5 ms·

How to attract a top hacker... (NOT)

29 points by reinhardt 15y ago

kunley 15y ago
On the contrary, anyone who still believes in a bs that staying wake an insane amount of time is a way of getting things done, should educate himself on how his body & brain actually works, or at least go through "Hammock-Driven Development".
- freddealmeida 15y ago
  he he. I brought that up today at work. Poker face when i said it too.
- aangjie 15y ago
  > still believes in a bs that staying wake an insane amount of time is a way of getting things done. You missed the part where he says getting things done at high quality. I agree with you, but think things can be get done in a half-assed way, by staying awake. But ultimately will need to be reworked multiple times the hours you stayed up.
- crdoconnor 15y ago
  Well, giving up your luxury apartment might be a good start to keeping your startup runway long, whatever the rest of it says.
motters 15y ago
I wonder if this "entrepreneur" also isn't getting paid. This is the classic bad business proposition - i.e. I won't pay you now but I might at some unspecified point in future.
- nuxi 15y ago
  Last line says: p.s. You will get paid. I just needed to filter out people who only do this for money.
freddealmeida 15y ago
I'd love to see the caliber of people joining this. I'm sure some people have applied. Some with some deception in their heart. None the less, interesting. I have my own 112,347 projects to finish. I would have hoped he would have been clear about the idea/business/challenge/work and more transparent about the ownership/revenue/raised funds. And coders that accept no salary for coding, except for close friends or family seem dubious.
wccrawford 15y ago
By filtering out the people who 'only do it for money', he has also inadvertently filtered out all the people who know that the way business show they value their employees is to pay them appropriately.
hello_moto 15y ago
You will less likely get someone who cares your dream as much as you do. What I realized/found these days is that the most passionate people that love to work on startup ideas tend to have their own strong opinions on how things should be done. This creates a little bit of a management issue. Discussions tend to be filled with using esoteric technology or the "would it be cool if" or the "that's sucks, I could do better in 1 day" as opposed to focus on delivering the stable, high quality, 85% UI polished, version 1.0 of the product.
- jsavimbi 15y ago
  85% UI polished?!? It's a miracle if some people can get it to look 50% complete. For some reason, and by magic, the UI incrementally degrades given the number of days in the hands of certain engineers. I'm not saying that everyone is like that, but I'm pretty certain that if some engineers approached following driving directions the same way they follow the UI, they'd be permanently lost with no hope of return. 85%. Sheesh.
  - hello_moto 15y ago
    Hey, calm down :P. I just grab that number out of nowhere. Anyhow, theoretically, version 1.0 should be simple isn't it? So would it be far-stretch to ask for 85% polished UI? (might be some bugs in the UI interaction code, but the look should not be superbad. At least not an eyesore :). But that's in theory...
    - jsavimbi 15y ago
      It's a fair assessment. In my view version 1.0 should be a MVP that addresses the basic needs of the user as they pertain to the underlying system. Decoupling the UI and applying it to the system via API is the ideal solution, but rarely do I see that happen in a 1.0 product when the product itself is in constant flux throughout development. But I would still like to see how the magic degradation happens from when an engineer receives the static UI and absolutely f*cks it up so that their version of "good enough" barely resembles the end product.
zobzu 15y ago
We are looking for a slave. Please apply.
- dfxm12 15y ago
  They are looking for someone who reads the whole job description and not just the headline.
  - muhfuhkuh 15y ago
    The job description is just as bad as the headline deception. "Eating and breathing code" and "forgetting to pay taxes" for their project isn't my idea of a good time. Here's my response to the posting: "Give me 50% of the company based on your complete, non-NDA bound idea breakdown with promise of both salary and full bennies and I'll pretend to be just as insane a lunatic as you claim to be about taking on Google and Facebook with your likely dumb as dirt, drunken post-frat party backnapkin half-idea."
flyosity 15y ago
Reminds me of the quote The Joker had in The Dark Knight: "If you're good at something, never do it for free." I love programming. I do it during the day, at night, on the weekends, all the time. I do some things for money, some things for free, and some things that no one will ever see just because it's fun. I realize that this job is actually paid, but I don't like the thought that people who require payment for programming someone else's idea are just "doing it for the money".
jsavimbi 15y ago
> Me? I've got that illness. I'm not a engineer, I'm an entrepreneur. There are plenty of business opportunities that require little if any code to be written that could be addressed by anyone who has the entrepreneur bug. It's hard work, rarely generating sexy IPO-level returns or media exposure, dealing with cutthroat competitors, regulators, clients and employees and an apathetic market. But like I said, it's hard work. Why someone would still believe today that they can magically make a business succeed in a space where they ignore even the most fundamental concepts is beyond me. More often than not these projects tend to be very simplistic and rely not on the technology but on the social dynamic of the concept (see: Kickstarter) and if the hiring non-technical founder is unable to hire from within their social circle then it's quite possible that either any developer they know would pass on this or they don't actually know any developers. And why is this person choosing development languages/stacks, or did they cross post to every language job site?
euroclydon 15y ago
The intersection of stimulating-to-develop-projects with those that people will pay money for is quite large. However, the intersection of liberating-and-enjoyable-life-opportunities with i-don't-have-any-money are not that large.
crdoconnor 15y ago
>I'm not a engineer, I'm an entrepreneur. This is what turned me off the most, actually.
DallaRosa 15y ago
I honestly think he screwed up by hedging his play in the end. If he decides to go down that path he should say something like "dont worry, you'll get paid" on a first contact email or even during an interview only. He started with something that could have been bold but in the end looked like windows 8: look we have this super cool new interface totally redogned from ground up (but dont worry we still have all the bloatware somewhere in there)
democracy 15y ago
It sounds so very desperate and sad...
idiot 15y ago
Hope his product is actually worth so much pathos

29 points by reinhardt 15y ago

On the contrary, anyone who still believes in a bs that staying wake an insane amount of time is a way of getting things done, should educate himself on how his body & brain actually works, or at least go through "Hammock-Driven Development".

freddealmeida 15y ago
he he. I brought that up today at work. Poker face when i said it too.
aangjie 15y ago
> still believes in a bs that staying wake an insane amount of time is a way of getting things done. You missed the part where he says getting things done at high quality. I agree with you, but think things can be get done in a half-assed way, by staying awake. But ultimately will need to be reworked multiple times the hours you stayed up.
crdoconnor 15y ago
Well, giving up your luxury apartment might be a good start to keeping your startup runway long, whatever the rest of it says.

motters 15y ago

I wonder if this "entrepreneur" also isn't getting paid. This is the classic bad business proposition - i.e. I won't pay you now but I might at some unspecified point in future.

nuxi 15y ago
Last line says: p.s. You will get paid. I just needed to filter out people who only do this for money.

freddealmeida 15y ago

I'd love to see the caliber of people joining this. I'm sure some people have applied. Some with some deception in their heart. None the less, interesting. I have my own 112,347 projects to finish. I would have hoped he would have been clear about the idea/business/challenge/work and more transparent about the ownership/revenue/raised funds. And coders that accept no salary for coding, except for close friends or family seem dubious.

wccrawford 15y ago

By filtering out the people who 'only do it for money', he has also inadvertently filtered out all the people who know that the way business show they value their employees is to pay them appropriately.

hello_moto 15y ago

You will less likely get someone who cares your dream as much as you do. What I realized/found these days is that the most passionate people that love to work on startup ideas tend to have their own strong opinions on how things should be done. This creates a little bit of a management issue. Discussions tend to be filled with using esoteric technology or the "would it be cool if" or the "that's sucks, I could do better in 1 day" as opposed to focus on delivering the stable, high quality, 85% UI polished, version 1.0 of the product.

jsavimbi 15y ago
85% UI polished?!? It's a miracle if some people can get it to look 50% complete. For some reason, and by magic, the UI incrementally degrades given the number of days in the hands of certain engineers. I'm not saying that everyone is like that, but I'm pretty certain that if some engineers approached following driving directions the same way they follow the UI, they'd be permanently lost with no hope of return. 85%. Sheesh.
- hello_moto 15y ago
  Hey, calm down :P. I just grab that number out of nowhere. Anyhow, theoretically, version 1.0 should be simple isn't it? So would it be far-stretch to ask for 85% polished UI? (might be some bugs in the UI interaction code, but the look should not be superbad. At least not an eyesore :). But that's in theory...
  - jsavimbi 15y ago
    It's a fair assessment. In my view version 1.0 should be a MVP that addresses the basic needs of the user as they pertain to the underlying system. Decoupling the UI and applying it to the system via API is the ideal solution, but rarely do I see that happen in a 1.0 product when the product itself is in constant flux throughout development. But I would still like to see how the magic degradation happens from when an engineer receives the static UI and absolutely f*cks it up so that their version of "good enough" barely resembles the end product.

zobzu 15y ago

We are looking for a slave. Please apply.

dfxm12 15y ago
They are looking for someone who reads the whole job description and not just the headline.
- muhfuhkuh 15y ago
  The job description is just as bad as the headline deception. "Eating and breathing code" and "forgetting to pay taxes" for their project isn't my idea of a good time. Here's my response to the posting: "Give me 50% of the company based on your complete, non-NDA bound idea breakdown with promise of both salary and full bennies and I'll pretend to be just as insane a lunatic as you claim to be about taking on Google and Facebook with your likely dumb as dirt, drunken post-frat party backnapkin half-idea."

flyosity 15y ago

Reminds me of the quote The Joker had in The Dark Knight: "If you're good at something, never do it for free." I love programming. I do it during the day, at night, on the weekends, all the time. I do some things for money, some things for free, and some things that no one will ever see just because it's fun. I realize that this job is actually paid, but I don't like the thought that people who require payment for programming someone else's idea are just "doing it for the money".

jsavimbi 15y ago

> Me? I've got that illness. I'm not a engineer, I'm an entrepreneur. There are plenty of business opportunities that require little if any code to be written that could be addressed by anyone who has the entrepreneur bug. It's hard work, rarely generating sexy IPO-level returns or media exposure, dealing with cutthroat competitors, regulators, clients and employees and an apathetic market. But like I said, it's hard work. Why someone would still believe today that they can magically make a business succeed in a space where they ignore even the most fundamental concepts is beyond me. More often than not these projects tend to be very simplistic and rely not on the technology but on the social dynamic of the concept (see: Kickstarter) and if the hiring non-technical founder is unable to hire from within their social circle then it's quite possible that either any developer they know would pass on this or they don't actually know any developers. And why is this person choosing development languages/stacks, or did they cross post to every language job site?

euroclydon 15y ago

The intersection of stimulating-to-develop-projects with those that people will pay money for is quite large. However, the intersection of liberating-and-enjoyable-life-opportunities with i-don't-have-any-money are not that large.

crdoconnor 15y ago

>I'm not a engineer, I'm an entrepreneur. This is what turned me off the most, actually.

DallaRosa 15y ago

I honestly think he screwed up by hedging his play in the end. If he decides to go down that path he should say something like "dont worry, you'll get paid" on a first contact email or even during an interview only. He started with something that could have been bold but in the end looked like windows 8: look we have this super cool new interface totally redogned from ground up (but dont worry we still have all the bloatware somewhere in there)

democracy 15y ago

It sounds so very desperate and sad...

idiot 15y ago

Hope his product is actually worth so much pathos