6 ms·

"Resource Limit Is Reached"... Wow, this guy really practices what he preaches. But, seriously, why not use Blogger. Operates at Google scale, absolutely free.

gxs 9y ago
This got a chuckle out of me. Really though, what does this mean for people who work in Software? Take a more complicated project than you think you can handle? More speaking engagements (assuming you don't do that regularly?) Asking people out to lunch? Hard to say.
- lliamander 9y ago
  I think you have the right idea. Here are my interpretations: - never take a job for which you meet all of the "required skills and experience" (e.g. look for jobs in which there is at least one new technology in the stack) - never take on a project that's a rehash of one you've done before It's never bad idea to get paid to learn something new.
  - randcraw 9y ago
    Take a software job that requires you to change roles from those you know, or take the lead, adding responsibility in one or more ways: - technical expertise (esp a subject new to you) - project time management - project cost estimating - writing up and publishing your work - coordinating resources for new contracts - writing proposals for new projects - speaking publicly in promotion of what you will do or in explanation of what you have done - exploring / growing a new business area There are many ways in software to expand your range.
  - twoquestions 9y ago
    > never take a job for which you meet all of the "required skills and experience" Is there a way to do this without knowing someone who can get you through the HR firewall, then being known as "That Idiot" until you figure it out? EDIT: Difficulty, you must be an average programmer. Linus could probably get a job wherever.
    - groby_b 9y ago
      Since we're all "That Idiot" to somebody anyways, might as well not worry about it. Leaves the HR firewall. You undermine that by having somebody on the inside refer you. Or by having a work history that gets you in the door (which, of course, has a bootstrap problem). Or by working on OSS in that field. In other words: Anything that makes you stand out positively from all the other average programmers.
- dwaltrip 9y ago
  It's basically the tried and true idea that progress and growth comes from difficult exertion of one form or another. If the muscle isn't ever tired, it probably isn't getting stronger. If there is no uncertainty in how to solve any parts of the problem, one won't learn as much. Fortunately, difficulty is often correlated with interestingness (not always though).
komali2 9y ago
Ew blogger is so gross and hard to customize, though. I say this as someone who used it extensively for years, and tried to go full Tim Ferriss mode on it. Found wordpress better for that. Now I feel like I should just set up a database and some sort of blogging app on my own. Ugh, so many sideprojects, so little time / focus. Anyway just look how ugly - ablate.blogspot.com I never could figure out how to just make it less... shit. PS if anybody knows a good way to set up mass-redirect for all my blogspot posts so I can finally get them off blogspot, I'm open ears.
- mistermann 9y ago
  If a person wanted a no fuss, no thinking required, place to quickly set up a reasonably attractive blog, where could one do it? medium, is that what it is?
  - komali2 9y ago
    Hmm, I would say wordpress hosted via their website (so not wordpress.org where you download a big php thing and self-host), or one of the many website builder tools like squarespace or whatever. Blogger is free, but I'd argue it's far from "reasonably attractive" by 2017 standards. I don't think it's seen an update in years. I don't think on medium you can do something like have blog.yourname.com point to your blog, such that you can do blog.yourname.com/writing/how-to-blahblah be one article, etc. Maybe you can't even do that on wordpress.com, now that I think about it.
    - 0xCMP 9y ago
      You can on medium, but it's a $75 one-time fee now. They can do top-level or sub domain mappings.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - robertbaruch 9y ago
    Squarespace is nice...
samastur 9y ago
As Wikipedia says: "Alan Jacobs is a scholar of English literature, writer, and literary critic." He has more than a passing interest in technology as I do in literature, but I think his lack of web optimisation skills or interest for a website that normally isn't deluged under oncoming web traffic is at least as excusable as my writing ones are.
reaperducer 9y ago
Because Blogger blogs sometimes randomly disappear. Google it. And because Blogger is free, you get the customer service you pay for. My company lost four years worth of blog posts (about 1,000) when the Blogger Fairy decided to make ours go poof. Now we're self-hosted.
0xCMP 9y ago
Or just make a static site using Netlify + Hugo. More power and customization than Github pages, but still full automated and it manages HTTPs for you. I understand if this is still too much work though. I'm trying to make a setup where I have an API + DB to manage my content via a SPA that can trigger a static site build so it's easier to write from places that aren't my dev machine.

gxs 9y ago

This got a chuckle out of me. Really though, what does this mean for people who work in Software? Take a more complicated project than you think you can handle? More speaking engagements (assuming you don't do that regularly?) Asking people out to lunch? Hard to say.

lliamander 9y ago
I think you have the right idea. Here are my interpretations: - never take a job for which you meet all of the "required skills and experience" (e.g. look for jobs in which there is at least one new technology in the stack) - never take on a project that's a rehash of one you've done before It's never bad idea to get paid to learn something new.
- randcraw 9y ago
  Take a software job that requires you to change roles from those you know, or take the lead, adding responsibility in one or more ways: - technical expertise (esp a subject new to you) - project time management - project cost estimating - writing up and publishing your work - coordinating resources for new contracts - writing proposals for new projects - speaking publicly in promotion of what you will do or in explanation of what you have done - exploring / growing a new business area There are many ways in software to expand your range.
- twoquestions 9y ago
  > never take a job for which you meet all of the "required skills and experience" Is there a way to do this without knowing someone who can get you through the HR firewall, then being known as "That Idiot" until you figure it out? EDIT: Difficulty, you must be an average programmer. Linus could probably get a job wherever.
  - groby_b 9y ago
    Since we're all "That Idiot" to somebody anyways, might as well not worry about it. Leaves the HR firewall. You undermine that by having somebody on the inside refer you. Or by having a work history that gets you in the door (which, of course, has a bootstrap problem). Or by working on OSS in that field. In other words: Anything that makes you stand out positively from all the other average programmers.
dwaltrip 9y ago
It's basically the tried and true idea that progress and growth comes from difficult exertion of one form or another. If the muscle isn't ever tired, it probably isn't getting stronger. If there is no uncertainty in how to solve any parts of the problem, one won't learn as much. Fortunately, difficulty is often correlated with interestingness (not always though).

komali2 9y ago

Ew blogger is so gross and hard to customize, though. I say this as someone who used it extensively for years, and tried to go full Tim Ferriss mode on it. Found wordpress better for that. Now I feel like I should just set up a database and some sort of blogging app on my own. Ugh, so many sideprojects, so little time / focus. Anyway just look how ugly - ablate.blogspot.com I never could figure out how to just make it less... shit. PS if anybody knows a good way to set up mass-redirect for all my blogspot posts so I can finally get them off blogspot, I'm open ears.

mistermann 9y ago
If a person wanted a no fuss, no thinking required, place to quickly set up a reasonably attractive blog, where could one do it? medium, is that what it is?
- komali2 9y ago
  Hmm, I would say wordpress hosted via their website (so not wordpress.org where you download a big php thing and self-host), or one of the many website builder tools like squarespace or whatever. Blogger is free, but I'd argue it's far from "reasonably attractive" by 2017 standards. I don't think it's seen an update in years. I don't think on medium you can do something like have blog.yourname.com point to your blog, such that you can do blog.yourname.com/writing/how-to-blahblah be one article, etc. Maybe you can't even do that on wordpress.com, now that I think about it.
  - 0xCMP 9y ago
    You can on medium, but it's a $75 one-time fee now. They can do top-level or sub domain mappings.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- robertbaruch 9y ago
  Squarespace is nice...

samastur 9y ago

As Wikipedia says: "Alan Jacobs is a scholar of English literature, writer, and literary critic." He has more than a passing interest in technology as I do in literature, but I think his lack of web optimisation skills or interest for a website that normally isn't deluged under oncoming web traffic is at least as excusable as my writing ones are.

reaperducer 9y ago

Because Blogger blogs sometimes randomly disappear. Google it. And because Blogger is free, you get the customer service you pay for. My company lost four years worth of blog posts (about 1,000) when the Blogger Fairy decided to make ours go poof. Now we're self-hosted.

0xCMP 9y ago

Or just make a static site using Netlify + Hugo. More power and customization than Github pages, but still full automated and it manages HTTPs for you. I understand if this is still too much work though. I'm trying to make a setup where I have an API + DB to manage my content via a SPA that can trigger a static site build so it's easier to write from places that aren't my dev machine.