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I've been a long time lurker here. I lurked for several months before creating an account and then I lurked quite a bit longer before participating. Groups of i

I've been a long time lurker here. I lurked for several months before creating an account and then I lurked quite a bit longer before participating. Groups of intelligent people are intimidating at first but please don't hold back if you have something to add to a discussion. New voices are incredibly important for preventing groups from merely becoming echochambers for established members. I especially agree with the original article's point about talking about your work. If you are doing something interesting, please share it. I'm always keen to read about amazing hacks and unique projects and I'm sure many others are too. I'm very slow at writing up my own projects, so I probably should spend more time doing that. If you are working on something that feels like reinventing a wheel for a company that has a core philosophy of Not Invented Here, share that too. I'm sure many of us have been there once and could give you some advice on ways to improve your situation (even reinventing wheels can be done to a high standard and be great practice coding), empathetic support or perhaps a way out into another job. I implore you, dear lurking readers, participate. Edit: fixed some pre-coffee writing.

polymatter 15y ago
As a long time lurker, let me try to encourage you to write up your projects. Even if they seem mundane or pointlessly obscure. Not only is writing a fantastically important skill to level up, and the very act of writing about them will help your thinking, but the buzz and help you can get from the community can spur you on further. And now I need to go practice what I preach ...
ranebo 15y ago
I'm generally happy lurking, and I can lurk with the best of them (see 4 years / 35 karma :-)) To be honest I just don't have the time to comment often and karma (in a HN sense) means nothing to me. My way of giving back to the community happens more in real life (aka meatspace, though I hate that term),more recently it's the connections I've made through HN and iOS meetups here in Tokyo that are the most valuable to me. I'm genuinely interested in what people are working on and people seem to find my work situation a lot more interesting than I had thought they would (I actually thought that when I introduced myself at my first HN meetup everyone would groan "Oh not another iOS dev"). Anyway my 2 cents for the year.
- ceol 15y ago
  I hope this isn't too off-topic, but would you be willing to describe the iOS scene in Tokyo? I always love hearing about what programming habits and techniques are popular in different countries. Would you say the community there embraces a fast-release philosophy or are they more like the big name devs (Square Enix)? Are any frameworks popular? Is iOS development big? What would you say is the most popular language in Japan? Thanks!
  - ranebo 15y ago
    Well my world is nearly 100% iOS and the iOS community I meetup with is probably a 5:1 foreigner:japanese ratio, so I'm not sure how their preferences translate to the native community. -Some of the guys work for big companies and others in little startups doing contract work on the side. -I don't know anyone serious about iOS development that hasn't invested 100% in learning obj-c. -I haven't noticed any popular frameworks mentioned. As for how popular iOS development is I'm not sure, probably less popular than Android (Android handsets are really common). If you are asking in terms of work possibilities, I get offered at least one or two jobs every HN meetup I attend.
mduerksen 15y ago
Not a total lurker here, but I have mainly 2 reasons why I don't participate as much as I probably would/could/should... 1. Time. A discussion typically only lasts one day, and after that its mostly silent. Alongside my job, I simply can't find enough spare "thinking-time" to really write a thoughtful comment in that time frame. I feel that my comments would be more of a knee-jerk reaction than a real addition of value. 2. Language. My mother tongue ist german, not english. While I've been told that my english is quite reasonable, I still feel insecure in it, especially when I read incredibly well-spoken comments. And I do regularly make some mistakes, especially in grammar, and I don't like making mistakes in public (I guess nobody does). And of course, it takes longer to write a comment - see #1...
- hessenwolf 15y ago
  On 2. Ich wohne in Deutschland seit sechs monaten, und ich macht taglich sehr schlecht dings mit deinen Sprache, so don't worry about it. Just spit it out. (I notice not wanting to make mistakes is a very apparent German characteristic, also visible in the Italians)
- dochtman 15y ago
  If you have thoughtful comments to write, please start a blog and respond at your own pace!

polymatter 15y ago

As a long time lurker, let me try to encourage you to write up your projects. Even if they seem mundane or pointlessly obscure. Not only is writing a fantastically important skill to level up, and the very act of writing about them will help your thinking, but the buzz and help you can get from the community can spur you on further. And now I need to go practice what I preach ...

ranebo 15y ago

I'm generally happy lurking, and I can lurk with the best of them (see 4 years / 35 karma :-)) To be honest I just don't have the time to comment often and karma (in a HN sense) means nothing to me. My way of giving back to the community happens more in real life (aka meatspace, though I hate that term),more recently it's the connections I've made through HN and iOS meetups here in Tokyo that are the most valuable to me. I'm genuinely interested in what people are working on and people seem to find my work situation a lot more interesting than I had thought they would (I actually thought that when I introduced myself at my first HN meetup everyone would groan "Oh not another iOS dev"). Anyway my 2 cents for the year.

ceol 15y ago
I hope this isn't too off-topic, but would you be willing to describe the iOS scene in Tokyo? I always love hearing about what programming habits and techniques are popular in different countries. Would you say the community there embraces a fast-release philosophy or are they more like the big name devs (Square Enix)? Are any frameworks popular? Is iOS development big? What would you say is the most popular language in Japan? Thanks!
- ranebo 15y ago
  Well my world is nearly 100% iOS and the iOS community I meetup with is probably a 5:1 foreigner:japanese ratio, so I'm not sure how their preferences translate to the native community. -Some of the guys work for big companies and others in little startups doing contract work on the side. -I don't know anyone serious about iOS development that hasn't invested 100% in learning obj-c. -I haven't noticed any popular frameworks mentioned. As for how popular iOS development is I'm not sure, probably less popular than Android (Android handsets are really common). If you are asking in terms of work possibilities, I get offered at least one or two jobs every HN meetup I attend.

mduerksen 15y ago

Not a total lurker here, but I have mainly 2 reasons why I don't participate as much as I probably would/could/should... 1. Time. A discussion typically only lasts one day, and after that its mostly silent. Alongside my job, I simply can't find enough spare "thinking-time" to really write a thoughtful comment in that time frame. I feel that my comments would be more of a knee-jerk reaction than a real addition of value. 2. Language. My mother tongue ist german, not english. While I've been told that my english is quite reasonable, I still feel insecure in it, especially when I read incredibly well-spoken comments. And I do regularly make some mistakes, especially in grammar, and I don't like making mistakes in public (I guess nobody does). And of course, it takes longer to write a comment - see #1...

hessenwolf 15y ago
On 2. Ich wohne in Deutschland seit sechs monaten, und ich macht taglich sehr schlecht dings mit deinen Sprache, so don't worry about it. Just spit it out. (I notice not wanting to make mistakes is a very apparent German characteristic, also visible in the Italians)
dochtman 15y ago
If you have thoughtful comments to write, please start a blog and respond at your own pace!