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Some good analogies with the main business of hacker news, here. It's worth thinking about some of the connections, especially: 1) Working in places where you

Some good analogies with the main business of hacker news, here. It's worth thinking about some of the connections, especially: 1) Working in places where you will learn and acquire respect subsequently, if you care about that sort of thing. Yes, you can get more doing chintzy jobs, but there are plenty of high-paying jobs in computers that are the equivalent of Bourdain's 'country-club kitchens'. 2) Coming in with the right attributes (e.g. not being fat), and not mistaking attributes of people in at the end of their careers with the ones that you can get away with when you are young. I have seen many, many people who have decided in computer science to emulate some famous guy who is wildly opinionated and a bit obnoxious and have it work out far less well for them than it did for the Grand Old Man of computer science.

brc 16y ago
It's absolutely a take-away for any career. You can chase bucks when you're young, but there's a good chance it will cost you bucks in the long run. It's more important to get a solid start to your career and be associated with quality operations than it is to take the cuhiest, highest paying graduate jobs. But the other take-away is, it's never too late for a reinvention if you've got the risk appetite.
jseliger 16y ago
Some good analogies with the main business of hacker news I thought so too, and as a result wrote a post about my own "business," so to speak, in the form of writing: http://jseliger.com/2010/09/20/so-you-wanna-be-a-writer-what-anthony-bourdain-can-tell-you-even-when-hes-not-talking-about-writing/ http://jseliger.com/2010/09/20/so-you-wanna-be-a-writer-what...