+ troll: https://smackernews.com/item/7229519 HN

https://smackernews.com/item/9473209 HN

https://smackernews.com/item/9476202 HN

https://smackernews.com/item/9048947 HN

JumpCrisscross's comment about perfectionism being bad https://smackernews.com/item/12729864 HN and pg with a similar thought https://twitter.com/paulg/status/855342574063800320

This one from 'How To Die With No Regrets'

https://smackernews.com/item/35079 HN

The thing I liked about the thread is also has Drew Houston from Dropbox talking about his then startup idea.

https://smackernews.com/item/35095 HN

Why backdoors are bad: https://smackernews.com/item/12751461 HN

energy systems https://smackernews.com/item/8386603 HN

delayed IPOs https://smackernews.com/item/13831214 HN

desktop v mobile https://smackernews.com/item/7182345 HN

free fruit https://smackernews.com/item/10728601 HN

role of self-experimentation https://smackernews.com/item/13965307 HN

I learned quite a few things about both Rust and Go!

http://www.opusnota.com/hnbc

enobrev 673 days ago on 'The self-hating web developer':

I've always been a fan of collecting money for solving problems and letting others worry about whether what I'm doing qualifies as "real" programming. Knowing how to listen to potential clients has gotten me a lot further than worrying whether PHP is a real programming language.

- - -

kingsidharth 2356 days ago on 'Evernote makes $800,000 per Month':

This is the biggest mistake most of the people make. If it worked that way, every weekend app released here would be making tons of money. (We have better apps here as weekend projects than out there in market).But this is NOT app v/s app game. This is business v/s app. And you can't take down a business with an app. You need to create a business.

- - -

knob 1217 days ago on Your best passive income? (2014):

ozh: > "Do some freelancing during office hours & double the income."

viach: > This would not be passive.

knob: > You have to think bigger man. Outsource the outsourcement... Interact with top-level outsourcer once per week... he interacts with low-level outsourcer daily. Profit.

- - -

mcphage 653 days ago on Japanese mini Segway “WalkCar”:

"Can you remember the Segway?"

Yeah.

"And how we all thought of it as the new way of human transportation?"

No, I don't remember that bit.

- - -

cableshaft 619 days ago on '‘Give Away Your Legos’ and Other Commandments for Scaling Startups':

pbreit: > I dunno, hopping on board the rocket ship still seems a lot easier than building the rocket ship.

cableshaft: > But building the rocket ship is more fun. Especially if you know it's going to explode midair once it's launched and you don't have to be in it when it does.

- - -

graycat 760 days ago on First Round Capital Open Application for Startups:

Can a solo founder of an IT startup hope to be successful without equity funding? Should be: All across the US, cross roads to the largest cities, solo founders do well mowing grass, selling pizza or hamburgers, pumping gas, paving driveways, ..., big-truck, little-truck distribution businesses, etc. without equity funding. IT should be an advantage.

- - -

puranjay 838 days ago on 'Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard':

I have the same issue (find the time). I've set aside 10pm-2am every weekday to learn how to code, plus entire Saturdays and Sunday mornings. I can, at most, manage 20-25 hours, usually when I'm already bogged down. I've been toying with the idea of quitting everything and going all-in for 3-6 months. Would that be 100% retarded or just about 70% retarded? I can live with 70%.

- - -

And my favorite:

blake8086 1962 days ago on 'How Trello is different':

spolsky: > We wouldn't provide that kind of support, nor would be it be expected, for a free and easy-to-use product.

blake8086: > I think you deeply underestimate the sense of entitlement people get about products they enter lots of text into.

So much so that the comment and surrounding discussion is much more valuable than the actual article it's on! Has helped me and many people I know interview at phenomenal companies.

https://smackernews.com/item/121413 HN

This one for me, it's so apt for HN.

Edit. I'm laughing, didn't take long for the down vote!

Come on guys, take a joke will ya!

https://smackernews.com/item/7314434 HN

For all the intellectual firepower of people in the tech community, there is a curious strain of anti-intellectualism that comes forth in projects like this; an eagerness to discount the expertise of people who have studied a subject for their entire lives, just because they weren't CS majors. It's like trying to send a man to the moon without working with any aerospace engineers. I honestly do not understand it.