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Great post - two questions: 1) What occupies your time these days Derek ? 2) Possibly related - what unfulfilled dreams do you still have ?

by whyleyc 15y ago

sivers 15y ago
(1) : I'm spending most of my time learning Rails, Sinatra, Sequel, Nginx, JavaScript, jQuery, and Backbone, all back-to-back from books and test projects, quite intensely. ... because ... (2) : If I die before turning these projects into reality, I'm going to be pissed-off! http://50pop.com/code http://50pop.com/code It's really my main drive these days, to finally launch these ideas I've had spec'd out for a long time. I know I could just hire someone else to make them, but the joy (to me) is in the process, not the goal. I want to learn these programming techniques so well that I can quickly create all my future ideas, too.
- whyleyc 15y ago
  Thanks for answering, looks like you have some interesting projects on the go. My favourite was http://50pop.com/karmalist http://50pop.com/karmalist if only because someone needs to kill Yelp ! An open source, non company-controlled business review service is a killer proposition. The challenges will be how to incentivise users to submit reviews to the service (what's their motivation ?) and how to successfully moderate extreme or unhelpful reviews in a scalable manner.
  - 18pfsmt 15y ago
    Interesting. I took karmalist as a response to closed-off data sources like 'celebrity access [.com]' where you have to pay just to read it. It is a collection of venue managers, promoters, talent agents, and musicians. At least Yelp let's you lurk for free.
- Timothee 15y ago
  I know I could just hire someone else to make them, but the joy (to me) is in the process, not the goal. I want to learn these programming techniques so well that I can quickly create all my future ideas, too. Very interesting for me to read this now. My wife is pushing me to outsource the development of an idea that I've been talking about raising from a demo to a real site, because I'm taking my sweet time (learning Python, Flask et al). I'm not making efforts to find someone to outsource it, but instead I'm still trying to learn what I need to to get it up the ground. (just don't tell my wife) "the joy is in the process, not the goal"… I'll have to keep that in mind.
  - sivers 15y ago
    Well... there is a "best of both worlds" approach that I'm considering, and might be right for you: Hire someone to do it for you, but on the condition that you can watch over their shoulder and ask questions as they go. That way, you can get it done and get it launched, while at the same time you get to watch an expert, learn enough to maintain and improve this project - and learn how to do it yourself next time. I did this for my first Android app - https://github.com/50pop/NowNowNow https://github.com/50pop/NowNowNow I started slogging through some Android books and realized it'd take me forever. So I learned just enough to understand the context, then hired a guy that let me watch. I learned more by watching and talking with him than if I would have just continued slogging through the books. And it got done in 2 days!
    - tnorthcutt 15y ago
      How (practically) did you do the watching? Did you hire someone local, and just go watch them work, and ask questions as they went along? Was it hard to find someone willing to let you do that? Did it cost significantly more than if you'd paid someone to do it without the condition of letting you watch?
      - sivers 15y ago
        Found a guy halfway across the world, but we did Skype screen-sharing so we could talk and I could watch his screen. Didn't cost much. The key was how I asked. I just made it a criteria of the job when I posted/announced it. "Looking for someone to program while I watch and ask questions." I know he really enjoyed it. Said it was much more rewarding than the usual coding in solitude, not knowing if the client is really appreciating the effort.
        tnorthcutt 15y ago
        That's great to hear! I was hoping your answer would be something like this (easy for me to replicate). Did you use a large freelance-finding site (oDesk, elance, etc.)? If some other method, do you mind sharing?

Great post - two questions: 1) What occupies your time these days Derek ? 2) Possibly related - what unfulfilled dreams do you still have ?

by whyleyc 15y ago

Great post - two questions: 1) What occupies your time these days Derek ? 2) Possibly related - what unfulfilled dreams do you still have ?

sivers 15y ago

(1) : I'm spending most of my time learning Rails, Sinatra, Sequel, Nginx, JavaScript, jQuery, and Backbone, all back-to-back from books and test projects, quite intensely. ... because ... (2) : If I die before turning these projects into reality, I'm going to be pissed-off! http://50pop.com/code http://50pop.com/code It's really my main drive these days, to finally launch these ideas I've had spec'd out for a long time. I know I could just hire someone else to make them, but the joy (to me) is in the process, not the goal. I want to learn these programming techniques so well that I can quickly create all my future ideas, too.

whyleyc 15y ago
Thanks for answering, looks like you have some interesting projects on the go. My favourite was http://50pop.com/karmalist http://50pop.com/karmalist if only because someone needs to kill Yelp ! An open source, non company-controlled business review service is a killer proposition. The challenges will be how to incentivise users to submit reviews to the service (what's their motivation ?) and how to successfully moderate extreme or unhelpful reviews in a scalable manner.
- 18pfsmt 15y ago
  Interesting. I took karmalist as a response to closed-off data sources like 'celebrity access [.com]' where you have to pay just to read it. It is a collection of venue managers, promoters, talent agents, and musicians. At least Yelp let's you lurk for free.
Timothee 15y ago
I know I could just hire someone else to make them, but the joy (to me) is in the process, not the goal. I want to learn these programming techniques so well that I can quickly create all my future ideas, too. Very interesting for me to read this now. My wife is pushing me to outsource the development of an idea that I've been talking about raising from a demo to a real site, because I'm taking my sweet time (learning Python, Flask et al). I'm not making efforts to find someone to outsource it, but instead I'm still trying to learn what I need to to get it up the ground. (just don't tell my wife) "the joy is in the process, not the goal"… I'll have to keep that in mind.
- sivers 15y ago
  Well... there is a "best of both worlds" approach that I'm considering, and might be right for you: Hire someone to do it for you, but on the condition that you can watch over their shoulder and ask questions as they go. That way, you can get it done and get it launched, while at the same time you get to watch an expert, learn enough to maintain and improve this project - and learn how to do it yourself next time. I did this for my first Android app - https://github.com/50pop/NowNowNow https://github.com/50pop/NowNowNow I started slogging through some Android books and realized it'd take me forever. So I learned just enough to understand the context, then hired a guy that let me watch. I learned more by watching and talking with him than if I would have just continued slogging through the books. And it got done in 2 days!
  - tnorthcutt 15y ago
    How (practically) did you do the watching? Did you hire someone local, and just go watch them work, and ask questions as they went along? Was it hard to find someone willing to let you do that? Did it cost significantly more than if you'd paid someone to do it without the condition of letting you watch?
    - sivers 15y ago
      Found a guy halfway across the world, but we did Skype screen-sharing so we could talk and I could watch his screen. Didn't cost much. The key was how I asked. I just made it a criteria of the job when I posted/announced it. "Looking for someone to program while I watch and ask questions." I know he really enjoyed it. Said it was much more rewarding than the usual coding in solitude, not knowing if the client is really appreciating the effort.
      - tnorthcutt 15y ago
        That's great to hear! I was hoping your answer would be something like this (easy for me to replicate). Did you use a large freelance-finding site (oDesk, elance, etc.)? If some other method, do you mind sharing?